Would you fly single pilot IFR?

This is the second of 5 blogging assignments for my multi engine ground school. For this blog I had to read an article by AOPA safety foundation, "Single Pilot IFR". IFR is Instrument Flight Rules, which is flying off the instruments, not off of reference to the ground. Which can be really tricky. Imagine driving your car without being able to see the road. That's kind of like what IFR flight is like, plus a 3rd axis, plus talking to ATC, etc... This post will contain a lot of aviation jargon, so I'll start by defining a few things.

VFR - visual flight rules - type of flight by flying "visually" with reference to the ground.
IFR - instrument flight rules -- type of flight by flying in clouds with out reference to the ground. Flying off of your flight instruments.

VMC -- visual meteorological conditions - Weather conditions that allow visual flight

IMC -- instrument flight rules - weather conditions prohibit visual flight (fog, clouds, ect..)

When you fly, you are either VFR or IFR. You can fly IFR in both VMC and IMC, however, you may only fly VFR in VMC.

Assignment:
Read the article "Single Pilot IFR." Blog about whether or not you would consider flying single pilot IFR? Why or why not? Blog about at least 1 tip you gained from reading the article.

Would I consider flying single pilot IFR? I have flown single pilot IFR. Well, at least I have filed single pilot IFR, but never in instrument conditions. When I was working on my commercial, we would file IFR for some of the cross countries, but the weather was always above IMC. In fact, my personal minimums were above VFR minimums. I was instrument rated, but I never felt proficient. Considering that I only have .2 or so of actually flying through the clouds. So, yea, I would consider flying single pilot IFR, but I would need to have weather minimums that I could cancel IFR and for VFR if I needed to.

IFR is a challenging thing. Two IFR flights can vary quite greatly in skill needed. It's one thing to say, yea I could fly single pilot IFR on a flight that's familiar in good weather, and it's another thing all together to fly single pilot IFR in an unfamiliar area in icing or turbulence. I hear stories about people flying cargo at night single pilot IFR through icing and terrible weather. That is far from my comfort zone now. I really love to fly IFR, so I think that I will in the future file IFR, however, I am going to make sure that weather is great. The more I fly IFR, the more comfortable I believe I would become. However, I don't fly IFR very often, and never in IMC, so I don't see my comfort level rising anytime soon.

Why? The first reason is Murphy's Law. Flying is one of those things that I just don't feel comfortable taking risks with. If something can go wrong, it very well might. Sure, I could fly a lot of single pilot IFR flights and be just fine. However, there could be that time that I start picking up ice and ATC is asking me to do a challenging hold, and I can't find the right approach plate and my attitude indicator fails and I'm running out of gas and the airport is near minimums. I never want to be in that situation, especially not alone. Flying in IMC straight and level can be tricky enough. Trying to find things, brief approaches or tune radios can make it even harder. Having a second pilot makes a world of difference. Also, it gives you protection because it gives you someone to catch your mistakes, and another mind to help with situational awareness.

Another big factor is aircraft and it's instrumentation. Do you have auto pilot and GPS? Do you know how to use them? Is the aircraft simple or complex? All of this can factor into weather or not you would want to fly single pilot IFR.

The tip in the article that I enjoyed the most was about bringing a handheld com radio. Especially if it can use the aircraft antenna. It's a good idea to save money by getting clearance and listening to atis with out having to turn on the aircraft, but it is even better if you have an electrical failure or com failure.