(Edit: “Rules,” not “Rating.” Sorry.)
Obviously I don’t know beans about flying, but I see many stories about inexperienced pilots who get disoriented flying through clouds, sometimes even to the point of flying upside-down. Aren’t there instruments on your control panel which tell you your speed, altitude, and orientation? How can you be plummeting towards the ground and not notice?
I hope this question isn’t so ignorant as to be insulting. I know flying is difficult and complicated and it’s easy to criticize from here on the ground. I wish I was skilled enough to know how to fly a plane. I just see many stories about accidents where inexperienced pilots seem to be making apparently ridiculous mistakes.
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Lots of good answers here, I’m a 420hr VFR pilot who’s half way through my IFR training right now. It’s 40 hours total. Maybe what’s not explained well is you need to focus on many different instruments, not just one…..climb to steeply, and you’ll get to slow and stall….focus on keeping level to much, and maybe you’ll end up in a slight decent or turning. The one time I scared myself and went IMC I was climbing, I kept the rate of climb safe, but I did inadvertently do a full 360 degree turn during the climb. While definitely not recommended, I know plenty of VFR pilots that have accidentally gone IMC and not died…
Also worth noting there’s a difference between flying “IFR” and just VFR into IMC (instrument meteorological conditions) most of the IFR training is learning the different rules, regulations and how to conduct different kind of instrument approaches using radio navigation aids to bring you down below the cloud.
This video by CASA explains what it’s like well:
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