Recently, a former private pilot student of mine revealed some information during his biennial flight review that made my heart skip a few beats and nearly get stuck in my throat. He said he enjoys flying through clouds. Had this been one of my instrument students, I would have been happy. But this man never continued his training to receive an instrument ticket.
After I reamed him out, he said he only does it through thin clouds, where he can essentially see the other side before even entering. But regardless of how small a cloud is you should never go beyond the legal limits. The rules are there for a reason – to keep you and others in the sky safe. Even a small cloud could be hiding another airplane, a tower or a hill. And there is a chance that flying through small clouds will encourage you to push the limits further and fly through bigger and bigger clouds increasing the potential for severe consequences.
