A Pilot’s View: Queenstown, New Zealand
Not much going on in the video, but very nice scenery.
If your only experience flying has been in an airliner, you’ve probably seen out the window when you go through a cloud layer. The video shows how it looks to the pilot at about 2:40 or so. I’ve seen that view from a Cessna; though not being instrument rated, it’s only been as a passenger or some training.
Hmmm… right around 2:45 it looks like he’s diving into the clouds AND the side of a mountain.
So have I - a C-185. It’s a reasonably intimidating (though undeniably spectacular) place to fly even in fine weather - not high on my list of places where I want to fly IFR.
I know it’s not exactly rational, but my thought was engine failure = certain death. I don’t think I’d be comfortable flying there for pleasure in a single engine plane.
Fortunately, that particular airplane has more than one engine. 
Dad and I flew up to Medford, OR one time, and it was IFR. All I could see were peaks sticking out of clouds underneath us. Dad made some turns, and I had no idea of our position. (I wasn’t even taking lessons at that point in my life.) And we went into the soup. It was a little scary, but I trusted dad and he trusted his stopwatch and his Narco NAV 122.
Yep, that looked distinctly worrying!
I was there for a couple days 2 months ago. Fortunately the weather was much clearer, my wife and I got some pretty spectacular pictures from the top of Bob’s Hill. Can’t wait to go back.
It’s an RNP (required navigation performance) approach that is only available to certain airlines with approved navigation equipment. The approach does a big descending circle through the valleys and lines you up with the runway. The presence of cloud is not a problem.
Note also that the video is sped up.
