Narrative:

My student and I were on a night cross country training flight. We were on our way back from christmas valley (62S) going to our home base. We had good visibility going to christmas valley but on the way home we hit a pocket of thick smoke and some turbulence. I looked around and couldn't find any outside visual reference. I took control of the aircraft from the student and called seattle center and requested flight following and advised them that we were in an inadvertent IMC situation. The controller called back and asked if we were going IMC or if we were already IMC. I told him that we were already IMC. He gave me my squawk code and told me to ident. I followed his instructions. We got radar contact and he asked if I had the ability to fly on instruments. I told him I have an instrument rating. I'm passed my first 6 months for currency but in the moment I was scared and wasn't thinking about that. Then he asked if I had the ability to maintain separation from the terrain on my own at 9;000 ft. I responded 'affirmative.' he gave me an IFR plan in flight to christmas valley and instructed me to climb and maintain 9;000 ft and to report when we were at 9;000 ft. We got to 9;000 ft and I reported it back to seattle. At this time the controllers had switched. The new controller was displeased with me and said that I needed to file an IFR flight plan differently. I was so focused on flying that I can't recall quite what he said. It was something along the lines of that I needed to file on the ground in christmas valley before I took off. I tried to explain that the IFR plan was unexpected and the last controller had given it to me. I don't remember what he said after that but it didn't seem appropriate to be scolding me while I was in the middle of a stressful situation. I decided to file this report on the off chance I broke a regulation in how I came to be on an IFR flight plan. Once we were over millican; we came out of the smoke and visibility increased to almost unlimited. I reported to seattle that we had visual contact with the ground. Following their instructions; I closed my flight plan with FSS and then cancelled IFR. From there my student and I landed [at our home airport.]

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: GA flight instructor reported inadvertently entering IMC on a VFR night cross country flight due to smoke.

Narrative: My student and I were on a night cross country training flight. We were on our way back from Christmas Valley (62S) going to our home base. We had good visibility going to Christmas Valley but on the way home we hit a pocket of thick smoke and some turbulence. I looked around and couldn't find any outside visual reference. I took control of the aircraft from the student and called Seattle Center and requested flight following and advised them that we were in an inadvertent IMC situation. The controller called back and asked if we were going IMC or if we were already IMC. I told him that we were already IMC. He gave me my squawk code and told me to ident. I followed his instructions. We got radar contact and he asked if I had the ability to fly on instruments. I told him I have an instrument rating. I'm passed my first 6 months for currency but in the moment I was scared and wasn't thinking about that. Then he asked if I had the ability to maintain separation from the terrain on my own at 9;000 ft. I responded 'affirmative.' He gave me an IFR plan in flight to Christmas Valley and instructed me to climb and maintain 9;000 ft and to report when we were at 9;000 ft. We got to 9;000 ft and I reported it back to Seattle. At this time the controllers had switched. The new controller was displeased with me and said that I needed to file an IFR flight plan differently. I was so focused on flying that I can't recall quite what he said. It was something along the lines of that I needed to file on the ground in Christmas Valley before I took off. I tried to explain that the IFR plan was unexpected and the last controller had given it to me. I don't remember what he said after that but it didn't seem appropriate to be scolding me while I was in the middle of a stressful situation. I decided to file this report on the off chance I broke a regulation in how I came to be on an IFR flight plan. Once we were over Millican; we came out of the smoke and visibility increased to almost unlimited. I reported to Seattle that we had visual contact with the ground. Following their instructions; I closed my flight plan with FSS and then cancelled IFR. From there my student and I landed [at our home airport.]

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.