C172 pilot describes his first solo IMC flight after receiving an instrument rating.

Attributes
ACN	911980
Time
Date	201010
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	FRG.Airport
State Reference	NY
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	Vectors SID FRG4
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Private Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 81.8 Flight Crew Total 140.7 Flight Crew Type 10.8
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Narrative:

This was my first instrument flight under real-life IMC conditions. I was a nervous wreck already. But I knew I had to go through with a short flight to build up confidence and to be able to use the skills I have just obtained in getting my instrument rating. I picked a short flight for this trip. I had just departed frg on a SID. As soon as I entered the clouds at approx 800 ft my heart was pounding and the only thing that was going through my mind was to keep the plane under control and to calm myself down. Through all of this I misread the departure procedure and had a loss of judgment. The procedure said to fly out on a heading of 013 from runway 1. For whatever reason I made a right turn to 130 and the controller was getting upset with me. This situation made me even more nervous and thankfully it took a while and the controller gave me new vectors to the jfk VORTAC. This was a learning experience to say the least. I really should have invested in a CFI coming along on the trip with me. However on the bright side after about 40 minutes in the clouds I became a lot more relaxed and now have the confidence to do it again but I will not make that mistake again.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C172 pilot describes his first solo IMC flight after receiving an instrument rating.

Narrative: This was my first instrument flight under real-life IMC conditions. I was a nervous wreck already. But I knew I had to go through with a short flight to build up confidence and to be able to use the skills I have just obtained in getting my instrument rating. I picked a short flight for this trip. I had just departed FRG on a SID. As soon as I entered the clouds at approx 800 FT my heart was pounding and the only thing that was going through my mind was to keep the plane under control and to calm myself down. Through all of this I misread the departure procedure and had a loss of judgment. The procedure said to fly out on a heading of 013 from Runway 1. For whatever reason I made a right turn to 130 and the Controller was getting upset with me. This situation made me even more nervous and thankfully it took a while and the Controller gave me new vectors to the JFK VORTAC. This was a learning experience to say the least. I really should have invested in a CFI coming along on the trip with me. However on the bright side after about 40 minutes in the clouds I became a lot more relaxed and now have the confidence to do it again but I will not make that mistake again.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.