Even with all the technology and oversight that available, we still haven't figured out how to avoid flying into bad weather and having poor results. Often times, in these situations, the only difference between making it back and not is luck. That luck could be in the form of time (5 minutes either way can make a huge difference), maybe seeing a hole just at the right time to regain control, maybe just having returned from IFR recurrent training (what you brushed up on might have had an entirely different outcome the hitch before), etc... If you want a realistic account of what kinds of weather people would leave in, or what can change that makes things a little scary, I'd suggest looking through some NTSB accident/incident reports. http://www.aviationdb.com/Aviation/AccidentQuery.shtm A simple search by typing in the box "Aircraft Make" you could type "Bell" for example and on the very bottom "Narrative" box type "IMC" and it will bring all sorts of results, and some even in your desired time period. It will take a little digging, but there are many examples that list the weather, what happened, etc. I found a few, but don't have a way to cut and paste here. If you find some reports that you see as valid, note the tail number and look it up. You should be able to find the full ntsb report that gives you more detail.