This is looking northeast. My destination is somewhere dead ahead.

There's a gentle easterly flow this morning over the whole region. It has swept this collection of clouds west into the ridge, where they've piled up as you see. What to do?

I can easily and legally fly over the top of the clouds. But my personal rule is to fly only where I have emergency landing fields always available. I can't tell how many holes are in that cloud bank. If I get stuck on top and the engine quits, I'm dead. In addition, I suspect that my destination airport is clear, but I don't know that. I could end up flying there only to have to return. Fortunately, I have about 7 hours of fuel, so that's not a concern.

My better choice: spiral down through that big hole you see there and continue under the cloud deck. The ridge top is about 1,800 ft. The flats beyond are about 600 ft. Cloudbase looks to be about 1,500 and I'm supposed to fly at least 500' below the clouds in case some pilot on instruments is descending through them. That'll put me 400' above the ground. That's lower than I like to fly, but it's legal for us weight-shift aircraft - at least over rural areas like this. I'll fly closer under the clouds than 500'. No one's flying instruments this low to the ground out here.