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Re: IFR Guidance Requested
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 10:51 pm
by GAHorn
dunlaps3 wrote:I can put in my thoughts. Getting an Instrument Rating is another stepping stone to increase your Aviation knowledge, so good for you to pursue that. For me when I got my instrument rating, I realized that I would not stay proficient and to do it just every now and then was not a wise choice. So I never used it for the next 15 years. I felt the knowledge could save me if I went inadvertently IMC, but I never let that happen. Back then I worked as a mechanic and at least a couple of times I picked up wreckage of airplanes in low IMC and low experience IFR dead pilots. Aviation can be brutal and the graveyards are filled with pilots that wish they had a do-over. I don’t like sounding negative, I love flying and feel I can help guide younger pilots to making good decisions. I fly all weather all the time for the last 15 years. This is possible mostly because I fly a million dollar turboprop with everything that I could ever want. My 170 only flys on nice days. If I had to hop in your airplane and go IMC, I would make sure that I pop out 700 ft AGL or higher. To be funny and make my analogy I will say that if we had to kill dinosaurs every now and then to stay alive, I would not use a sharpened wooden spear like the old days.But I would use the current technology and have an AR or BMG or whatever the super powerful weapon is these days. If I can’t afford these , I would hide from dinosaurs.
My advice is get your IFR rating and don’t challenge yourself with difficult weather. Friends, Andrew.
Dinosaurs were never killed with sharpened, wooden spears. They were killed by meteors.
But your point is an excellent one.
(Does this mean I can't hit something with a hammer any more and must use atomic-explosives instead?)
Re: IFR Guidance Requested
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 7:34 am
by Hawkeyenfo
Great thread! After many years of ownership, I, too, am starting my IFR journey in 39A. It's equipped much the same as yours with the exception of no marker beacons. It does have dual comms, one of which is a non-IFR GPS. I use that and Stratus II with Fore Flight for SA, along with the VOR for practicing the skills of following the needle. I'll be watching and learning along with you. Have fun!!!
Re: IFR Guidance Requested
Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 7:30 pm
by brian.olson
Another update to this journey, friends. Yesterday, a kind and patient DPE passed a slip of paper across the table, shook my hand and said "congratulations - you earned this one with one hand tied behind your back." I'm now in possession of an opportunity to keep learning. Both my instructor and I learned an amazing amount over the past months of training. While most of our training was under the hood, we happened to find the occasional IMC where I could get rid of the glasses. My instructor has remarked that he is taking many of the lessons-learned from positional and situational awareness challenges of limited instrumentation and applying them to lessons with his other IFR students; he says this has forced upon us a necessary tenacity and attentiveness that he wants his other students to learn. We have both become better pilots because of the experience. It was hard work - frustrating at times - but I have enjoyed every minute of it.
If anything, this has taught me that I am at just the beginning of a long learning process. It's incredibly easy to fall behind with basic instruments when coupled with a busy ATC environment, and I have no business launching into something nasty. I'm going to continue training and flying with my instructor on a regular basis to keep the training sharp and the proficiency high, and slowly dip the toes in the water.
I'll keep the updates coming ...
Re: IFR Guidance Requested
Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:39 pm
by Ryan Smith
Congratulations, Brian!
An instrument rating is one of the most useful privileges you can excercise.
Re: IFR Guidance Requested
Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 9:52 am
by GAHorn
Let me add my CONGRATS to you Brian!
I’ll bet your self-confidence is considerably improved now that you’ve got the rating.
It’s my opinion that the learning process never stops for those who practice risk-management. The challenges of obtaining the rating improves one’s multi-tasking capability while in-flight, but it’s the actual time spent hand-flying solely by reference to instruments which improves that capability. The pursuit of the rating itself is a lesson in how to manage risk, and that is where it can lead either to a long love-relationship with airplanes...or short lifespan when risk is needlessly taken... I’m speaking particularly of the need to always have an “out”. Plan for engine failure. Plan for electrical failure. Plan for instrument/equipment failure. Plan for wx forecasting failure. That is what good instrument training teaches.
Again, CONGRATULATIONS!
Re: IFR Guidance Requested
Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 6:47 pm
by hilltop170
Congratulations Brian!
I think the instrument rating is the hardest and most valuable rating you can earn. Learning to reach competency with basic instruments and keeping current using them will allow you to transition to any advanced panels with minimum effort and you will always have that basic knowledge that few glass-panel-only instrument pilots will ever have. That will translate into confidence and precision in your future instrument flying.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Re: IFR Guidance Requested
Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2019 2:22 pm
by MoonlightVFR
Brian
Simply stated get your Instrument Rating. End result , initially you become an Excellent VFR pilot.
More later
G B