IFR training Lesson 1-8

WannFly

WannFly

Final Approach
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Priyo
Lesson : 1-3 | Nov 1, 2020 | .5 Simulated | 1.5 total

Background:
I started my IFR journey 2 years back and this is the 3rd of 4rth time starting it lol. My independent CFII disappeared on me, so I finally went back to the local flight school where I did my private from and enrolled there. I have some actuals under my belt - about 9 hours or so and total of 15 hrs simulated + actuals. I wanted do most of the training in actual, but thats not going to happen this time of the year, so I will be doing the next best thing - flying at night.

Took the first lesson there and knocked out Lesson 1-3 (Cessna flight school syllabus). it was a bit surprising that I could still hand fly lol.

Lesson 1: Preflight, taxi, runup, normal take-off and climb, straight and level, trimming, standard rate level altitude turns, constant airspeed climbs and descents

Lesson 2: Airspeed changes in level flight, Constant rate climbs and Descents, Constant rate climbs and Descents with constant airspeed (90kts), turning climbs and Descents

Lesson 3: Timed turned to magnetic compass heading, compass turns to magnetic headings

We took some numbers as documented below for future reference while flying approaches:
RPM KTS
2150 90
1700 90 - 500 FPM descent rate
1500 90 - 700 FPM Descent rate

finally, we shot the RNAV 18 back to fargo and after a long long time, i actually hand flew the entire approach and didnt mess it up lol. haven't looked at the compass much over last 2 years or so, so that was a refresher.
overall i am happy with the 1.5 hrs logged and how I performed. CFII agrees, but I had to warn him to not build up hope until we do the VOR part.

next few lessons will mostly be repeat of flying by the numbers and I believe steep turns, stalls and unusual attitude recovery under the hood. I might document the entire training here and hopefully someone finds it helpful.
 
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Lesson : 4-6 | Nov 5, 2020 | 1.3 Simulated | 1.7 total

Background:
Last night did the hood work, after a very long time i was under the hood at night. If it was just me, i would have probably stayed on the ground, there was an airmet for mod turb below 10k and LLWS up to 2k AGL and pretty strong wind aloft, combine that with a night flight and I prefer to stay on the ground. went up anyway to expand my digital horizon. it ended up pretty nice up at altitude.

Some time were spent reviewing previous lessons - primarily straight and level, climb and descent with constant airspeed, capturing altitude within 50 feet (my personal target), turning into a specific hearing within 5 degrees (my personal target). At some level I already know this, but while under the hood, the less you fiddle with the yoke the better - keep light touch and dont chase anything. Still working on scans - did some partial panel by covering up both G5's, its surprisingly easy to fly even without them and derive all needed information from the rest of the 4 pack.

Lesson 4: CRAFT (Clearance Limit, Route, Altitude, Frequency, Transponder Code)
This was a shortest session ever. pretty much every flight from Fargo you have to go through this anyway, VFR + I always get flight following, so fairly familiar with ATC. This is one of the things that i am actually good at. He asked me to explain CRAFT - gave him ample examples, dont think he is going to ask anytime soon.

Lesson 5: Steep Turns
I suck at steep turns (read dont practice it often). The turns i made are definitely out of checkride standards. the plan is to do a couple of them every time we go up for hood work. I might start trimming and try to go hands off.

Lesson 6: Unusual Attitude Recoveries (full and partial panel), Stall recovery - power-on (full and partial), Stall recovery in 30 Degree bank (full and partial panel)
Stall recoveries went just fine - you go to the stall horn and recover. Now that I am writing about it, I dont think I did any partial panel stall recovery. We will be doing those down the road anyway.

Unusual Attitude Recovery - now this was interesting.

First one - I opened my eyes to a low nose and banked to the right attitude - pull power, get out of the back and recover. I practice these at times on my own (of course i do not close my eyes, but to ensure my first instinct is not to pull and make things worst)

Second one - it was nose high in a bank. Add full power, straighten out and lower the nose - almost at the same time.

Third one - the bastid got me on this one. After several long seconds of rocking the wing as i opened my eyes i found both G5's are covered up. I could hear the engine noise increasing, i knew we were in a nose down attitude and the VSI confirmed and we were in a bank as confirmed by the TC. what i did wrong was I did not scan anything else and tried to derive all the information i could from those 2 instruments. the end result is when i pulled up, i did not realize that i pulled way up and the airspeed was decaying FAST. We briefed what I did wrong.

Fourth one - Same partial panel recovery and I nailed it - mostly because I verbalized everything I was scanning. My altitude is going up and VSI shows increase FPM, so i need to put the nose down, the TC shows in a bank, so lets level it out, ASI shows low airspeed - add power. I think it took less few 4 seconds to recover.

I enjoyed the lesson - will do the recoveries more, they are kinda fun. We flew back to the airport and shot RNAV 27 with Vectors.
 
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Lesson 7 : VOR and HOLDS |Nov 09, 2020 | Simulated: .6 | Total: 1.3

Over the weekend did some refresher on VOR and Holds. Below are the explanations that made most sense to me. YMMV.

VOR:
HOLDS:
Its snowing right now, but should improve for a night training flight.

Flight
Super busy evening at the field, think we waited about 20 mins just to get taxi instructions. There was a C-130 in the pattern along with multiple UPS feeders inbound. We took rny 27 and then got vectored to the FAR VOR to do some holds, think we did 5 or 6. I thought i had the Holds nailed at least in theory before i went up, well I was wrong. Need a whole lot more practice on this VOR HOLD. Winds were pretty strong up there, between 37-45 KTS at 5500 between 310 and 270, that changing dimension and strong winds resulted in pretty crappy intercept angles and most of the times I just blew through them.

Ended up doing the VOR approach to 36. at STABS came down to 1600 and then to 1380, it was kind of an eye opener for me since usually i am not that low, especially at night and not lined up with the runway. It was not a very comfortable feeling!

upload_2020-11-10_10-1-44.png

Tonight taking a cross country IFR (in VMC) to Grand Forks, just to break the monotony of flying in circles ... the plan is to have the CFII just as an observer while I do everything. Cross country is not in the syllabus until later and I already have way more than i need for the rating, I just dont want to fly in circles every single lesson.
 
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Lesson 8 : IFR Cross Country |Nov 10, 2020 | Simulated: 1.5 | Total: 1.8

Technically not a part of the curriculum, not at this point anyway, but I wanted to do a real cross country in the system to find out how ready I am flying a real-world cross country IFR (this was VMC)

This is what I filed: KFAR PAWSS V181 JOCOR KGFK and the return was exactly the reverse of that route. Did a stop and go to count for XC and night landing.

Getting out of fargo I was cleared as filed, was given an initial heading to fly and then direct to PAWSS

upload_2020-11-11_13-25-12.png

after i got switched over to KGFK approach, they asked me to fly to ERIXE (IAF) direct

About 9 miles (from IAF) or so out, the threw in a odd-ball - Fly 10 degrees left and track inbound on RNAV 35L. there was no navaid to track so i had to eye ball the moving map and then try to intercept the right course still 9 miles out of IAF. The orange line below kinda explains what they wanted me to do, but I was not ready for this:

upload_2020-11-11_13-39-1.png

After stop and go, I got my routing as filed back to Fargo where I asked for RNAV 27 with Vectors.

Learning and observation:
  • The entire flight I was within 100 feet of my assigned altitude.
  • When I was fixating on one instrument - at least in 2 occasions I found myself on a left descending bank
  • I happily used George when I was briefing the plates
  • Surprisingly, traffic was light at KGFK, but still got some task saturation taking down missed approach instructions, reading back current instructions for intercepting and flying the approach etc
  • Nailed glideslope at both airports - thank you trim + known power settings
  • Lateral deviation during approach - not so much, I kept chasing the needles and ended up overcorrecting and essentially making small S-Turns :( . need lot more work on the wind diamond and bracketing
  • got the leans in at least one occasion
No other training scheduled this week, when and if I get a chance, will go up and fly VFR practice approaches and Holds.
 
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reserved for future lessons
 
reserved for future lessons
 
reserved for future lessons
 
Reserved for future smart aleck comments

seriously though, unusual attitudes with partial panel is a good one. My instructor never did that one to me.
 
I still like to have IFR students practice steep turns, they're a great proficiency exercise, but they are no longer part of the instrument rating ACS/checkride lineup.
 
Jim Carpenter said:
I still like to have IFR students practice steep turns, they're a great proficiency exercise, but they are no longer part of the instrument rating ACS/checkride lineup.
Click to expand...
should have checked the ACS before... good to know. I agree, and planning to do it in every future training
 
denverpilot said:
Won’t the thread title need updating as the reserve posts are filled? :)
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thats the plan Nate. thats why the title is 1-6 now instead of 1-3 when i started this thread. once the reserved lessons have been documented, i will probably start a new thread. reading up on Holds and VOR this weekend... havent flown VOR in a long time lol
 
Lesson 7 - VOR and HOLDS complete, well not really complete, i would say started, need a whole lot of them. post 3 updated
 
WannFly said:
after 5 or 6 holds i am like.... i dont even know which way is north anymore
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Someone said this on 6PC's thread, but honestly training is so much more difficult than the real thing. This is why I highly recommend flying a lot of procedures (including comms) solo In full VFR. It lets you practice the flows and communications without the stress of someone talking to you the whole time, distracting you, giving you another task before you've digested the last one....

Also, I have a (bad) tendency to not be as situationally aware when there is an instructor sitting next to me. It's just a switch that turns off in my head.

I really think there should be solo IFR as a student. You should have to (and be allowed to) file and fly a cross country under IFR rules without anyone in the plane.
 
Salty said:
Someone said this on 6PC's thread, but honestly training is so much more difficult than the real thing. This is why I highly recommend flying a lot of procedures (including comms) solo In full VFR. It lets you practice the flows and communications without the stress of someone talking to you the whole time, distracting you, giving you another task before you've digested the last one.... Also, I have a (bad) tendency to not be as situationally aware when there is an instructor sitting next to me. It's just a switch that turns off in my head.
Click to expand...

Just to be clear: you mean even as a student, once you’ve started training on approaches, to talk to ATC and request practice approaches, while solo, VFR, eyes outside? I like this concept in order to get comfortable understanding the comms side (in addition to the “under stress” machine-gun CFI version under hood x3).
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Just to be clear: you mean even as a student, once you’ve started approaches, to talk to ATC and request practice approaches, while solo, VFR, eyes outside? I like this concept in order to get comfortable understanding the comms side (in addition to the “under stress” machine-gun CFI version under hood x3).
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Yes. As soon as I understood the procedures, I started flying approaches and holds solo in the plane, with no view limiting device, calling up approach or tower just like I'd do with the instructor. It's actually a little more difficult also because you have to be VFR aware while you are also doing all the IFR stuff. Just keep VFR as priority, don't keep trying to fly an approach as published if there's traffic around, etc.

It helped my confidence dramatically. Allowed me to practice the flows and communications at my pace.
 
Being relatively new to the rating, I plan on continuing to use that technique to keep things fresh in my mind as the weather in Florida isn't IMC that much....

I flew a couple "RNAV circle to land on another runway" to a closed runway at a class C airport this way. Good practice and since the runway was closed, nobody else was in that area. Worked well.
 
Salty said:
Yes. As soon as I understood the procedures, I started flying approaches and holds solo in the plane, with no view limiting device, calling up approach or tower just like I'd do with the instructor. It's actually a little more difficult also because you have to be VFR aware while you are also doing all the IFR stuff. Just keep VFR as priority, don't keep trying to fly an approach as published if there's traffic around, etc.

It helped my confidence dramatically. Allowed me to practice the flows and communications at my pace.
Click to expand...
I have been doing the same with ILS and RNAV for a while now, didnt do any with VOR, so thats the plan for my next non-training flight. out here under TRSA they are very good with keeping traffic separated and can usually accommodate any request. (unless its one of those time when every UPS feeders leaves or come back in).
 
Salty said:
Someone said this on 6PC's thread, but honestly training is so much more difficult than the real thing. This is why I highly recommend flying a lot of procedures (including comms) solo In full VFR. It lets you practice the flows and communications without the stress of someone talking to you the whole time, distracting you, giving you another task before you've digested the last one....

Also, I have a (bad) tendency to not be as situationally aware when there is an instructor sitting next to me. It's just a switch that turns off in my head.

I really think there should be solo IFR as a student. You should have to (and be allowed to) file and fly a cross country under IFR rules without anyone in the plane.
Click to expand...

I’ve thought of that to. But there is ‘con’ to it. That is delaying other IFR traffic and balling up communications. If it required an endorsement by a CFII who has determined you can ‘talk IFR’ efficiently AND it was required you tell ATC what you are doing, so that they can ‘withdraw’ your clearance if you started to ball up the system, then I’d be for it.
 
luvflyin said:
I’ve thought of that to. But there is ‘con’ to it. That is delaying other IFR traffic and balling up communications. If it required an endorsement by a CFII who has determined you can ‘talk IFR’ efficiently AND it was required you tell ATC what you are doing, so that they can ‘withdraw’ your clearance if you started to ball up the system, then I’d be for it.
Click to expand...
usually thats how it goes, here, i ask for practice VFR approaches, if they need me to get out of the way because i am flying as published at 90 kts, they will vector me around for whatever is coming to eat me at 190 kts. If they are busy with multiple arrivals they will just tell me, unable practice approach at this time. now you need to make sure you speak IFR language, because every now and then they will throw something in and you need to make sure you know what the heck they are talking about
 
WannFly said:
usually thats how it goes, here, i ask for practice VFR approaches, if they need me to get out of the way because i am flying as published at 90 kts, they will vector me around for whatever is coming to eat me at 190 kts. If they are busy with multiple arrivals they will just tell me, unable practice approach at this time. now you need to make sure you speak IFR language, because every now and then they will throw something in and you need to make sure you know what the heck they are talking about
Click to expand...

I was replying to the last sentence in @Salty ’s post #16 about filing and getting clearances for cross country IFR. Procedures are already in place for ATC to withdraw practice approach clearances.
 
luvflyin said:
I was replying to the last sentence in @Salty ’s post #16 about filing and getting clearances for cross country. Procedures are already in place for ATC to withdraw practice approach clearances.
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yeah i wish FAA would create something like CFII signed off for solo IFR XC, but i think insurance companies wont like it
 
WannFly said:
yeah i wish FAA would create something like CFII signed off for solo IFR XC, but i think insurance companies wont like it
Click to expand...

They probably wouldn’t, and written just like that, “solo IFR XC” they shouldn’t, nor any one else. ‘Solo IFR XC in VMC’ could be a discussion. But without a requirement to identify that you are a student doing so, I would be against it.
 
Cool. For some reason it just “felt illegal” (LOL!!) to do practice approaches without a guy (CFI or safety pilot) in the right seat, even if fully VFR no hood. Silly thought, I know.
 
Salty said:
Someone said this on 6PC's thread, but honestly training is so much more difficult than the real thing. This is why I highly recommend flying a lot of procedures (including comms) solo In full VFR.
Click to expand...
Agreed.
 
WannFly said:
Lesson 8 : IFR Cross Country |Nov 10, 2020 | Simulated: 1.5 | Total: 1.8

Technically not a part of the curriculum, not at this point anyway, but I wanted to do a real cross country in the system to find out how ready I am flying a real-world cross country IFR (this was VMC)

This is what I filed: KFAR PAWSS V181 JOCOR KGFK and the return was exactly the reverse of that route. Did a stop and go to count for XC and night landing.

Getting out of fargo I was cleared as filed, was given an initial heading to fly and then direct to PAWSS

View attachment 91739

after i got switched over to KGFK approach, they asked me to fly to ERIXE (IAF) direct

About 9 miles (from IAF) or so out, the threw in a odd-ball - Fly 10 degrees left and track inbound on RNAV 35L. there was no navaid to track so i had to eye ball the moving map and then try to intercept the right course still 9 miles out of IAF. The orange line below kinda explains what they wanted me to do, but I was not ready for this:

View attachment 91740

After stop and go, I got my routing as filed back to Fargo where I asked for RNAV 27 with Vectors.

Learning and observation:
  • The entire flight I was within 100 feet of my assigned altitude.
  • When I was fixating on one instrument - at least in 2 occasions I found myself on a left descending bank
  • I happily used George when I was briefing the plates
  • Surprisingly, traffic was light at KGFK, but still got some task saturation taking down missed approach instructions, reading back current instructions for intercepting and flying the approach etc
  • Nailed glideslope at both airports - thank you trim + known power settings
  • Lateral deviation during approach - not so much, I kept chasing the needles and ended up overcorrecting and essentially making small S-Turns :( . need lot more work on the wind diamond and bracketing
  • got the leans in at least one occasion
No other training scheduled this week, when and if I get a chance, will go up and fly VFR practice approaches and Holds.
Click to expand...

??? I don’t get that orange line. You should have been East of the 35L final approach course, extended, the entire time
 
luvflyin said:
??? I don’t get that orange line. You should have been East of the 35L final approach course, extended, the entire time
Click to expand...

That’s what my plan was, fly V181 to JOCOR and then to IAF, they took me off V181 just as I entered their airspace and then got the weired direction of fly 10 degrees left(west) and track inbound to IAF
 
WannFly said:
That’s what my plan was, fly V181 to JOCOR and then to IAF, they took me off V181 just as I entered their airspace and then got the weired direction of fly 10 degrees left(west) and track inbound to IAF
Click to expand...

“... was given an initial heading to fly and then direct to PAWSS...after i got switched over to KGFK approach, they asked me to fly to ERIXE (IAF) direct

About 9 miles (from IAF) or so out, the threw in a odd-ball - Fly 10 degrees left and track inbound on RNAV 35L“

I still can’t see how you got West of the final approach course. Anyway, ERIXE was your next Waypoint. Just hit OBS and dial in 354. Now ya gotsa a line to follow and it will give you needles on the CDI/HSI
 
luvflyin said:
Just hit OBS and dial in 354. Now ya gotsa a line to follow and it will give you needles on the CDI/HSI
Click to expand...

That’s a great point.... totally forgot about OBS.... wonder why the II didn’t point that out
 
This is a great post. Thanks for taking the time to list out the details of each lesson from the Cessna syllabus. Very interesting also to see the deviations from the syllabus and how it actually helps. Sounds like you’re doing a really nice job of picking your way through this rating. Keep the details coming!
 
well folks... the CFII flew with someone last week after our session who tested positive for COVID... so no training for 2 weeks now. guess more VFR practice approaches for me in near future
 
Find a another instructor. Good excuse to get another viewpoint
 
might be difficult due to scheduling, trying...
 
Just an update on my 4rth IR journey, scuttlebutt has it few other students tested positive at my school and i hear my state is number 1 for Covid infections (finally we are no 1 at something lol). at this point i am staying far far away from the school. Will regroup after things settle down a bit. I am doing VFR practice approaches when i can to keep up the skills.
 
WannFly said:
Just an update on my 4rth IR journey, scuttlebutt has it few other students tested positive at my school and i hear my state is number 1 for Covid infections (finally we are no 1 at something lol). at this point i am staying far far away from the school. Will regroup after things settle down a bit. I am doing VFR practice approaches when i can to keep up the skills.
Click to expand...

That sucks! Reminds me of me, back in the spring. I was 4 or 5 lessons in when the Governor here in MI pretty much shut everything down except flying (but no flying with a CFI). I was off work for 6 weeks, boating was illegal, parks were closed, you couldn't even work on your house or lawn. We were not allowed to buy landscaping supply's, paint, nothing but food, alcohol and of course marijuana (you know just the essentials). So flying was about the only thing we were allowed to do. I kept doing VFR practice approaches and used the time to get better at hold entries. It was a pretty strange time to be honest. The radio traffic was 20% of usual. The guys at Detroit approach / KDTW Tower were so board they were letting people fly patterns in C150s. I was able to shoot a bunch of VFR approaches into KDTW which I was never allowed before. That was really the only “good thing “ about that time. As soon as it was “ok” to get back to training with a CFII, I was definitely better than I was before. Keep at it! And good luck!
 
WannFly said:
Just an update on my 4rth IR journey, scuttlebutt has it few other students tested positive at my school and i hear my state is number 1 for Covid infections (finally we are no 1 at something lol). at this point i am staying far far away from the school. Will regroup after things settle down a bit. I am doing VFR practice approaches when i can to keep up the skills.
Click to expand...
Crossed the river for the first time in almost 9 months and made it up to KFAR. Stopped by your school to take the AGI written. Not a mask in sight between the students and instructors.

Can see why y'all are #1.

Took my test And bolted out of there as soon as I could.

Sent from my SM-T510 using Tapatalk
 
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