Journey to my Instrument Rating

Well, better late than never.

Right after I started this thread my Mom broke her hip and has required lots of help from my wife and myself. She lives about 130 miles away, so the airplane served a practical purposes a few times when I needed to get there in a hurry. Needing to get there in a hurry also pushed me toward flying into a controlled airport and even flying through Bravo airspace on Flight Following.

In the midst of all that I have enjoyed some airport hopping and have managed to build about 46 hours of XC flying. I figure I will probably get 50 before I'm finished with the instrument training just from having to fly over to take care of my Mom, but even if I don't do that, the Instrument Long XC should take care of that requirement.

So, I'm a little later than I hoped in starting my IR training, but I had my first in flight lesson last night. My cross country flying has paid off in that I can hold altitude and a heading MUCH better than I could at checkride time.

I think my instructor is in tune with Wayne and other experienced and savvy instrument instructors. He started me out teaching me basics like holding heading and altitude, making changes in them, standard rate turns & the like. I started out not scanning as I should, but seemed to get rid of that Gremlin and got into a good rythym of instrument scanning. It was a confidence builder.

In the lesson I kind of surprised myself at how well I was able to do. I am now at a point of needing a safety pilot. This is a challenge since I live in the boondocks. I love the fresh air, the wildlife, the peace & quiet and all the advantages of the boonies, but having safety pilots close at hand is certainly not one of them.

I have one guy that might fly with me some locally, but I feel like I am starting over again with a similar challenge that I dealt with for my Private. I couldn't find an instructor back then, now my challenge is finding a safety pilot.

The lesson last night was fun and encouraging. I will keep posting here until I'm done, and with the delays so far this year, I'm not so encouraged that I will be done by years end.

Stay tuned & thanks for all the help so far in this thread, especially Waynes write up.
 
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Doc,

I'm available for joy-rides in the right seat when the weather gets better.


MBDiagMan said:
Well, better late than never.

Right after I started this thread my Mom broke her hip and has required lots of help from my wife and myself. She lives about 130 miles away, so the airplane served a practical purposes a few times when I needed to get there in a hurry. Needing to get there in a hurry also pushed me toward flying into a controlled airport and even flying through Bravo airspace on Flight Following.

In the midst of all that I have enjoyed some airport hopping and have managed to build about 46 hours of XC flying. I figure I will probably get 50 before I'm finished with the instrument training just from having to fly over to take care of my Mom, but even if I don't do that, the Instrument Long XC should take care of that requirement.

So, I'm a little later than I hoped in starting my IR training, but I had my first in flight lesson last night. My cross country flying has paid off in that I can hold altitude and a heading MUCH better than I could at checkride time.

I think my instructor is in tune with Wayne and other experienced and savvy instrument instructors. He started me out teaching me basics like holding heading and altitude, making changes in them, standard rate turns & the like. I started out not scanning as I should, but seemed to get rid of that Gremlin and got into a good rythym of instrument scanning. It was a confidence builder.

In the lesson I kind of surprised myself at how well I was able to do. I am now at a point of needing a safety pilot. This is a challenge since I live in the boondocks. I love the fresh air, the wildlife, the peace & quiet and all the advantages of the boonies, but having safety pilots close at hand is certainly not one of them.

I have one guy that might fly with me some locally, but I feel like I am starting over again with a similar challenge that I dealt with for my Private. I couldn't find an instructor back then, now my challenge is finding a safety pilot.

The lesson last night was fun and encouraging. I will keep posting here until I'm done, and with the delays so far this year, I'm not so encouraged that I will be done by years end.

Stay tuned & thanks for all the help so far in this thread, especially Waynes write up.
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You know I would totally safety pilot for you. Only problem is - um - a thousand miles or so.
 
MBDiagMan said:
Kim,

What kind of excuse is that?:confused: All you have to do is jump on an airliiner!:D

Seriously though, I appreciate the sentiment.:)

BTW, it's about 1,500 miles or so.
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I wasn't sure since Google told me how many miles to drive to you, not fly to you LOL. But thanks for the exact number..... still a bit too far however.
 
Had another instrument lesson Friday night. I got a lot of hood time and we flew an approach over a Localizer and Marker Beacon to test my instruments. VOR receivers are weak and I couldn't get the Marker Beacon to work. Oh, the fun of aircraft ownership!

I felt good about my ability to scan the instruments and fly the plane well. About halfway through the lesson, the instructor asked for the airplane and showed me how to smooth out my control. He described it well, and I flew it much smoother on the way home. It really helps my confidence to know that I can control the plane this well at this stage. If I can get my avionics ironed out, I think I can learn this.
 
I met a pilot who lives pretty far away from me but thinks I might be able to "sit in the back" on an IFR training lesson. He says he goes 1-3 times per week in a 172. I am not sure if / when I can drive the 2 hours to get out there, but it would be neat to see what this is all about.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I met a pilot who lives pretty far away from me but thinks I might be able to "sit in the back" on an IFR training lesson. He says he goes 1-3 times per week in a 172. I am not sure if / when I can drive the 2 hours to get out there, but it would be neat to see what this is all about.
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Do it.

And when he is all nicely centered up on the ILS, quietly lean waaaay forward from the backseat. Then when they correct, lean back. Repeat. Hahaha.

(heh. Mean but funny. Thanks to Spike and Greg B for the idea. It's actually hilarious, especially if the right seater knows what you're doing.)
 
Does that add to or subtract from the training value for the trainee?
 
denverpilot said:
Do it.

And when he is all nicely centered up on the ILS, quietly lean waaaay forward from the backseat. Then when they correct, lean back. Repeat. Hahaha.

(heh. Mean but funny. Thanks to Spike and Greg B for the idea. It's actually hilarious, especially if the right seater knows what you're doing.)
Click to expand...

I don't mind being pranked, BUT I'm not that much of a prankster.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I don't mind being pranked, BUT I'm not that much of a prankster.
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Ask Spike how his IPC went with Greg doing it. Heh.

It's not THAT bad. Turbulence is harder. It's just funny in smooth air because the trim is PERFECT and now there's a 100 FPM descent...

Roll a smidge of trim, now there's a 200 FPM climb. What the...?

I was re-arranging myself in my back seat "nest" during the OSH trip this year on one leg, and wiggled around hard enough re-arranging my bum that both my co-owner and Doug froze in the front seats and asked "what did we hit?". Heh. Oops.

"You mean this?"... I bounced up and down a couple times on the seat. "Oh, yeah. That's what I felt." Laughs. Good times.
 
MBDiagMan said:
I felt good about my ability to scan the instruments and fly the plane well. About halfway through the lesson, the instructor asked for the airplane and showed me how to smooth out my control. He described it well, and I flew it much smoother on the way home. It really helps my confidence to know that I can control the plane this well at this stage. If I can get my avionics ironed out, I think I can learn this.
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In spite of the silliness in later posts, I'll bet a key part of his instruction was to use trim. Trim is your friend. Takes a lot of work out of holding altitude or speed.
 
So what happened with this...Doc did you get your IR ticket?!
 
Thanks for asking Sara!

Reading this is one of those things that make you say "has it been that long?"

At the approximate time of my last post in this thread, I started looking for an avionics shop to get my avionics up to snuff for the instrument training. I found a highly recommended fellow with a small shop and he told me it would be Thanksgiving. As Thanksgiving approached, his Dad died and he took a break saying that it would be the first of the year. Then it became mid March. THEN I couldn't get flying weather on the days I was off and then my annual came due.

Things changing at work and with my Moms health have not exactly served to speed things up. You know what they say about excuses, and I guess I have too many of them right now. Hopefully this will all change and get back in high gear soon.

My annual has just been finished, and I will now again try to get a slot in this guys small hangar. I am falling far behind my schedule of IR in 2012, Commercial 2013 and CFI 2014. Hopefully I can catch up.

Thanks again for asking.
 
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Yeah, I haven't started instrument training yet, either. Largely because the wife isn't working (dang sequester....).
 
Gene Hudson wrote an excellent, and surprisingly short, book a few years ago titled Precision Attitude Instrument Flight. If you can find a copy, it would be worth your while.
 
Hang in there, you'll get it done.

MBDiagMan said:
Thanks for asking Sara!

Reading this is one of those things that make you say "has it been that long?"

At the approximate time of my last post in this thread, I started looking for an avionics shop to get my avionics up to snuff for the instrument training. I found a highly recommended fellow with a small shop and he told me it would be Thanksgiving. As Thanksgiving approached, his Dad died and he took a break saying that it would be the first of the year. Then it became mid March. THEN I couldn't get flying weather on the days I was off and then my annual came due.

Things changing at work and with my Moms health have not exactly served to speed things up. You know what they say about excuses, and I guess I have too many of them right now. Hopefully this will all change and get back in high gear soon.

My annual has just been finished, and I will now again try to get a slot in this guys small hangar. I am falling far behind my schedule of IR in 2012, Commercial 2013 and CFI 2014. Hopefully I can catch up.

Thanks again for asking.
Click to expand...
 
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