Need some IFR advice

LoLPilot

LoLPilot

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Jun 30, 2018
Messages
626
Location
St. Louis, MO
Display Name
Display name:
LoLPilot
I just got my IFR ticket back in December. I haven't flown since my checkride and so I was planning on heading about an hour southeast of me to visit a college buddy of mine - it's about a two hour drive. The weather today was IFR with ceilings overcast at 2000 - 3000 feet at estimated departure time and clearing off before night when I would have been coming back. I had a friend lined up to go with me who just got his CFII. This morning when I checked weather there was an Airmet for icing all across St. Louis and Southern Illinois. I texted my CFII friend and told him there was an ice warning active and did he want to cancel and he said sure, all his students had canceled that day anyway. The clouds were below where I'd planned to fly at but we would have had to descend through them and that's where the icing level was. I ended up driving down to see my friend and on the drive I saw a hole in the clouds. They weren't thick - maybe 500 feet? - and part of me thought we probably could have punched through them. During my checkride my DPE and I talked about ice for quite a while, and my CFII that I worked with told me never tangle with it in a GA airplane. I talked to another CFI once who told me that if you only fly when weather is ideal, you'll hardly ever fly. As I was driving I was kind of sulking and thinking about how in terms of my personal flights I think I have canceled more flights than I've taken. In my logbook, almost all of my flights have been training or to practice some maneuver. I've always been more conservative in my go/no go decision than a lot of guys I know, but the IFR ticket has put a sort of different spin on it in that I don't feel very confident in myself with it.

I know I can fly the airplane. After I got my PPL I wanted to fly more. I really didn't have much of an interest in taking passengers flying but I wanted to fly and I was confident in myself to fly acceptably. The IFR ticket is different and despite always picking up flight following whenever I'm flying solo (and being comfortable talking to ATC) I find I really don't feel comfortable with the idea of playing in their system with the big boys. I'm really worried about screwing up and racking up a violation by accident on my first actual IFR flight, to the point that I've asked one of my friends who is working on his commercial if we could file on a VFR day and have him ride along as a safety pilot and make sure I don't make a royal mess of it trying to do it for real. Am I crazy or is this normal?
 
It's normal enough. But this is one of those situations in which anticipation is worse than reality. Part of it, I think, is that the training environment is built around multiple approaches. That's a necessity or the rating would take forever, but it gives us a false sense that instrument flight is this rush-rush-rush to do the next thing. That would make anyone hesitate going it alone.

But while there are certainly going to be situations which tax us, especially single-pilot, by far most real IFR GA flight is very relaxed. The rush in training to brief the next approach before finishing the first is replace by getting the weather a half hour or more away and briefing the approach when workload is very low (not to mention in the ground before we even leave).

Based on what you have been saying, I think your idea has merit. Grab an instrument-rated friend or CFII and do a normal IFR cross country flight. No training scenarios. Don't even bother with a hood. "Light" IFR day is ideal so the approach is real, but even CAVU and a visual approach can work. Just pick a good destination, perhaps a Class C area because you are concerned about communication. The goal is simply to operate in the system to get a more realistic idea how it works and how you fit into it.

Also, continue training. I don't mean flight training. There are periodicals and programs geared toward understanding real IFR. Is there, for example, an IMC Club near you where they discuss scenarios usually taken from real events? IFR is more mental than physical and anything which keeps your head in the game is going to pay benefits.
 
One day you may be sitting the old folks home thinking maybe you were to conservative on your flying. The other option is you won't, because you were not.

I don't know what equipment you are flying, but my rule of thumb is to follow what the commercial operators do. Which is simply no single pilot IFR, however the second pilot can be an autopilot. Now that doesn't mean I won't file single pilot IFR, but for me it means if I am going to be in the clouds for anything more than a few minutes, or shooting low approach (essentially anything past the FAF), I want another pilot with me.

The old pilots used to fly in conditions you described frequently and 99% of the time it was fine, but it also means that about 1 in a 100 pilots that did that are not around to tell you it was fine. Short answer is don't mess around with icing in GA aircraft, especially as a single low time pilot. I think you demonstrated EXCELLENT decision making skills. I think you will find the real value of your instrument ticket is your increased understanding and confidence in operating in the airspace system, and the ability to fly VFR (even if you are on an IFR flight plan, or not) on days you otherwise would not fly, because you know you are current and competent to go IMC if things don't go the way you think they will. Then there will be those few days (quite rare around here) where you can punch through that layer (with no or minimal Icing potential) when the other VFR pilots are sitting in the FBO waiting for it clear up. There are a few areas of the country where this is a much more common occurrence.

Driving when you planned to fly always has that effect where you are looking at the weather saying I could have made it. In one memorable case of me doing that, 45 minutes later I was driving in a blinding blizzard.

Always better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there wishing you were down here.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
 
Thanks guys. I got back late last night and woke up to these responses and they really made me feel a lot better about everything.

I definitely think that @midlifeflyer and @mryan75 are right in that it's kind of a headgame. In one of my last flights before my checkride I went up with a CFII who is a former mil pilot. We decided to go to a different airport than normal and once we got airborne and in touch with ATC we started hearing a bunch of majors traffic that was coming in to KSTL during the evening rush. The instructor said something to the effect of we aren't getting Bravo clearance tonight and then ATC started vectoring us around. There was a really strong wind aloft and at one point ATC yelled at us for not flying our assigned heading and the CFII keyed the mic and told them that we had a 30 kt direct crosswind to the course they wanted us on and that we were in fact flying the heading they gave us. After being vectored around and being told to do a hold and some 360's they finally cleared us for the ILS we wanted to practice. On the climbout after the missed approach the first thing the CFII said was you forgot to run your descent checklist and your landing light was off the whole time. He said you were busy staying out of the way of jets but sometimes that's how it is for us and you have to keep your head in the game. So I'd planned to intercept the approach course from the north and we ended up coming in from the southwest, so we went from a heading of 060 to intercept a course of 260, basically. I wasn't expecting that intercept and during one of the holds I'd reconfigured my nav stack and then when I actually got clearance for my approach I was only a few miles from the FAF with none of my nav equipment configured. If you want to see where it actually was we were trying to run the ILS 26L at KSUS while KSTL had a bunch of jet traffic coming in from the west and KSUS had some air charter departures.

It was a great learning experience but it was kind of a confidence killer because had I NOT had the other pilot on board who really understood the IFR system, and later told me that he was starting to anticipate the vectors we were going to get based on where approach control was leading us, I would have gotten so behind the airplane I would have just had to ask to be routed away from the area so I could get set back up and then start the approach fresh.
 
You decided well, IMO.

Just a few weeks ago I was faced with exactly the same decision. My wife and I ended up spending a few quality hours in Kansas City waiting for the clouds over St. Louis to clear, otherwise I would have been in icing conditions. That’s one of the problems of winter time IFR.

It felt ridiculous. I have to admit that. I am a proficient and competent IFR rated pilot, yet I had to stay away from the clouds!?!? Haha.

A part of my brain wanted to jump in the plane and go fly it anyway. The stupid part. Obviously that did not happen. We stayed away from the ice, and waited several hours for an opportunity to arise which kept us out of it. We left Kc at 2:30 AM.

On the day that I was making this decision, the cloud tops were reported around 5000 feet with a ceiling of around 1500 feet. That would mean that I had 3500 feet thick cloud layer, with icing in the clouds, and we would likely pick up a good load on our descent. 3,500 foot thick clouds mean exposing yourself to them for 7minutes if you figure 500’/min of continuous descent.

The absolute last thing you want to be doing on an IFR approach is watching the wings and your windshield accumulate a layer of ice.

Maybe I would’ve only picked up a trace of ice? Maybe I could’ve gotten away with it? Maybe maybe maybe? But we chose the safe route. There’s plenty of IFR flying ahead of you when the weather warms up a little bit.

Believe it or not, Southern California (and less often Arizona) has the same problem. We have the winter days here where the temperature on the ground is around 50. That means that you’re freezing level is often times around 7000 feet. Exactly the altitude you’re likely to reach while being vectored, arriving from the East.

Always remember. It is far better to be on the ground wishing that you were in the air, than being in the air wishing you were on the ground.
 
As soon as I got my instrument rating, it was immediately clear to me that I was suddenly licensed to fly in all kinds of dangerous weather, and that it would be necessary for me to, in the words of a former PoA member, "choose wisely."
 
With 2000-3000 ft ceilings, did you consider that it might be good VFR?

or IFR altitudes below the clouds, for that matter?
 
Last edited:
MauleSkinner said:
With 2000-3000 ft ceilings, did you consider that it might be good VFR?

or IFR altitudes below the clouds, for that matter?
Click to expand...

I hadn't really, because that was what was predicted. METAR's all around me were showing 500 - 1000 ft ceilings yesterday morning and it was just predicted to lift as the day went on. It did a bit, but it was definitely higher up north than it was near Carbondale.
 
Palmpilot said:
As soon as I got my instrument rating, it was immediately clear to me that I was suddenly licensed to fly in all kinds of dangerous weather, and that it would be necessary for me to, in the words of a former PoA member, "choose wisely."
Click to expand...
A bud of mine, a well seasoned IFR pilot, told me when I got my IFR rating, “now you have a license to go out and really scare yourself.”
 
Good instincts. Don’t force it. Wait until good weather, file IFR in VMC for a while like you said. Hell do that solo, make mistakes when there aren’t any clouds around. You will, but that’s just fine, learn from them when the stakes are low. You’ll find most of the time ATC doesn’t care much if you’re on the wrong heading or altitude in VMC. They will tell you and you will correct. You’ll be your own worst critic. Better then, than in IMC and ice covering your wings. You will become confident with the IFR system, then you can add actual actual, and you won’t be drinking from a fire hose. It’s actually a bit harder to fly IFR in VMC because you’re adding a scan outside to maintain visual separation from traffic.
 
Last edited:
Thunderstorms and ice are IFR buzzkill in a light single. Better to err on the cautious side than be picking up a load of ice and wishing you had driven.
 
LoLPilot said:
I just got my IFR ticket back in December. I haven't flown since my checkride and so I was planning on heading about an hour southeast of me to visit a college buddy of mine - it's about a two hour drive. The weather today was IFR with ceilings overcast at 2000 - 3000 feet at estimated departure time and clearing off before night when I would have been coming back. I had a friend lined up to go with me who just got his CFII. This morning when I checked weather there was an Airmet for icing all across St. Louis and Southern Illinois. I texted my CFII friend and told him there was an ice warning active and did he want to cancel and he said sure, all his students had canceled that day anyway. The clouds were below where I'd planned to fly at but we would have had to descend through them and that's where the icing level was. I ended up driving down to see my friend and on the drive I saw a hole in the clouds. They weren't thick - maybe 500 feet? - and part of me thought we probably could have punched through them. During my checkride my DPE and I talked about ice for quite a while, and my CFII that I worked with told me never tangle with it in a GA airplane. I talked to another CFI once who told me that if you only fly when weather is ideal, you'll hardly ever fly. As I was driving I was kind of sulking and thinking about how in terms of my personal flights I think I have canceled more flights than I've taken. In my logbook, almost all of my flights have been training or to practice some maneuver. I've always been more conservative in my go/no go decision than a lot of guys I know, but the IFR ticket has put a sort of different spin on it in that I don't feel very confident in myself with it.

I know I can fly the airplane. After I got my PPL I wanted to fly more. I really didn't have much of an interest in taking passengers flying but I wanted to fly and I was confident in myself to fly acceptably. The IFR ticket is different and despite always picking up flight following whenever I'm flying solo (and being comfortable talking to ATC) I find I really don't feel comfortable with the idea of playing in their system with the big boys. I'm really worried about screwing up and racking up a violation by accident on my first actual IFR flight, to the point that I've asked one of my friends who is working on his commercial if we could file on a VFR day and have him ride along as a safety pilot and make sure I don't make a royal mess of it trying to do it for real. Am I crazy or is this normal?
Click to expand...

Rule to live by: If the question is "if....", the answer is "no."

Bob
 
LoLPilot said:
I just got my IFR ticket back in December. I haven't flown since my checkride and so I was planning on heading about an hour southeast of me to visit a college buddy of mine - it's about a two hour drive. The weather today was IFR with ceilings overcast at 2000 - 3000 feet at estimated departure time and clearing off before night when I would have been coming back. I had a friend lined up to go with me who just got his CFII. This morning when I checked weather there was an Airmet for icing all across St. Louis and Southern Illinois. I texted my CFII friend and told him there was an ice warning active and did he want to cancel and he said sure, all his students had canceled that day anyway. The clouds were below where I'd planned to fly at but we would have had to descend through them and that's where the icing level was. I ended up driving down to see my friend and on the drive I saw a hole in the clouds. They weren't thick - maybe 500 feet? - and part of me thought we probably could have punched through them. During my checkride my DPE and I talked about ice for quite a while, and my CFII that I worked with told me never tangle with it in a GA airplane. I talked to another CFI once who told me that if you only fly when weather is ideal, you'll hardly ever fly. As I was driving I was kind of sulking and thinking about how in terms of my personal flights I think I have canceled more flights than I've taken. In my logbook, almost all of my flights have been training or to practice some maneuver. I've always been more conservative in my go/no go decision than a lot of guys I know, but the IFR ticket has put a sort of different spin on it in that I don't feel very confident in myself with it.

I know I can fly the airplane. After I got my PPL I wanted to fly more. I really didn't have much of an interest in taking passengers flying but I wanted to fly and I was confident in myself to fly acceptably. The IFR ticket is different and despite always picking up flight following whenever I'm flying solo (and being comfortable talking to ATC) I find I really don't feel comfortable with the idea of playing in their system with the big boys. I'm really worried about screwing up and racking up a violation by accident on my first actual IFR flight, to the point that I've asked one of my friends who is working on his commercial if we could file on a VFR day and have him ride along as a safety pilot and make sure I don't make a royal mess of it trying to do it for real. Am I crazy or is this normal?
Click to expand...

What you are experiencing is 100% normal and a sign you are making good Aeronautical Decision Making.

I too am a relatively new IFR pilot. My plane has TKS de-icing, which is meant to clear light icing in an emergency. It’s not certified for flying into known icing conditions.

I just assume TKS will not work. It plays no role in my decisions. My personal minimums are to avoid any situation where icing could occur. In Southern California, that means flying in winter weather is a no go, since typical altitudes to my destination of Palm Springs typically are 11,000 feet or above. I just don’t fly.

My ticket is still super useful during the 3 months of the year that we have a low marine layer. These conditions used to strand me at home and on the road. Now, I punch through them...and am in IFR for maybe 2 minutes max. Still, I can go.

Staying current and proficient with IFR requires constant re-training. This can be done on a simulator, with an instructor, or with a safety pilot. But no one should think that having an IFR ticket means they are proficient. The skills go stale very quickly, much sooner than the FAA’s minimum requirements.

One final recommendation: Get an annual Instrument Proficiency Check from a CFII. At first, when insurance companies asked for this, I thought it was ridiculous. Now I see it’s not. So at least once a year, I prep for and take an IPC. This demonstrates I at least have the basic (not advanced) IFR skills to be reasonably safe.
 
LoLPilot said:
As I said above it was 500 - 1000 when I pulled weather, predicted to lift to 2000-3000 by my ETA.
Click to expand...
Good point. As my instructor for the private put it, "Forecasts are just GUESSES! Current reports are TRUTH!"
 
Palmpilot said:
Good point. As my instructor for the private put it, "Forecasts are just GUESSES! Current reports are TRUTH!"
Click to expand...

It ended up as I was driving that it was clearing up in St Louis but as I got down to C-dale there were thick gray clouds there. I’m not good at judging ceiling height from the ground but just from looking out the window I would not have left the pattern if I were just flying around Carbondale. When I drove past Benton airport on 57 they had their beacon lit up but all the hangars were shut.

That was the other part that concerned me was that the closest TAF was at KMVN. Other than that I was looking at the GFA and there was basically a line going through KMWA. To the east it was ceilings at 1000 and to the west it was ceilings at 3000. So I MIGHT have even been able to run my way down there underneath the clouds, but my first CFI for my private cautioned me against trying to hang out below a low ceiling on a cross country until after I had the IR in my pocket.
 
LoLPilot said:
When I drove past Benton airport on 57 they had their beacon lit up but all the hangars were shut.
Click to expand...
I was taught that if an airport beacon is lighted during the day, it normally indicates that the weather is below basic VFR (1000 & 3).
 
Palmpilot said:
I was taught that if an airport beacon is lighted during the day, it normally indicates that the weather is below basic VFR (1000 & 3).
Click to expand...

Depends on the operating practices of the airport itself. Most of the time it means just that. However, there is no regulatory requirement for the airport to follow with regard to beacon operation and weather conditions. It may mean the conditions are less than 1000 & 3 or it may just mean they forgot to turn it off or the photocell controlling it has failed.
 
LoLPilot said:
I just got my IFR ticket back in December. I haven't flown since my checkride and so I was planning on heading about an hour southeast of me to visit a college buddy of mine - it's about a two hour drive. The weather today was IFR with ceilings overcast at 2000 - 3000 feet at estimated departure time and clearing off before night when I would have been coming back. I had a friend lined up to go with me who just got his CFII. This morning when I checked weather there was an Airmet for icing all across St. Louis and Southern Illinois. I texted my CFII friend and told him there was an ice warning active and did he want to cancel and he said sure, all his students had canceled that day anyway. The clouds were below where I'd planned to fly at but we would have had to descend through them and that's where the icing level was. I ended up driving down to see my friend and on the drive I saw a hole in the clouds. They weren't thick - maybe 500 feet? - and part of me thought we probably could have punched through them. During my checkride my DPE and I talked about ice for quite a while, and my CFII that I worked with told me never tangle with it in a GA airplane. I talked to another CFI once who told me that if you only fly when weather is ideal, you'll hardly ever fly. As I was driving I was kind of sulking and thinking about how in terms of my personal flights I think I have canceled more flights than I've taken. In my logbook, almost all of my flights have been training or to practice some maneuver. I've always been more conservative in my go/no go decision than a lot of guys I know, but the IFR ticket has put a sort of different spin on it in that I don't feel very confident in myself with it.

I know I can fly the airplane. After I got my PPL I wanted to fly more. I really didn't have much of an interest in taking passengers flying but I wanted to fly and I was confident in myself to fly acceptably. The IFR ticket is different and despite always picking up flight following whenever I'm flying solo (and being comfortable talking to ATC) I find I really don't feel comfortable with the idea of playing in their system with the big boys. I'm really worried about screwing up and racking up a violation by accident on my first actual IFR flight, to the point that I've asked one of my friends who is working on his commercial if we could file on a VFR day and have him ride along as a safety pilot and make sure I don't make a royal mess of it trying to do it for real. Am I crazy or is this normal?
Click to expand...
So what you have to do is learn about ice. It's unfortunate in the U.S. that they talk about icing as if it's all the same (just like teaching that cannabis and heroin are both equally-dangerous drugs); in Canada, many pilots are more pragmatic about ice, and make distinctions based on the icing type and conditions. Here are my personal rules for flying in a piston single without FIKI:

1. SLD with potential of clear or mixed icing, no-fly (exception: overflying a short stretch of lake-effect snow in a high-pressure system with clear conditions on both ends, since lake-effect generally tops out at 7,000-8,000 ft and has blue skies above, and doesn't move like a weather system does).

2. Thin layer of stato-cumulus (< 2,000 ft thick with good VFR below) with potential of light/trace rime icing inside and clear air above/below, go ahead and fly. You'll punch through that in a few minutes, and maybe pick up a tiny trace of rime on your wings and OAT probe, which will sublimate off once you're on top.

3. Multiple layers of strato-cumulus with rime icing, study the situation carefully, and if you go, and be ready to divert at the first sign of rime in level cruise if you can't find a cruising altitude outside of clouds.

4. Regardless of all the above, if you see any clear or mixed icing appearing on your OAT probe or wing tips—even just the tiniest drop—divert immediately to get out of the conditions. Don't go into cloud or precip near or below freezing unless you have an easy out planned.

I'd skip #3 and my lake-effect exception to #1 until you have more experience, but if you decide to go ahead and punch through that 500 ft layer of strato-cumulus, it's not the same as going up in SLD conditions, or sandwiching yourself between multiple layers. Just have a usable out, and be ready to pull the trigger on it.
 
Last edited:
smv said:
Depends on the operating practices of the airport itself. Most of the time it means just that. However, there is no regulatory requirement for the airport to follow with regard to beacon operation and weather conditions. It may mean the conditions are less than 1000 & 3 or it may just mean they forgot to turn it off or the photocell controlling it has failed.
Click to expand...
Yes, I was also taught about those exceptions. That's why I said "normally."
 
Palmpilot said:
I was taught that if an airport beacon is lighted during the day, it normally indicates that the weather is below basic VFR (1000 & 3).
Click to expand...

Most untowered airports the beacon is controlled by a regular photocell and is triggered by darkness. Not near scientific enough to differentiate between VFR/MVFR/IFR conditions.
 
James331 said:
IFR with 2-3k cig?
Click to expand...

I've always found 1-2k ceilings the hard one to make the decision for cross countries in winter when ice may be present. It's legally VFR and you could run under, but if it drops unexpectedly you could wind up in a bind, plus there are plenty of towers around the world that are 2,000 feet tall. If you go IFR and climb into it, the tops may be too high to get above, yet the ceilings are below MVA/MEA/MOCA to get a descent out of without shooting an approach.

I'd almost prefer hard IFR weather, or decent VFR. Makes the go/no-go so much easier.
 
midwestpa24 said:
I've always found 1-2k ceilings the hard one to make the decision for cross countries in winter when ice may be present. It's legally VFR and you could run under, but if it drops unexpectedly you could wind up in a bind, plus there are plenty of towers around the world that are 2,000 feet tall. If you go IFR and climb into it, the tops may be too high to get above, yet the ceilings are below MVA/MEA/MOCA to get a descent out of without shooting an approach.

I'd almost prefer hard IFR weather, or decent VFR. Makes the go/no-go so much easier.
Click to expand...
I need a pretty good/stable/widespread/non-frontal forecast of cloud tops before I'll punch through a thin stratocumulus layer between 2c and -15c to cruise in the clear air above. Multiple layers (unless the bottom of next one's very high, like >12,000 ft) are no good, because the gap between them could close up and leave you with no out.
 
I think what you're feeling is normal, however, it's not going to get any better if you don't do it. Now that I've said that, don't mess with ice. I think you made the right decision to cancel your flight but when the weather get so you can fly in the soup without ice, just go do it. You're instructor knows you can, your DPE knows you can. The only person questioning it is you. My first IFR trip after I got my ticket was mixed IMC/VMC and I filed through Minneapolis class B. When I got there they routed me over downtown and MSP airport for a tour of the city. It was great. Don't worry so much about getting a deviation just do what your told. They don't want the paperwork any more than you do. And if you need more time, tell them. They will help. Good luck!!!
 
Freezing levels, cloud tops, pireps, Airmets, MEAs, and many other factors play a part in the go no go decision. The more you know, the better chance you won't cancel a in uncertainty. Yesterday I flew through clouds at 5,000ft and 6,000 in an area that had an airmet for icing from 4k up. It was 3-5c both ways and I didn't even get a trace of ice. I made this decision to go via computing all the info from tons of sources in my head and I had a plan if things didn't go the way I expected. There is nothing wrong with cancelling a flight for ice. Even if you are wrong and you could have done it, it is better safe than Popsicle. Just try to learn from it. Check pireps and weather as it happens. Even if you don't fly you'll learn from it.
 
A good way to learn about clouds below freezing is to experiment in innocuous conditions. Let's say the freezing level is 4,000 ft (over flattish terrain), and there's a layer of strato-cumulus between 6,000 and 8,000 ft, with no other cloud below or above. Perfect! Get a clearance to climb up through the SC layer to a cruise altitude above and see what happens. Probably, you'll see a tiny touch of frost (rime ice) on your OAT probe and nothing else. If you don't like what's happening, just get a clearance to descend back down below.

If you experiment like this gradually, you'll develop both knowledge and wisdom about icing without putting yourself at elevated risk. The wrong time to learn about ice is when you're on an important trip, in borderline conditions, with a lot of pressure on you. Always have an easy out. It's never OK to be in cloud between 2c and -20c without a usable out (that applies even if you're in a twin with boots).
 
LoLPilot said:
It was a great learning experience but it was kind of a confidence killer because had I NOT had the other pilot on board who really understood the IFR system, and later told me that he was starting to anticipate the vectors we were going to get based on where approach control was leading us, I would have gotten so behind the airplane I would have just had to ask to be routed away from the area so I could get set back up and then start the approach fresh.
Click to expand...

This is actually a choice you'll have to make once in awhile. It could related to trouble programming an approach, not having good speed control, funky crosswinds, or whatever. Not every single approach or approach vector will result in a perfect continuation of the approach. The "I've got to land" mentality (instead of a go-around) that has gotten some pilots into trouble can apply to the approach too, "I've got to continue this approach" (instead of getting vectored a second time or instead of going missed). I remember one time as a limited experience IFR pilot I was taking some friends with me on a near three-hour cross-country in an airplane I was not overly experienced in, a Cardinal RG. Destination was IFR and I had to shoot an approach. A back-course. Oh lovely. A minute or two after getting the final vector I realized (as did ATC) that I wasn't doing a great job tracking inbound on the BC. So, let's try this again. Second time was great.

Get out there and fly some simple IFR (in the soup, without ice) and keep / build your confidence. Yes, instrument skills do diminish unless you use them. Good luck.
 
Thanks guys. I went up with one of my buddies a few nights ago (under the hood, actual conditions here were CAVU at the time), but we flew a back course and an ILS. The back course was pretty nice. I felt okay with that one. Our ILS receiver failed and I finally figured it out when I crossed the OM at 2500 AGL and it's reading on glideslope. Oops. I could tell that some rust had built up so while I'm still in school I think I'm going to just try and network around my flight school to find instrument students who want to split time so that I can get a few approaches in each month to stay somewhat current.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top