GB403
Pre-Flight
American Flyers at SMO advertise the VIP Program where you train for your PPL and Instrument rating simultaneously. Does anyone have experience with this program and/or a similar program at another flight school?
American flyers trying to cram as much as they can in at SMO before they get evicted? I think they have been served 30 days notice and are stuck in the SMO closure saga.
Mine was a combined private/instrument course. Doable but can't recommend it. Primarily because you must know all the private and instrument knowledge for the oral and also need to maintain private PTS standards while learning and practicing instrument flying (which requires more time and more $$ to stay proficient). I realized the impact of the combined test requirements about 3/4 thru the course.
The combined oral was about 5 hours. The practical was 3.3 on the Hobbes. Along with log book reviews, flight plan reviews, preflight, it was two full days with some delay days in between due to weather and equipment problems.
I wanted the instrument rating and had the same thought - that is how the military trains their pilots. May be a similar concept but...not the same.
It eventually worked out ok but, if I could do it over again, i would get the private and then instrument. Keep it simple. In hindsight, there is also a lot of valuable experience in those 50 hours of cross country/PIC time required for IFR, which are not required for a combined course.
Of course, this is one person's story. YMMV.