Any Top Tips for IMC Training?

[In Altissimus]

Next week I'm starting on the IMC. I'm doing it with an instructor I know and trust, and using my syndicate plane.

Any top tips to make the training go well?

[drauk]

Move heaven and earth to do at least some of the training in real IMC conditions. Shouldn't be too hard at this time of year in the UK. I would not want the first time I encountered real IMC to be without an instructor. There are some other good threads about "doing the IMC" but the most important message (with which I agree) is that it all seems a bit much at first but gets easier pretty quickly.

[FlyingForFun]

Alty,

My one top tip is plan ahead.

When you're about to fly an approach, don't just look at the approach plate and understand it, but actually go through the way you're going to fly the approach, in your head, before you get anywhere near the aircraft. Where are you going to do your FREDA checks? Your approach checks? Where do you put flaps down, where do you reduce power?

The same applies in flight, especially when flying an approach. As you begin each leg of the approach, review the next couple of legs. For example: "Ok, I'm outbound in the hold, stopwatch is going. The turn inbound will be to a heading of XXX degree, to track the YYY QDM to the beacon. At the beacon, I'll have my flaps down, and then I'll fly the outbound leg of the approach, which will require a right turn to heading ZZZ."

If you can master that, you should find that everything else falls into place. Well, it worked for me anyway. Good luck!

FFF
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[Evo]

RANT, RANT, RANT :)

apart from that, fly often and fly in real IMC - and don't be depressed when it is bl**dy awful at first :)

[WorkingHard]

Ask your instructor how much "real" IMC work he does rather than just teaching someone "under the hood". It is, in my view, a fair question and one I encourage people to ask. This is in no way a reflection on the vast majority of excellent instructors but when the chips are down you need someone sitting there who is current.

[KCDW]

Microsoft Flight Simulator does the job too. Its perfect for ingraining the instrument scan and partial panel work into your psyche, so that it's second nature when doing it for real. Also very useful for practicing ILSs at no cost. I'm absolutely certain that it kept me to the minimum 15 hours.

Get all your radios and Navaids tuned on the ground.

Enhance your flight log to include to-do actions at waypoints.

[GT]

Hi,

The following might sound a bit daft and is only my personal opinion, but I find it works extremely well. With regard to instrument flight, keep your head facing the attitude indicator! Never turn away from it, or at least keep that to a minimum. How do you look at other things (which you need to do, of course) I hear you reasonably ask. Well, try to do it by moving your eyes only, not your whole head. Not always possible, I grant you, and somewhat depends on cockpit layout.

You see, when you start moving your head two things can happen. Firstly, you apply an unintentional control coulmn input as a result of having moved and you are now displacing the aeroplane from the desired attitude. Secondly, because you have turned away from the attitude indicator you don't notice it! Workload is then increased having to make a correction that should never have been needed in the first place. You end up always fighting the aeroplane. That's my tip. Subtle, but important (I believe). Best of luck with it.

Regards, GT.

[RodgerF]

Alty,

Another thing that might help build your confidence in the early days is to draw the main features of the approach from memory. It can help visualising the appch.

(E.G. Hold altitude, Outbound track, platform altitude, inbound track, FAF distance and altitude, DA/MDA, std MAP).

Totally agree about flying in real IMC, you must get your instructor to fly on days when the weather is poor. Flying an offset NDB approach in good VMC makes it seem a bit easy, since you always see the runway. Try it close to the IMC minima and all of a sudden things are different. I try to have students fly approaches where getting in is touch and go (scattered cloud 50-100' below MDA). The realisation that getting in is not certain is an important lesson to learn.

[Justiciar]

I quite agree with the comment about Flight Sim. There are expensive IFR traing packages but the main thing is to get your head around which way the gauges go, especially the ADF.

I set the cloud cover at 1500 feet and save a standard set of flights to start at a given point noth south etc of the airfield at a given height. I then fly the whole thing in virtual IMC. It is very pleasing when the runway emerges out of the clag exactly where it should be. Setting variable winds is also a good way of learning to interpret what the gages are telling you. Not bad for £40 or so. Provided you don't regard it as a substitute for real flying then it can only help.

Trevor Thom's book is quite good. Start early and read and re-read it. Get hold of the IMC Confuser and if need be the similar question book by Jeremy Pratt.

Good luck.:ok:

[Evo]

I don't think much of Thom's book 5, although there isn't much else. I picked up a copy of Jepp's Instrument/Commercial Manual for $30 in the states, far better (but obviously aimed at flying in the USA) but you'll still need Thom for the exam. Confuser is good, as ever, but I found it much harder than the real exam with some b@stard trick questions.

[IO540]

In Altissimus

Good replies above. I might add: make sure you know what you will be doing before you fly. My IMCR instructor used to take me up, get me doing some NDB holds etc and never explained what or why. Sounds pretty weird now... It was only when I went with an instructor who flew a turboprop around Europe for a living that I made progress.

I would also spend more time VMC on top initially, to build situational awareness. SA is in my view more important to learn first, before instrument scan, doing the radio etc.

Otherwise, to go IMC right away and be doing NDB holds makes it really hard and totally exhausting. Once you've got some SA, the procedures are much easier and you don't need silly rules of thumb like "push the head, drag the tail" when NDB tracking, the plastic aids for VOR tracking, etc. Being VMC on top means you don't need to wear foggles but you can't cheat because you can't see the ground :O

Don't try to do it in the 15 hrs min - you won't, not if you want to learn it properly.

[KCDW]

Just a thought about MFS. The latest version (2004), may have more realistic looking clouds, but for some reason, it doesn't represent an overcast very well - very often you can see through it. The inperfect solution is to set visibility to 1 mile or so. The previous version (2002) does a much better job of IMC.

[bcfc]

I found my cockpit management was much more of an issue when doing the IMC. The need to have my plog and plate available meant I was doing a lot of rearrangements with the kneeboard just when I needed to concentrate on flying accurate height and heading.

The yoke mounted chart holders (or the aliminium clip boards if you've a spare £60) solved this and essentially have me an extra hand. They're dead cheap & certainly helped me.

Also, get the plates off the AIS site (http://www.ais.org.uk/aes/pubs/aip/html/aipad2.htm) , print them out and laminate them.

Lastly, can only echo the posts regarding real IMC flying - there's no substitute.

[tmmorris]

Even when you've got the IMC rating, use MSFS or similar to keep up to date on procedures. E.g. when I go to an unfamiliar airfield I try the procedure on FS first, so I can visualise which way the needles go.

The book VOR, ADF and RMI is good on ADF - helped me work out which way the ADF goes.

Tim

[DRJAD]

Really, just Think, and keep Thinking.

I.e. Think about what you are going to expect in the next lesson/IMC practice, before you get there. (Its good advice for PPL, and even more important for IMC, I believe.) Think about what attitudes to fly, particularly descent rates for approaches; about what the Navaids are going to be telling you; about what they would tell you if you were off track; in other words use your thinking time to anticipate.

Systematize your thinking about partial/limited panel flying, and recovery from unusual attitudes. This needs to be second-nature.

Use RANT or similar: I've have not used MSFS, but find RANT invaluable.

Get the ground examination sorted: i.e. accurate flight planning, etc..

Have your FREDA checks absolutely second-nature, and remember to keep a fuel log, and to change tanks (if necessary) at regular, monitored intervals.

Aim to enjoy the enhancement in flying skills that the course gives you.

Best of luck!

[140cherokee]

Check the rudder trim! In VMC, you probably subconciously correct using the wings and may be unaware that the trim is out. Under IMC, you're keeping the wings level using the AI and won't keep steady track if the rudder is out of trim.

Other top tip: when everything is trimmed-out, let go and relax!

[englishal]

A few handy tips :D

1) Cockpit management is VERY important, get everything you need handy before you go
2) Go through the whole flight in your head before you go, setup as much of the Nav / Com stuff before you leave the ground
3) Trust your instruments implicitly
4) DONT fixate on one instrument, ie the AI, that will kill you
5) Become totally proficient at partial panel stuff. Then the rest is easier.

Understaning the concepts of instrument flight before you start the course will no doubt save you some money and make life easier for you. As IO540 says, don't try and do it in 15 hrs, use a few more, get your confidence up (though don't get over confident, that'll kill you too :D) and use the IMCR once you have it!

Good luck
EA

[Evo]

Trust your instruments implicitly


I know what you mean, but also never trust an individual instrument - cross-check, does it agree with what the others are saying?

[Sleeve Wing]

A lot of good stuff already.
My advice is don't start practising approaches too early.
Make sure your basic i/f technique is sound and , even more so than when flying contact, trim all the loads off so that the aircraft is flying without any extra control pressure from you.

There are a number of other suggestions one could make but the most important is to fly Attitude - know the attitudes and power settings your aircraft requires for all stages of flight eg. S & L, Cruise Climb, intermediate descent, final approach etc. Basically this means your aircraft will continue to do what you want it to do when you are getting tired, are distracted or suffer any similar reduction in concentration.

And once again, get plenty of practice in real IMC.

Good Luck. You'll never regret it.

Sleeve.:ok:

[Polly Gnome]

GT, your idea is not daft at all.

One of my IMC instructors who is very, very, very experienced said the same thing. Keep your head still and move your eyes as you are less likely to get disorientated. (This is easier to do in real IMC as a hood restricts your vision.)

[In Altissimus]

What a lot of useful advice!

I'll let you know how it goes - here's hoping for bad weather;)

[Evo]

here's hoping for bad weather
:)
My first IMC lesson was on the kind of calm, gin-clear cloud-free day that comes only a handful of times a year - felt a bit of a pillock up there wearing foggles... :rolleyes: :O :cool: