IR useful reading recommendations and tips

[Crosswind Limits]

Hi,

I am due to start my JAA multi IR in the very near future and was wondering whether there was any useful reading material that is worth going out and buying. To be honest I'm a bit daunted by the whole instrument rating so any ideas or tips would be appreciated.

Cheers.

[easondown]

crosswind,

The IR is a stressfull piece of training. I think if you take a bit of time before each flight or sim session mentally preparing what you will be doing and when you will be doing it will help - it got me through it several years ago. Also know your checklists well.

[QNH 1013]

Crosswind,

You seem to have the right approach because you are thinking about the IR before you have started spending the money.

First thing is to get the standards document from the nice people at the CAA. Believe it or not it is available free-of-charge from Flight Crew Licensing. (Or it was 18 months ago when I did my IR training) . The document has an easily remembered catchy title:
"Standards Document 1 Version 2 - Notes for the guidance of applicants taking the initial instrument rating flight test (Aeroplanes)." This tells you everything you want to know about the test and what will and won't fail you.

Next thing, while you are waiting for the postman to deliver the above (unless its now on their internet site), is to ring up your selected training establishment and get the CAA approved checklist for the aircraft you will be using faxed over to you. Read it all, but learn absolutely perfectly all the checks that have to be performed from memory. These will start with the after take-off items. Spend as long as you like learning these, you're not spendiing five quid per minute at this stage, but get them burned firmly into your brain so you can rattle them off at any time, in any circumstances, with any distractions.

Another tip, if a list seems to have too many items to memorise, group them into threes and learn them as groups of three. E.g. for after t/o:

BUF: Brakes (stop wheels spinning)
Undercarriage
Flaps

PTL: Power (set climb power)
T (Ts & Ps)
L (Landing light off)

You don't want to be doing anything at five quid per minute in the aircraft that you can learn on the ground.

As soon as I completed the training and got the pass, I wrote myself a complete set of notes to remind me of everything to remember / not get wrong, from the planning to the landing. Studying this before the renewal made the renewal a breeze.
I keep adding to it and after the renewal its now reached over a dozen pages. It also acts as a reference so I don't start letting my standards slip.

Another thing you can do for free before starting the flying is to revise your Aerad / Jepp approach plates and en-route charts. You really have to be up-to-speed on the route planning and be able to do it accurately under (time) pressure.

Finally, Good Luck !

[Stan Evil]

Stds Doc 1 is available for download at
http://www.caa.co.uk/srg/licensing/fcl/document.asp?groupid=190

You could also have a look at RANT on www.oddsoft.co.uk it's a useful bit of kit to teach you the fundamentals of radio aids navigation.

[18greens]

All good advice. One additional one is buy RANT.

Brilliant piece of software for instrument flying because it simulates ADF dip. Nope i'd never heard of dip before the IR but it is all the CAA seems to want you to learn. I bought it half way through and it probably cost me 3-4 hours wasted flying not having it at the start.

One thing I wish could be done differently is the Simulator/aircraft split. You get quite good in the SIM towards the end and a bit overconfident to fill in the hours which is when you should go to the ac and keep a few hours in hand on the sim for revising items you are having problems in the air with. The JAR IR does not allow you to mix and match (or my school didn't). I found the sim instructors were good for basic IF when everything goes well but real flying does not go perfectly. In the sim all of the radio call come when you have nothing to do (established in the climb, in level flight, after beacon outbound) . In the aircraft radio calls only ever come at the top of climbs in the transition to level flight(instant 300' level bust), as you go over the beacon and intitiate a turn (300' level bust) and when you are lining up for the final approach (Missed approach instructions...300' level bust)not very good at simulating real flight.

Anyway the facts are: everyone gets there in the end, no-one is a natural, it is incredibly unbelievably hard and equally rewarding. When you get totally downhearted (everyone does) have a couple of days off and carry on. The feeling you get when you pass is the best in the world.

Also remember when you pass you will be holding the most difficult and revered flying qualification in the world. (If there is a harder one I'd like to know). Good Luck

[Dutchie]

Can not agree more buy RANT lock yourselves up in a room with a PC for a week and it will save you thousands!! If you can fly RANT than start flying for real as it means you know the theory. Good luck

[Polar_stereographic]

In additional to what's been said, go out and get a proper yoke (NOT joystick) and some software to get your scan up to speed.

I used X-Plane. Once set up, you can do all the procedures at a cost to you of - nothing.

If you have a big budget, Elite's the thing, but I did not find it worth the extra I paid for X-plane. Talk to the man at RCSumulations.com (I think) for how to get this sorted for you.

PS

[BillyFish2]

Hi Dutchie,

I've looked at the RANT s/w before and am seriously thinking about to buying it - one question for you though: could a novice get up to some degree of proficiency with this program? When I say novice, have PPL and a lot of un-educated FS2000 instrument approaches (always VOR+DME and ILS) which have usually worked out pretty well. Spent many an hour 'studying' this.

I checked out the RANT demo version and was not totally convinced it could help/advise me if I got completely stuck. Looks pretty comprehensive though.
Thanks

[Polar_stereographic]

BillyFish2

For me the problem with the RANT was that there was no flying in terms of doing the procedures whilst scanning and flying.

It's great to get the picture and does do the dip, but with the exception of dip, I found I could do the same things with X-plane and engaging the autopilot and flying the heading bug.

PS

[BillyFish2]

Cheers PS - I'll go have a look a X-plane too.

[18greens]

P-S is right, RANT looks crap (a bit DOS like) and you can't use a joystick with it and scanning cannot be covered in it but as I said before half the IR is flying one hold perfectly with a wholly inadequate instrument, namely the ADF. All I used RANT for is flying holds and getting procedures sorted in my head.

For scanning I find FS2002 with a joystick wholly acceptable. Set the cloudbase at 200' put a decent wind in and away you go. Free approaches at any airport you like.

I got my money back on RANT at least 20 times over in terms of saved flights. Buy RANT Buy RANT buy RANT.

[Dutchie]

There are three phases to IR flying:

1) a proper scan
2) understanding the procedures (ie reading the approaches and departures and translate it to how it looks on the map)
3) situational awareness.

These three are on top of real flying for which you have to use the aircraft.

I have to agree that no1 is best done by using FS2002 and a book / instructor explaining all.

For No 2 and 3 Rant is very useful as it concentrates on only that. No need for a joystick as it is not flying you are trying to learn just aspects. The best part is to do a lot of training on phase 2. Only when you that works ok start removing the sircraft from the map and start new exercises. The figuring out of: Where am I, what is the request and how do I get there is the most difficult.

Once you have mastered those three go to a proper instructor and bring phase one to three together with the most exiting and expensive one: IR flying!

[BillyFish2]

Cheers Dutchie - sounds like you speak from experience. I'm sold.

[MJR]

There's a lot of good comments been made here, just for reference I have Jeppersen Flite Pro + Yoke + Rudders. The software is good for:

1.Scan
2.Procedures
3.Routes(Entire flight is recorded in horizontal and vertical navigatio)
4.ILS

and is bad for:

1.ADF tracking (no dip)
2.Weather generation is useless
3.No twin models
4.Rudder inputs are unrealistic
5.Expensive

I would be interested in any comments on MS Flight sim Proffesional?

If you do your an IR in a Seneca, good luck, remember its all about attitude both yours and what you see on the AI.

Happy scanning

[Nevergo]

Lots of good gen there. Interesting idea to have a discussion about the various flight sims - I guess it happens all the time at alt.microsoft.fs2002.comparison but not often here.

As an added benefit of RANT you may be lucky enough to be doing your initial IR with none other than CAAFU's "chopper" Oddy. Yes, he of oddsoft fame ( correct me if I'm wrong ) and the creator of RANT - if it's good enough for him, I reckon it should help us.

Good luck, I'm up for renewal shortly so the old terror is slowly returning.

Nevergo

[niallcooney]

Have to say the flight and cockpit/instrument model in FS2002 is stunning... EVERYTHING is taken into account, especially that annoying HSI drift... try sweating your way down a 0/0 ILS approach in a crosswind at night in turbulence... you're so tense by touchdown you'd swear it was the real thing. Upgrading is a good idea.

[somewhatconcerned]

Now I know why Rant is so over priced and recomended by the CAA

[BillyFish2]

Having spent the last few days (well about 8 hours actually) with my new copy of RANT I am well impressed. It is excellent. In that few hours it has already unknotted, un-muddyed, explained and clarified more stuff about radio navigation than a month of reading old PPL notes, surfing the net for a half way decent explanations or messing around with FS2000 could ever do.

I don't think the demo does it justice at all. The makers should try putting a 10 day time-out on a full version of it for demo purposes or something.
Anyway best £90 I've spent this year. No competition.

[Liquid Lunch]

BillyFish2

I was going to say - GET RANT - but now you have it !!

Go through the practice menu and do the ADF one many, many times. Then to really get you in the mood set the ADF practice menu to random so you get the randomly generated bearings to steer and really have to start scratching your head on what entry to do into the hold :eek: :D

Good luck,

LL

[BillyFish2]

Thanks LL - I'll give it loads.