Originally Posted by
Robbiee
Spent thirty hours under the hood in a 44. It had all the basics, HSI, AI, TC, VOR, and a Garmin 430. We had two if them, but that was about fifteen years ago. Nowadays, the newer Cadets have a pretty nice glass setup...if your into playing the most boring video game eever made?
Flown a couple similarly equiped 22's, but I wouldn't want to try one while under the hood,...too shaky for my stomach.
Yeah, I did my IFR/CFII ratings in a R22 instrument trainer. ( N22HF ). Several problems with this... The large panel made for a very forward CG. I did a pedal turn once, and ran out of aft stick in probably a 10 knot tailwind.
The other New England school with one typically used their Japanese instructors as their CFII because those guys were lightweight. For me, I couldn't fly with much less than 8 gallons of fuel, or I'd be out the front CG, and not much more that 15 or I'd be over gross. So, we'd fill it to 15, fly an hour, and need to refuel. Just enough fuel for one approach!
The other problem with the R22 instrument trainer was it was so lightweight, it could be difficult to fly a precise altitude under the hood in the summer, as flying over a parking lot would inevitably put you in a rising column of air with subsequent gains in altitude.
Finally, the things were so heavy that they were slow, meaning flying an approach was a prolonged affair ( it would only do about 85 knots in level flight ).
The R44, on the other hand, makes a great instrument trainer, having lots of weight capability and the blistering speed of a Cessna 172, meaning you can actually go someplace to fly approaches, without having to arrange for overnight accommodations.
As someone mentioned already, in the US you can file and fly IFR in a VFR only aircraft ( if you are appropriately rated ), you just can't go IMC. Most days that's not a problem, but can occasionally confuse ATC when you have to tell them "unable", if they give you a clearance that would take you into the clouds. 90% of the time after you patiently explain this to them, they tell you to cancel IFR and please go annoy some other facility.
