Originally Posted by
Aussie Bob
The question is, can a competent and current NVFR pilot climb to LSALT on instruments within a 3 NM radius of the departure airport?
You
have to orbit within 3nm around the aerodrome to get to LSALT(either grid or calculated), and remain above until 3nm of destination aerodrome.
All night departures are done using instruments, but the pilot has to remain in VMC at all times, therefore IF time is not logged.
Night rating is good to have for reasons mentioned above. In my opinion, 2-3 hours of Night flying during Instrument rating training (CIR/PIFR) is not sufficient to conduct night flying. Freshly minted IFR pilots without extensive night training will confirm that.
Interestingly, the engine splutters, aircraft crashes without fuel burn (nor explosion), yet illusions associated with Instrument conditions are to blame?