Hello again!!
Hi everyone, it's been months since I posted on here, and I'm pleased to see the Mazzy thread is still going strong. Firstly Lee, I'm so sorry to hear of your fathers passing - it's something we all have to face at some time, and I know what you are going through.
I hope you get your flying activities up and running again soon. I too have not spent too much time in the air since achieving ppl, averaging only about an hour a month, simply following my Garmin 296 around the Midlands. As such, I was falling into the trap of just flying to stay current, which is easy to do, so decided I needed to do something to get motivated again. Hence I've embarked on the IMC course, again out of East Midlands.
Guy's, I can thoroughly recommend the IMC course, it's absolutely fantastic!
I've had just three hours to date, flying on instruments alone and navigating by way of VOR's/DME, The best bit so far? Two full ILS approaches into East Mids in rain and poor light/viz. What an experience, I felt like a Boeing pilot!! I was allowed to look up, only at decision height. It took a few seconds for my eyes to settle to the outside world again.
I have found that the many hours I've spent on FS2004 doing blind approaches in virtually zero viz has given a tremendous grounding and understanding to instrument flying.
I have found it really sharpens up your flying - you HAVE to maintain steady height and direction, though with constant scanning, it's actually easier than when flying VFR. The first 30 seconds after entering cloud is quite strange, almost claustrophobic, and it is of course 100% essential you believe your instruments, no matter what your body senses are telling you. To date, I've had no attack of the leans, though it's probably only a matter of time!!
I can thoroughly recommend this course - it's exhilerating and great fun, but I do find at my age, I'm pretty tired after an hour of staring at instruments alone.
I was due up today for my third lesson, but my instructor was off with family problem, but I'm up again next week, so I'll update you. He reckons I should be ready at the minimum 15 hour stage - hope so, to keep the costs down.
Once again, I cannot recommend the IMC course enough - It's worth having a go!!