GTW wrote:
... it wasn't until I started instrument training that I began to learn at what heights aircraft would be at what range on the instrument approach,....
Should PPL (and microlight and glider ect ect) training include teaching people "if you're x DME from the threshold don't cross the instrument approach between y00' and z00'"? - I'm sure it doesn't for most people at present, certainly I was never taught that.
You are absolutely right.
I think there are many barriers to understanding in aviation, many created by ourselves.
I have always been keen on microlight pilots having a flight in light aircraft, and vice versa. And then we have balloonists. And then gliders.
If we actually have a flight, then we can understand more those aviatior's blind spots - literally and metaphorically!
I now add Instrument Approaches to that. I should have added it earlier, since when I flew at Cumbernauld, I remember someone simulating IMC and flying "the procedure" for a VFR letdown - or some such phrase, but it is not a proper full IFR thingy - and I had no idea where in the sky they were meant to be and so where to look for them. And had no idea of which bit of the sky they were heading for next!
Not the same as being in the circuit!
Perhaps instead of doing One Hour every two years in one's own type of aircraft, we should be doing an hour in a different type of aircraft?
Very best,
XA