Whiskey Kilo Wanderer wrote:
As you are probably aware, there are two aspects to instrument flying. The first is controlling the aircraft by sole reference to the instruments. This includes identifying instrument failures and flying on 'partial panel'.
The second or applied part of the training involves the navigational aspect of instrument flying. This includes navigation by VOR, NDB, GPS and ILS etc.
How very true. But often people are far too keen to rush in to the applied part before their basic IF is satisfactory. I learned IF on Chipmunks and later Jet Provosts; however, the emphasis was on instrument
flying rather than (in the Jet Provost) using the Eureka DME system for navigation in IMC. Although we did do a few 'radio navigation' trips, relying on Eureka and UHF/DF!
In the latest edition of one of the more popular flying magazines, there's a caption stating incredulously
'they taught 'blind flying' on those instruments!' Yes, after about 10 hours IF in the back of a Chipmunk, I had to fly 2 SRAs on my IRT - one was a full panel ACR7 approach into RAF Andover and the other was a limited panel (no Artificial Horizon, my Examiner toppled that!) SRA into somewhere else (can't recall). Yet elsewhere in the same magazine there were pictures of some poor little light tourer with more screens than a Dixons' showroom, rather giving the impression that IMC rating flying is all about radio / GPS navigation. It isn't!
The emphasis at IMC level should be on proficient IF and the 'applied' phase only comes after a pilot can fly accurately by sole reference to instruments. When I taught IF, the students were often quite surprised at how inaccurate their basic IF was; this has become worse now that there is no minimum IF time in the JAR-FCL PPL syllabus. Some basic radio navigation (VOR, NDB and VOR/DME fixing)
is taught, but for the NPPL at least there is an hour of IF awareness included in the course.
If your
business is flying SE/ME spamcans in IMC, then those gucci glass systems are probably what you want and good luck to you. However, I found that many 'traditional' FIs couldn't even teach the use of the Garmin GPS 150 or GNC 250, so a student may discover that finding someone who can provide adequate training using those new Garmin wonder-boxes might prove difficult.
Last point re. the NPPL. NPPL pilots may
not fly in IMC - it's a Day VFR only licence and pilots are not subjected to any medical assessment regarding their ability to fly without visual reference. With a NPPL, you
must keep well clear of cloud at all times!