Rod1,
Hi Rod1,
1. with all due respect there are other factors which may account for the difference in hours taken to complete the IMC course between yourself and your friend. To name but a few:
Age, natural learning ability, confidence in IMC, did he read the book as thoroughly as you? Like you, I did the IMC course with minimum PPL license issue hours + the required 10(?). At that point you are very much still in the "accurate flying, learning mode etc.". After 100 hours things often begin to slip a little - particularly if we have only done fair weather flying taking Auntie Mable on routes that we know intimately and are confident with.
Perhaps a good cost saver would be to make sure our basic PPL skills are up to scratch before we embark on the likes of IMC and Night Flying courses? What do you think?
2. While we all find it very difficult to do so, saving money should not be our primary motivation when assessing flight training. I think the whole PPL community needs to make more of an effort to consider "will I be able to keep myself alive now I have this little slip of paper that says I can now legally do X,Y, and Z" You (not you in person:-)) may be sorry you saved that few extra hours training when the instrument panel looks like it has gone hay-wire and your bottle has gone.
3. Yes - I will agree that Flight Sim etc. can be usefull for drilling procedures into your head, but I think that is pretty much where there usefullnes stops. They are just not real enough in terms of handling and response, and do nothing to help you develop discipline against dis-orientation in flight. Depending on how best each individual learns, almost if not the same level of learning procedures can be gained from simply committing them to memory from the book.
More professional simulators are expensive, and I think that from the costs I have seen, are only worth considering for multi engine work.