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Old 14th Apr 2015, 21:55
  #7 (permalink)  
India Four Two
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Black Diamond AB (CEH2)
Posts: 6,648
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Yes from me too. Over the course of my flying career, I've had quite a bit of instrument training (PFIG at a UAS, IMC rating and a Canadian IR).

I've never flown solo IFR, but have always felt I could cope in an emergency if I got trapped and had to climb in cloud. That is unlikely to happen though, given my innate caution and high personal weather limits.

However, a couple of weeks ago, when a checkout trip was scrubbed due to high winds, I spent an hour in a Redbird simulator configured as a Seneca. I hadn't flown instruments for many years and my instrument flying was not up to passing standard, but I managed to fly the ILS down to a 200' cloud base and transition to land.

So as the others have said, any instrument training is valuable, but you have to become really comfortable flying on instruments and figuring out where you are and where you will be in a few minutes time. The aviating bit has to become almost sub-conscious, so that you can concentrate on the navigation and communication bits.
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