vfr-uk
27th Jun 2011, 16:25
I passed my IMC skills test recently.
Low hours and fairly un-current, I jumped in at the deep end, booked an IMC course, and did it over a reasonably intense period of about about 2 months, including self-study for the exam. I won’t bore anyone with the trials and tribulations of the course itself (unless anyone’s particularly interested), apart from to say that I found it ‘quite challenging’ (read hard), and really rewarding. I came out of it a better pilot for sure, and with a new set of skills.
My main reason for posting though, is to encourage anyone that hasn’t had any real instrument training or experience (like me before I started the course), to try and get some - even if it’s just a few hours with an instructor - and ideally in real IMC.
Staying out of cloud, and not flying beyond your experience or in iffy weather is really drummed into you during the PPL, but there’s nothing like actually experiencing it to hammer the message home. Weather prediction isn’t 100% reliable, and probably even more so for inexperienced pilots, and life being cruel as it is means that despite best efforts to avoid it, you might just inadvertently end up in IMC one day.
Even after about 15 hours flying under the hood, a couple of flights with an instructor in ‘proper’ IMC brought home everything I needed to know about the realities of being in cloud for a reasonable duration. It’s really hard work! Even with the basic IMC training! Especially in something with a panel like an average training aircraft, it’s so easy to see how things can go so wrong so quickly, and how doubt and panic could start to set in as you try and make sense out of load of dials and radio navaids. If I’m being honest with myself, I don’t think I would have been prepared for even a 180 degree turn in IMC had it ever presented itself prior to my IMC training. Unless I popped back out fairly immediately, I would have been relying on the gods being on my side to a large degree.
Fear factor stuff aside, it’s really fun flying down an ILS, and it’s amazing flying through and breaking out of clouds when it’s carefully done within your level of ability!
If you’ve got the means, get yourself an instructor and try it out. If you haven’t, maybe try and accompany an IR pilot on a flight in IMC. You won’t regret it.
And as a bonus, if you do it soon you can even have an IMC rating while it lasts!
Whatever happens to the IMC rating in the future, I do hope that this ‘achievable’ type of instrument training/rating will continue in some form. I know some ‘real’ IR pilots seem to be a bit upset about the IMC course and its contents, but the fact that it might just be enough to keep you safe one day makes it a no brainer in my mind.
Perhaps the AOPA can adopt it in a similar way to their Aerobatics courses, or maybe schools can make up their own ‘instrument awareness’ courses or something? And if the more achievable Euro IR ends up becoming a reality, I’ll be first in the queue to get mine. And if they actually let you land as well, even better!
(If anyone wants any advice on taking the course, PM me and I’l be glad to help.)
Low hours and fairly un-current, I jumped in at the deep end, booked an IMC course, and did it over a reasonably intense period of about about 2 months, including self-study for the exam. I won’t bore anyone with the trials and tribulations of the course itself (unless anyone’s particularly interested), apart from to say that I found it ‘quite challenging’ (read hard), and really rewarding. I came out of it a better pilot for sure, and with a new set of skills.
My main reason for posting though, is to encourage anyone that hasn’t had any real instrument training or experience (like me before I started the course), to try and get some - even if it’s just a few hours with an instructor - and ideally in real IMC.
Staying out of cloud, and not flying beyond your experience or in iffy weather is really drummed into you during the PPL, but there’s nothing like actually experiencing it to hammer the message home. Weather prediction isn’t 100% reliable, and probably even more so for inexperienced pilots, and life being cruel as it is means that despite best efforts to avoid it, you might just inadvertently end up in IMC one day.
Even after about 15 hours flying under the hood, a couple of flights with an instructor in ‘proper’ IMC brought home everything I needed to know about the realities of being in cloud for a reasonable duration. It’s really hard work! Even with the basic IMC training! Especially in something with a panel like an average training aircraft, it’s so easy to see how things can go so wrong so quickly, and how doubt and panic could start to set in as you try and make sense out of load of dials and radio navaids. If I’m being honest with myself, I don’t think I would have been prepared for even a 180 degree turn in IMC had it ever presented itself prior to my IMC training. Unless I popped back out fairly immediately, I would have been relying on the gods being on my side to a large degree.
Fear factor stuff aside, it’s really fun flying down an ILS, and it’s amazing flying through and breaking out of clouds when it’s carefully done within your level of ability!
If you’ve got the means, get yourself an instructor and try it out. If you haven’t, maybe try and accompany an IR pilot on a flight in IMC. You won’t regret it.
And as a bonus, if you do it soon you can even have an IMC rating while it lasts!
Whatever happens to the IMC rating in the future, I do hope that this ‘achievable’ type of instrument training/rating will continue in some form. I know some ‘real’ IR pilots seem to be a bit upset about the IMC course and its contents, but the fact that it might just be enough to keep you safe one day makes it a no brainer in my mind.
Perhaps the AOPA can adopt it in a similar way to their Aerobatics courses, or maybe schools can make up their own ‘instrument awareness’ courses or something? And if the more achievable Euro IR ends up becoming a reality, I’ll be first in the queue to get mine. And if they actually let you land as well, even better!
(If anyone wants any advice on taking the course, PM me and I’l be glad to help.)