PPL - Instrument Flying

[Desert Strip Basher]

How much instrument flying did you do or do you consider necessary under the Basic Instrument Flight of the PPL syllabus?

[150 Driver]

Not very much, from memory a couple of hours, whatever the minimum for the syllabus is

Maybe that isnt enough, I certainly wasnt up to flying on instruments post ppl but maybe that is the point-to stop you thinking you can do it

Within six months I started IRR which made all the difference

[Gertrude the Wombat]

I did the four hours required at the time. I believe it served its purpose - it for sure frightened me off ever going anywhere near IMC until I'd done the IR(R).

[DaveyJay85]

I've just done about an hour of instrument flying in the Grob 115 I'm learning in. It was glorious weather so used the fabled "foggles". I hated them.


As previous posters have put, I certainly won't be doing any more until I've done the full IR(R) course!

[localflighteast]

As per the Canadian standards
5 hours of dual instrument time logged before flight test

flight test 2 minutes straight and level , 180 degree turn , another 2 minutes straight and level. Recovery from one unusual attitude under the hood ( in my case a really quite nasty spiral dive!)

As to whether it was enough, I don't know. I've never found myself in the position where I needed it. I do know that I found it quite mentally draining, I'm not sure how I'd fair in actual IMC even with the appropriate training

[500ft]

I did the 5 hours required under the NZ PPL. Under the hood, full panel, partial panel (no gyro instruments), recovery from unusual attitudes (close your eyes while the instructor sets the plane up, open them and get the aircraft back level quick as possible using the instruments). No navigation just taking vectors from the instructor. I remember it as probably the easiest 5 hours of my training. Not sure what would happen if I flew into real cloud, I try to avoid that so haven’t done it yet. There is no way I would be able to keep a NZ IFR rating current even if I got one.

[tmmorris]

Slightly OT but I once did my IMCR renewal with a cheeky examiner whose partial panel unusual attitude recovery was to leave me half way round a wing over. So: airspeed low and decreasing, get the nose down, full power... Hang on, airspeed now winding up around the clock! What happened?

Of course just as I took control the nose was dropping through, so by adding power I was entering a very fast dive.

Not actually that clever - we got very close to VNE in the recovery...