How to learn Instrument Flight at home

[mikyventura]

Hello guys, I want to learn Instrument Flight at home to prepare myself for the future when I will be able to apply for a IR course. Can you advice me some books and simulator to train? Thanks

[Officer Kite]

Books to understand the charts and then you may need to invest in a good simulator. The benefits of said simulator will be in its accuracy to the aircraft layout you will have when doing the IR, i.e. glass cockpit (like the G1000) or an analogue layout.

[dook]

You can't learn instrument flying at home.

The first requirement is to have dual instruction airborne on a good day with a clear horizon.

[rudestuff]

You don’t need to do anything at home - that is what the course is for. Anything you do before then could end up working against you. You will learn everything you need to know in the first 10 hours, the rest is just practice. You can do a bit of chair-flying to learn the checklists an drills but trust me, you will be ready before you use finish the course. The best thing you can do is save your self a fortune and get your IR(R) then CBIR.

[Parson]

There is little of value you can learn at home before your IR course. There is however quite a lot you CAN do at home once you are into your course. Armchair flying can save you a lot of training time (and of course cost) on your IR. Practice checks, emergency drills, GPS/approach procedures, RT, speeds/power settings and review plates at home - costs nothing. If you have some software on your PC that can replicate your IR training, all the better. Practice, practice, practice - twin IR training is pushing £10/minute and you don't want to be spending that time learning EFATO drills or the like. Don't turn up for a lesson without adequate preparation. PPPPPP.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Don't try - learn with an instructor in an aeroplane, or a proper simulator. If you self-teach, you'll learn important things wrongly, and then it'll take longer to correct your poor skills than it would have done to learn them right in the first place.

There *may then* be value in practicing at home, once you've learned it properly.

G

[Bergerie1]

Genghis is right. It can take a long time to 'un-learn' bad habits.

[Martin_123]

for my self - playing around in the FSX + Wilhelm Thaller's book "Never Get Lost" didn't do any harm, I also bought "VOR Tracker" app on the Google Play (Android) to practice intercepts and holds. Finished the course in minimum time and first time passes. Flying is expensive as it is, I would definitely recommend going to the sim/aircraft already knowing basic principles of instrument flying. If you, like other posters here, can afford to burn cash by going to a lesson as a blank page, that's fine, you can do that as well. I was not so fortunate

[Duchess_Driver]

Where practical, the only “at home” training you should do is to become 100% familiar with the layout of the cockpit and have a thorough understanding of the aircraft POH.

From your PPL and hour building you should have (as a bare minimum) an understanding of “Radio” navigation (VOR/NDB/DME/GPS etc) interpretation for tracking and fixing position and if you understand these then the application of procedures to fly an instrument approach is reasonably straight forwards. Teaching yourself at home with no reference to SOPs etc isn’t the best way to proceed.

Your training provider should give you student notes and training literature appropriate to the lessons being undertaken which should be enough.

[Officer Kite]

for my self - playing around in the FSX + Wilhelm Thaller's book "Never Get Lost" didn't do any harm, I also bought "VOR Tracker" app on the Google Play (Android) to practice intercepts and holds. Finished the course in minimum time and first time passes. Flying is expensive as it is, I would definitely recommend going to the sim/aircraft already knowing basic principles of instrument flying. If you, like other posters here, can afford to burn cash by going to a lesson as a blank page, that's fine, you can do that as well. I was not so fortunate

Exactly, for me at least I wouldn't have liked for the first time I ever tried to interpret a jeppesen approach plate to be inside an actual aircraft whilst trying to fly it! At least half the battle is won on the ground. The pooley's IR flying book is highly recommendable.

[Nurse2Pilot]

I always thought armchair flying and flying in a simulator were roughly the same idea but it seems from reading this thread that it isn't? So armchair flying is just a chair, a checklist, and the imagination? Or sitting in a cold cockpit on a non-flying day?

[Banana Joe]

I did armchair during my type rating to learn the flows in front of a cockpit poster, that was it. I don't see how arm chair can help in IR flying.

[Officer Kite]

I did armchair during my type rating to learn the flows in front of a cockpit poster, that was it. I don't see how arm chair can help in IR flying.

If you pick out a specific STAR/SID or whatever you can armchair fly the procedure to an extent to visualise the vertical and lateral profiles of it to help with the situational awareness when you fly the actual thing.

[Parson]

'Armchair flying' helped me on my IR.
Memorize take-off/climb/TOC/pre-decent/pre-approach/landing/EFATO/emergency checks etc. Most people have a smartphone - take photos of the cockpit
Review speeds/power settings/pitch angles etc.
Review plates
Think through your typical training routes - what beacons you will use and when, typical RT calls
Clearly you need to have a had a few lessons before you know all of the above.
In my view this is nothing more than being fully prepared for your next lesson but each to their own - whatever works for you.

[Less Hair]

Here is the FAA's Instrument Flying Handbook pdf for starters:

http://www.sheppardair.com/download/faa-h-8083-15.pdf

Plus more to choose from:
https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/

I agree with the "better to not learn wrong stuff at home"-warning but a simple PC simulator like x-plane certainly can give you some idea about IFR flying at home. Some certified version is available as well:
https://www.x-plane.com/pro/certified/

Getting familiar with IFR charts and flight planning might be a good task to do at home first.

[Kakaru]

luizmonteiro dot com for starters. Excellent basic VOR / NDB simulation. The site seems to be extremely slow lately for some reason though.
For more depth - Xplane 11
Also, YouTube can be useful research tool as it has good few IFR related tutorials.