Instrument Rating

I received some feedback from Thomas, another young pilot who wrote the following in an email to me:

Hey Mike

I am currently working on my Instrument Rating, cannot wait to get that checked of my list, than probably my Commercial. What did you find the toughest when working on your Instrument?

In this post, I will write about what the Instrument Rating is like, what it took to obtain my Instrument Rating, and I will highlight the most challenging aspects.

Any pilot who has his Private Pilot license can obtain the Instrument Rating after meeting the FAA requirements. Unfortunately, I let a friend borrow my book of Federal Aviation Regulations, so I cannot list each specific requirement now. However, I do know that you must have a certain amount of cross-country flying time, classroom time on the ground, and time conducting approaches and holds to list a few. To the new Private Pilot, all of this may take time to acquire since Instrument flying is rather different than a typical flight in VFR (Visual Flight Rules) conditions.

First of all, flying by reference to your instruments can be difficult to become accustomed to because you are flying ONLY by reference to your instruments. To the readers who aren't pilots, imagine you are sitting in a cockpit and someone blocked out your windows so you can't see outside and you can only look at the instruments in your cockpit. That's essentially what instrument flying is all about. You must be able to fly the aircraft safely without reference to the ground. How would you figure out where you are? Where you're going? How long it will take you to get there? What will you do if one of those instruments fail?

In fact, pilots who are training for their Instrument Rating will wear "foggles", a type of goggles that the trainee pilot will wear so that he/she can only look down at the instruments while the instructor watches outside for any traffic.

In my response to Thomas, I wrote that the Instrument Rating requires that the pilot think a lot further ahead and conduct more planning. For example, I never conduct an instrument approach to an airport without briefing myself and the other pilot if one is present. Instrument approaches are rather complex, so I want to make sure that I understand exactly what I need to do, what I should not do, that I have the right frequencies in my radio, and that I know what to do in the event that I have to abort the approach. Whenever I need to conduct a hold, I'll always brief myself over what type of entry I need to conduct, which direction I will make my turns, how long my outbound legs are, and I will take note of the wind direction and speed for course correction.



The Instrument Rating also requires better decision-making skills. What if the weather at your destination is close to the minimums required for the approach there? Will you go? Are you sure that you are comfortable flying in those conditions? If you do go, what are your options in case you are unable to land at your intended destination? It's always better to ask yourself as many questions as possible and have a strong answer for each of them. But remember, a good pilot makes good decisions to avoid situations which require superior decision making skills.

That's a good segway to my next point: personal minimums. Just like any other pilot, I learned that just because the plane is able to fly and the pilot is legally able to fly doesn't mean a flight should be conducted. The sooner a pilot learns this, the better. For example, if the cloud ceiling was 0ft and the visibility is 0 miles, I can legally go to the airport and take off since I have my Instrument Rating. Is that a good idea? NO WAY. First of all, I do not feel comfortable flying in conditions as low as those. Second of all, I would not be able to legally land anywhere with similar conditions. Every Instrument pilot should have is own personal minimums that depend on: the type of plane to be flown, the pilot's level of experience, and more. My personal minimums are 500-600ft cloud ceiling and a 1.5mi visibility. Also, I don't feel comfortable flying by instruments if the wind gusts at either airport are over 21kt.

Since Instrument flying involves flying in weather below VFR minimums, Instrument pilots must, not surprisingly, be taught the concepts of weather. This includes weather patterns, convective weather (thunderstorms) along with the signs to predict them, icing, and much more.

So now I will cover my journey to obtaining my Instrument Rating. What I remember is that I spent a lot of my time building time to meet the total time requirements for the checkride. Those time building flights were most often cross-country flights that I flew along with my instructor as simulated IFR. In other words, the conditions weren't always IFR, but we filed a flight plan for each flight and I wore the 'foggles' as well. That allowed me to gain a lot of experience as an Instrument pilot and gain time as well. I don't remember having too much difficulty with the training because at that point I had been flying for five years and thus I didn't have trouble flying the plane. Furthermore, I was already knowledgeable about a lot of Instrument-related topics and concepts.

As the checkride got closer and closer, my instructors had me focus more on approaches, holds, regulations, and more specific aspects to prepare for the practical test with the FAA examiner. This is when I really got proficient on my approaches and I felt really prepared for the practical test because of this.

To sum it all up, a pilot must learn to consistently shoot approaches well, make good decisions, and learn about weather to obtain an Instrument Rating. It's definitely worth it because you further your knowledge of aviation and you become that much better of a pilot. Of course, you're also extended more privileges and the benefits that come with them like being able to fly more frequently, enjoying the view above the clouds, etc. In my opinion, no Private Pilot's license is really taken advantage of unless the Instrument Rating accompanies it.

Once again, thanks for reading. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for another topic, send me an email to mike_stangy@msn.com. Also, be sure to check out my flickr site for photos and youtube page for some videos (links on the right side of this page). Comments are also appreciated on those sites.