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My opinion is that IFR training for "amateur" (non-professional) pilots, has
unique challenges relative to time available (usually in short supply - we
have a full time career outside of flying), equipment and instrument
familiarity (how many IV-P's with your specific instrument panel & autopilot
can you rent at your airport?), and flying experience (some have been
military/commercial pilots with thousands of hours flying as a crew member,
others have fewer than 1000 hours) and finally at $225 US per hour to fly
such a plane, money to train is not unlimited.
Taking these facts into consideration, and based on my experience (I've had
my IFR for 10 years, but let it lapse while finishing my IV-P you know, just
a few months and we are done syndrome that goes on for 2 years so I feel I
have earned my rating twice, once in a Grumman Tiger without an auto-pilot,
and recently in my IV-P with a good auto-pilot) the real vital ingredients
to successful training and ultimately safer flying are:
1.) having access to a simulator which is very close if not identical to the
instrumentation you will fly in with your IV-P.
2) taking time to do intensive training, not one hour per week, rather book
time off and train (study, simulator, and fly 8 hours per day) until you get
the rating. Imagine the navy trying to train a pilot to land on a carrier
one hour every week or so.
3) having an instructor who can travel to your home airport and adapt the
learning process to the level the student is at, including managing the
various issues of ego and cockpit management
Let me elaborate.
1.) For example, I have a Garmin 430/420 combo, with a STec 55 and a Sandel
HSI. I also have little goodies like an AOA pro model, a storm scope and a
RMI uEncoder along with a VM1000 engine monitor for such things as fuel flow
and engine performance. Each of which takes some in depth knowledge and
operating experience to get good at and even more vital, you need an
instructor who really knows how to integrate the functions of these
instruments so you as a pilot can be trained to stay ahead of the aircraft.
Such a simulator, also lets the instructor or student when practicing to
slow the speed down to learn procedures if required, or redo one task over
and over until you get it right. Remember, practice does not make perfect.
Perfect practice makes perfect.
2.) Too many people say time is money. IMHO, Time is far more valuable than
money. Just stop and think. How many dollars would it cost to buy back
yesterday? The key to any successful training in any field is to do it full
time, intensively, as in immersion. From languages to piloting, part time
is the hardest way to learn, the least effective, and ultimately, the most
expensive. If you want to be above the clouds in a IV-P, safely above the
weather, and truly saving time over driving or flying commercially, invest
the time to be trained properly, and then, schedule the time for recurrent
training.
3) If at all possible, you do want to learn in your neck of the woods, where
ultimately you will be doing over 1/2 your approaches and flying. Learning
from a professional how they would handle various situations in your local
area will result in greater transfer of "experience" than being overwhelmed
by learning new "local knowledge on top of the training. Keep it simple. I
seem to remember from my day as a student that people who studied in the
same room they wrote the exam in did about 10% better. I'd like that 10% on
my side.
So, in conclusion, what the Lancair world needs is a number of instructors
who are up to date with the latest equipment, are good patient teachers who
can customize a simulator to be almost identical to your unique panel, and
can travel to your area to train you. Ideally they would first train you
over the internet on ground school and simulator flying, and then when you
are fully ready, come to your airport and train for a number of days,
totally immersing the student in IFR flying. Such a training plan would
result in safer pilots and fewer accidents. And I'll bet someone is
developing just such a plan because it is truly needed.
Gerry Leinweber
C-GLFP 150+ hours
and IFR rating renewed July 1, 2003
on Canada's birthday, I celebrated well
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