DrMack
Line Up and Wait
Proficiency, that is. Please let's not confuse this thread with the topic of currency.
Had a good reminder two days ago why my crusty ole CFII admonished me to file IFR every time I fly XC, even in CAVU. To amplify his advice for myself, I even make an effort to request an IAP at every destination.
I hadn't flown for about a month and did two legs on Saturday where the ceilings dropped to just above minimums, a straight-in ILS at one airport and an ILS with circle to land at the other. While the two approaches went off without a hitch, I realized over the last two days that I did not execute nearly as well as I did during training. Both approaches were stable but I was nagged by something during the flight that I couldn't put my finger on until yesterday. I didn't call out my altitudes and fix passages and it wasn't until I broke out for the circling maneuver that I realized that I had forgotten what heading to use for the missed if I needed to do it. Sure, I had the plate right in front of me, but I was too focused on maintaining visual with the runway through the slag during the circling maneuver to take even a moment to look it up.
The point is, since I don't fly daily like a professional pilot, it doesn't take very long for the synapse states associated with these little details, forged during training and subsequent practice, to fade from the cortex. So I'm determined yet again to perfect this confounded art. Thus, I am resolved to again soon become the bane of the D10 TRACON controllers as the guy who always wants an IAP, rain or shine.
So my questions to the community are as follows:
1. For all the 75-100 hr/yr folks like me out there, how long after flying your last IAP do you begin to feel rusty?
2. For the approach controllers here, are guys like me who always request an IAP even in CAVU, considered a burden on the controllers and the system, so should we not be surprised if we are treated like FLIBs?
3. For CFIIs, is my CFII the only one of you who tells all of his students as they go out the door with their new tickets to always, always, always file and fly IFR (with local exceptions for training and sightseeing of course)?
4. And then there is the "unable" scenarios when it is CAVU: when TRACON says "unable" to an IAP request, how hard should a pilot press for it? In FAA Order JO 7110.65U (4-8-11), controllers are advised, "Except for military aircraft operating at military airfields, ensure that neither VFR nor IFR practice approaches disrupt the flow of other arriving and departing IFR or VFR aircraft. Authorize, withdraw authorization, or refuse to authorize practice approaches as traffic conditions require." So if we are IFR but not in IMC, are IAP requests considered "practice"?
Had a good reminder two days ago why my crusty ole CFII admonished me to file IFR every time I fly XC, even in CAVU. To amplify his advice for myself, I even make an effort to request an IAP at every destination.
I hadn't flown for about a month and did two legs on Saturday where the ceilings dropped to just above minimums, a straight-in ILS at one airport and an ILS with circle to land at the other. While the two approaches went off without a hitch, I realized over the last two days that I did not execute nearly as well as I did during training. Both approaches were stable but I was nagged by something during the flight that I couldn't put my finger on until yesterday. I didn't call out my altitudes and fix passages and it wasn't until I broke out for the circling maneuver that I realized that I had forgotten what heading to use for the missed if I needed to do it. Sure, I had the plate right in front of me, but I was too focused on maintaining visual with the runway through the slag during the circling maneuver to take even a moment to look it up.
The point is, since I don't fly daily like a professional pilot, it doesn't take very long for the synapse states associated with these little details, forged during training and subsequent practice, to fade from the cortex. So I'm determined yet again to perfect this confounded art. Thus, I am resolved to again soon become the bane of the D10 TRACON controllers as the guy who always wants an IAP, rain or shine.
So my questions to the community are as follows:
1. For all the 75-100 hr/yr folks like me out there, how long after flying your last IAP do you begin to feel rusty?
2. For the approach controllers here, are guys like me who always request an IAP even in CAVU, considered a burden on the controllers and the system, so should we not be surprised if we are treated like FLIBs?
3. For CFIIs, is my CFII the only one of you who tells all of his students as they go out the door with their new tickets to always, always, always file and fly IFR (with local exceptions for training and sightseeing of course)?
4. And then there is the "unable" scenarios when it is CAVU: when TRACON says "unable" to an IAP request, how hard should a pilot press for it? In FAA Order JO 7110.65U (4-8-11), controllers are advised, "Except for military aircraft operating at military airfields, ensure that neither VFR nor IFR practice approaches disrupt the flow of other arriving and departing IFR or VFR aircraft. Authorize, withdraw authorization, or refuse to authorize practice approaches as traffic conditions require." So if we are IFR but not in IMC, are IAP requests considered "practice"?