Well, I finally quit talking about it and began my IFR training this evening.
Congrats! It's a tough rating but well worth it.
It was by far the most challenging 1.3 hours of my short six years of flying.
And so it shall be for quite some time to come... When it starts to get easy and your CFII doesn't have anything more to pile on you, then you're gettin' good.
We started with some straight and level and moved into numerous other stages of flight. The one maneuver that broke my butt was steep turns. I just couldn't maintain altitude to save my life. We did them several times and each time I would adjust power and trim like during my private training but just couldn't manage to keep it at the right altitude. The CFII can't yet figure out where the snafu is but he says we'll figure it out.
I found that if I looked at the AI (more specifically, the little dot in the middle) while rolling into the turn, and as frequently as possible through the turn, that helped a ton. By the time you start seeing altitude changes via the altimeter or VSI, you are already moving in that direction. You'll see pitch changes in the AI first. You'll probably see airspeed increasing next, THEN altitude being 20 feet low, then descent on the VSI.
If you're not maintaining altitude and airspeed on the roll-in, you'll probably be chasing it the rest of the way around the turn. Get the roll-in right, and all you have to do is hold things steady until the end.
When I did my Instrument training we did a lot partial-panel work that when I got to fly with a full panel I neglected the AI.
Same here. Used properly, it's a wonderful instrument.
One thing my CFII did that helped me a TON, however, was to fail almost everything. This was done on a long XC flight (BMG -> MSN). He started by going to standard partial panel, with the AI and DG covered. Next came the altimeter. Yikes! He said "If the VSI shows a hundred fpm descent for 5 seconds, make it show a hundred fpm climb for 5 seconds. Average it out." Since he was the PIC (we were under IFR), he peeked at the altimeter every several seconds to verify that I was doing OK.
Just when I started to get good at that, he covered the VSI up too. Yikes again! Now I had to use the airspeed indicator in the same manner - If it shows two knots fast for 5 seconds, make it show two knots slow for 5 seconds.
He also covered up everything except the AI for a while, and everything except the airspeed indicator and magnetic compass for a while too.
After being forced to use every single instrument as the sole pitch or bank source, I finally began to really see what they were telling me. I'd never really cared about the airspeed indicator and hardly ever looked at it - If I'm not gonna stall, who cares? - But it was amazing what I could see when he finally pulled all the instrument covers off and said "This should look like Day VFR to you now!" In fact, the new scan helped later on that same flight when I noticed a loss of about two knots on the airspeed indicator despite no changes in power or altitude. Hmmm... I turned on the carb heat (Dakota), and the engine ingested a slug of ice. So THAT's why we look at the ASI!
Just be sure that you're really ready for the partial panel before you get it. I still don't use the AI as much as I should. You need to be able to live without it, but not until you know what to do with it.
I also need to figure out which scan works best. I tried several but kept finding myself focusing on the DG.
I use the radial scan - AI, ASI, AI, TC, AI, DG, AI, etc. Don't forget the non-6-pack part of the scan too, though... Navs, vacuum gauge, engine gauges, wings (to check for ice), etc. These don't need to be checked as often as the primary instruments, but you don't want to forget them either...
For more on the attitude-centered control and performance method of instrument flying in light planes, I highly recommend reading Chapter 3 of Peter Dogan's Instrument Flight Training Manual, widely available on the internet.
Amen to that. Good stuff.
Have fun, Kevin... It's a heckuva challenge, but it's really neat when you start to master all the skills you need to fly instruments.