Best IFR hood?

cbmontgo

cbmontgo

Pre-takeoff checklist
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cbmontgo
I have wrapped up the IFR written and am about to start my flight training portion in about the next several weeks. I'd like a comfortable hood that goes well with a headset and is comfortable. Did I mention comfortable?

Any recommendations?
 
Something along the lines of this? :D
 

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Me dpe will only allow the dog cone. I'd buy and use what you can use on the check ride.
 
I got a kick out of this guy's blog ... he seemed to capture it pretty well. :)

"It's officially called "the hood", but I've come to think of it as the cone of stupidity -- as in "lower the cone of stupidity!" -- because of the effect it seems to have on my IQ every time I put it on. You typically wear the Cone Of Stupidity during practice instrument work, and its main effect is supposed to be to block out any external visual clues (like the horizon) to simulate flying in zero visibility. All you can see with it on is the instrument panel, more or less. But its real effect -- on me at least -- seems to be to block the capacity for sustained thinking, and to lower my IQ to about the OAT in Celsius. Things that are simply obvious under normal VMC flying conditions -- the mental arithmetic needed to work out a course interception, or what side of the plane an NDB is on, for example -- start feeling like mammoth feats of intellectual effort under the hood."

http://ylayali.com/yafb/itd/firststeps.html
 
I use the traditional Gray ASA HOOD. The elastic band works fine with headset. Put the hood on first, and then the headset, then at MDA or DH you can just push the hood up out of the way onto your forehead.

I've tried foggles over glasses, did not like the bright sun glints off the foggles when flying into the sun on bright days.
 
I use my CFII's Francis hood. It does as good a job as anything of making it impossible to see anything but the HSI, TC, and VSI without moving your head. If you're also wearing glasses and a headlamp, it's an instrument of pure physical torture. (But in my experience, foggles are even worse.)
 
I use blockalls, they make you feel cross-eyed with their offset view portals at first, but work OK, in my cherokee I can still see a little blue over the top of the glare shield but I try not to.
http://www.blockalls.com/
 
As with headsets and underwear, what is "best" for one person may not be "best" for another. Only way to find out is to try it and see what works. FWIW, I like JeppShades best, but some of my trainees hate them. YMMV, and all that.

Also, be aware that per the PTS, examiners have the authority to determine what is an acceptable vision-restricting device for any practical test requiring flight by reference to instruments. Annabel Fera at FDK is famous for denying the use of Foggles and dragging a big old-fashioned hood out of her big bottom desk drawer for the applicant to use. If you've not flown with that device before, that could be a big distraction on the test. So, find out early if whatever you plan to use in training will be acceptable to the examiner you plan to use, and if it isn't, find something that is acceptable with which to train.
 
The best arrangement I had was with a C182 Skylane. It was my instructor's idea.

I bought a roll of bubble wrap and cut a section to fit the windscreen in front of the pilot and taped the edges to make it semi-rigid. When it comes time to go IMC, we hang it on the sun visor with a a foot or so toward the rear around the pilot side. That way the safety polit (aka instructor or examiner) an see around the pilot. Very realistic and no way to "cheat"

Unfortunately when I moved to a Diamond Star (bubble canopy), I had the revert to those funny clip on glasses, but they work well too. I did not like the grey hood and could not wear the foggles over my glasses.

Marc
 
Viban makes a great set of 'foggles' that wear like sunglasses but they are just black plastic 100% opaque and comfortable to wear.

<---<^>--->
 
BillTIZ said:
I've tried foggles over glasses, did not like the bright sun glints off the foggles when flying into the sun on bright days.
Click to expand...

Yeah I hated that. Sometimes it ended up "fogging up" the instrument panel too with the sun glare.

I used a $2 pair of safety goggles from WalMart with black electrical tape over them. Worked well with glasses and headset, the only problem was I couldn't see my kneeboard because of the vinyl on the lower part. The advantage was I could adjust the tape to suit my seating position and the location of the windows to make sure everything was blocked.
 
I took the foggles and added black contact paper cut to fit the frosted part of the lenses. Eliminated the glare and made focus on the instruments easy.
 
In my opinion, the Francis Hood is absolutely the best.....unless you want to cheat. No matter how honest you try to be with foggles and other devices, my experience is that you always get "some" outside input and reference. The Francis Hood will not let you get that "casual" glance. That's my $.02
 
Or the black plastic vibans that are 100% opaque and wear much less awkwardly then a full hood.

<---<^>--->
 
Thanks very much, guys. Maybe where I need to start is by researching who the examiner is for this area and see what he/she will allow. This is all great advice.
 
Another vote for the Francis Hood. I own vibans and blockalls and still borrow Jesse's Francis Hood when I fly with him.
 
I use foggles. DPE had no problem with them. What I don't like is the slight visual reference I get now and then out of the corner of my eye. Very distracting (or was earlier in my training).
 
Ron Levy said:
So, find out early if whatever you plan to use in training will be acceptable to the examiner you plan to use, and if it isn't, find something that is acceptable with which to train.
Click to expand...
Or find an examiner that will allow you to use what you feel comfortable in.
After all, it is your comfort that you're looking out for and they're not doing the exam for free so that makes you a customer with the power of choice.

Foggles for me over glasses wearing a ball cap.

JMTCW :)
 
jason said:
Another vote for the Francis Hood. I own vibans and blockalls and still borrow Jesse's Francis Hood when I fly with him.
Click to expand...

He mentioned he'd modified them a bit with a Dremel tool. I didn't try them but have seen them before. I really hate anything that bumps into my eyeglasses or requires stuffing two sets of glasses bows under the headset earcup. His looked too narrow to stuff my wide frame Oakley prescription frames into and would definitely hit the Scheydens which I didn't really wear much since the sunglasses aren't necessary under the hood.

Jesse did let me use the foggle clip-ons one night when we were in and out of actual so I could "enjoy the glimpse" of the inside of a cloud or two. But daytime, VMC, they'd allow way too much peripheral vision. Plus mine are pretty scratched up in the "clear" area from living in the flight bag. I hear the best fix for that is again, a Dremel. Cut out the clear plastic altogether.

I also flipped them up and forgot about them after the landing. Jesse thought I looked appropriately dorky walking into the FBO with the foggle clip-ons still on top of my prescription glasses. Ha.

The ASA dog cone is pretty good. As someone said, it does have the disadvantage of going on before the headset and then you kinda shove it up to see to taxi, etc. If night, the headlamp goes on last over the top of the hood. If you decide you need to get it all the way off your noggin, you have to pull your headset off first.

Shoving the hood up also shoves the headlamp up when the headlamp is on top. I use headlamps with adjustable "tilt" downward so you can reach up and tilt it back onto the panel if needed.

During one night flight here with the hood, somehow I managed to get my eyeglasses caught up in putting the whole contraption on. I got settled and thought I was ready and realized I couldn't see anything. Felt around on my head and the glasses somehow had ended up on top of the hood tangled up in the headlamp. Impressive and awkward. Take it all off and re-"layer" it all back on properly.

Another warning. Feel all the way around and make sure the elastic is lying flat around your head from the hood. If you don't and there is a twist in it, about 30 minutes into the flight you'll have a searing pain on the back of your head where the twist migrated to and the edge of the elastic is digging into your brains from behind. Or at least that's what it feels like. ;) Very distracting.
 
Nate, you made me smile. The only order that works for me is: glasses, headlamp, hood, headset. Anything else and one or the other (usually the hood) will start to work its way off my head in flight. If the hood doesn't go on before the headset, there's no way to keep it from falling over my field of vision when I try to go visual for a landing.

Actual has GOT to be easier than this.
 
I used the clear plastic shop safety goggles taped over with duct tape...worked beautifully!!! Fit over my glasses and the elastic went over the headset as well. No cheating since the tops, and sides were covered in addition to the front of the lenses leaving me an opening which I setup for the best panel view. Get to 'minimums' and whip them up and off, no sweat!

I could not use (but hated them anyway) foggles since 2 sets of glasses killed my ability to hear anything well in the headset and gave me a wicked headache.

My DPE really thought they were a good idea and had no problem with me using them for the checkride!
 
I thought the Super Hood looked very familiar to me, then I realized where I had seen it before.

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c6e4eb12-7b61-70ed.jpg
 
Francis hood. You can't cheat with it.

Unfortunately, you also can't see your lap, and you might have to move your head to even see the approach plate. The remedy for this is the dremel tool - it takes only a few seconds to grind a half-circle enlargement below the opening for each eye.
 
My initial IFR checkride was OVC007 so he didn't make me wear the hood at all. My CFII I did almost the whole time even though I was teaching and he was playing student..

<---<^>--->
 
A kind member here on the forum, sent me a set of Foggles. I didn't think I would like them, but I only needed them for a couple of hours for my private. Once I started using them I like them, even though I wear glasses.
 
My instructor told me to tell the DPE that this $5 hood was all I could afford after paying the instructor's fee for the accelerated IFR program. He got a kick out of that ;)
 
Bart, you're not far off from a design Doc Chien suggests. Similar to that Best IFR Hood, it's a pattern you cut from a Manila folder. Light, easy to replace, and fits well over any headset.

In fact, his comment is post #30 in a thread you started on the red board :D
http://forums.aopa.org/showthread.php?t=75004&highlight=Hood
 
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