What to expect for first instrument lesson

azpilot

azpilot

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azpilot
I have my first instrument lesson in a week. What should I expect the first lesson to be like?
 
Basic Attitude Instrument Flying (BAI) , instrument scan and interpretation and of course aircraft control. :) Lesson one drives home the fact that proper scan is vital to the instrument pilot and interpretation even more so.

Good luck and have fun!
 
azpilot said:
I have my first instrument lesson in a week. What should I expect the first lesson to be like?
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Expect to not look out the window much...if you haven’t already picked a comfortable view limiting device do so now...
 
Vibans...best view limiting device ever
 
First instrument lessons are typically about morphing the short-term emergency use limited instrument scan of the VFR pilot into something sustainable and reliable.
 
GMascelli said:
Basic Attitude Instrument Flying (BAI) , instrument scan and interpretation and of course aircraft control. :) Lesson one drives home the fact that proper scan is vital to the instrument pilot and interpretation even more so.

Good luck and have fun!
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This.
 
Dave Theisen said:
Establish power settings for each phase of flight early on. It will make life much easier.
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Go ahead and do this now. Make a chart, and take a buddy to do the writing (voice of experience here, I didn't). Your book should have a list if speeds & attitudes. Start with 90 knots straight & level clean and in landing configuration, then add 500 fpm climbs and descents

Then type it neatly in a large font and put it on your kneeboard. Print an extra copy for your CFII.
 
Dave Theisen said:
Establish power settings for each phase of flight early on. It will make life much easier.
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This is exactly what I will do on a first flight. Show the student how to establish power settings/configurations and how great they are. Works better with a constant-speed prop, but either way I will spend some time on this without even putting the hood on yet. Then once we get those power settings figured out, the hood goes on and we'll do some basic turns and climbs/descents.

Then there's a lot more of that for the next few lessons!
 
eman1200 said:
scales, basic chords, music theory........:cool:
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Depending on the instrument, they may start with embouchure (trumpet), free weights (sousaphone), or how to put on velcro shoes (percussion).

But for flying by instruments, it's a lot like this:
824277.gif
 
Hank S said:
Go ahead and do this now. Make a chart, and take a buddy to do the writing (voice of experience here, I didn't). Your book should have a list if speeds & attitudes. Start with 90 knots straight & level clean and in landing configuration, then add 500 fpm climbs and descents

Then type it neatly in a large font and put it on your kneeboard. Print an extra copy for your CFII.
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As far as what to expect, you should have a syllabus hopefully. If not, when you meet with your CFII he should have one or inform you where to acquire one. Plenty of free ones out there, just google speed configuration chart or similar. Being ahead is the key, so study basic attitude flying as you'll be flying that for the first few lessons.

Here's an example of what Hank S is referring to.

r-powerperf.gif
 
midlifeflyer said:
First instrument lessons are typically about morphing the short-term emergency use limited instrument scan of the VFR pilot into something sustainable and reliable.
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Spoken like an attorney! :D
Enjoyed meeting you last night Mark and dining with you.
 
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I see you recommend a 1000 fpm descent for NPAs. Judging by the PA numbers, this sample chart is for an airplane doing about 100 knots GS on final. For those airplanes, I think 1000 fpm is a bit steep, and recommend about 700 fpm. I am curious about your 1000 fpm figure.
 
RussR said:
I see you recommend a 1000 fpm descent for NPAs. Judging by the PA numbers, this sample chart is for an airplane doing about 100 knots GS on final. For those airplanes, I think 1000 fpm is a bit steep, and recommend about 700 fpm. I am curious about your 1000 fpm figure.
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Maybe it's a max descent? I know we were restricted to 12-1300' FPM at the airline for NPAs.
 
RussR said:
I see you recommend a 1000 fpm descent for NPAs. Judging by the PA numbers, this sample chart is for an airplane doing about 100 knots GS on final. For those airplanes, I think 1000 fpm is a bit steep, and recommend about 700 fpm. I am curious about your 1000 fpm figure.
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It's the old "dive and drive" philosophy - get down to MDA as soon as possible - predating such things as VDPs, stabilized vertical descent profiles, and the like.
 
Hank S said:
Go ahead and do this now. Make a chart, and take a buddy to do the writing (voice of experience here, I didn't). Your book should have a list if speeds & attitudes. Start with 90 knots straight & level clean and in landing configuration, then add 500 fpm climbs and descents

Then type it neatly in a large font and put it on your kneeboard. Print an extra copy for your CFII.
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OK, I hadn't thought of this. How many rows should this list have? This sounds like a great idea.
 
azpilot said:
OK, I hadn't thought of this. How many rows should this list have? This sounds like a great idea.
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Two of us provided the chart above, that's how many you should use. Works great and you eventually memorize the settings as you progress in your training,
 
Walboy said:
Have fun out at Stanfield...oy...:eek2:
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I've heard that it gets pretty busy there. When I met with my instructor, he said that as I progress we'd try out some different airports on some cross country flights.
 
Clark1961 said:
Expect to not look out the window much...if you haven’t already picked a comfortable view limiting device do so now...
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mscard88 said:
Two of us provided the chart above, that's how many you should use. Works great and you eventually memorize the settings as you progress in your training,
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Ya, i saw that later as I was making my way though all of the comments. One thing I should point out is that I'll be doing this in a 182, so I'll need to add MP to the table, but that is easy enough to do.
 
azpilot said:
Ya, i saw that later as I was making my way though all of the comments. One thing I should point out is that I'll be doing this in a 182, so I'll need to add MP to the table, but that is easy enough to do.
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182 is a good plane for instrument training. Very stable.
 
azpilot said:
I have my first instrument lesson in a week. What should I expect the first lesson to be like?
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A good instrument instructor will devote the first few hours to boring, boring, exercises in aircraft control by instrument reference. A poor instructor will get into navigation and holds. You need to learn "the numbers" for your airplane" the power setting and pitch attitude that results in repeatable performance. You need to know, for example, what power reduction results in a 500 fpm descent without changing airspeed and be able to transition between leve flight and 500 fpm descents (stairstepping down) with little or no change in airspeed. That kind of knowledge comes from doing turns, climbs, descents, etc under the hood for the first few hours. Boring, but it pays off.

Bob Gardner
 
midlifeflyer said:
It's the old "dive and drive" philosophy - get down to MDA as soon as possible - predating such things as VDPs, stabilized vertical descent profiles, and the like.
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At those speeds, 700-800 fpm IS my "dive and drive". I teach that as the target, with 1000 fpm as the absolute maximum. Meaning if you see greater than that, you should probably go missed because you are probably unstabilized.
 
RussR said:
I see you recommend a 1000 fpm descent for NPAs. Judging by the PA numbers, this sample chart is for an airplane doing about 100 knots GS on final. For those airplanes, I think 1000 fpm is a bit steep, and recommend about 700 fpm. I am curious about your 1000 fpm figure.
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It's just the way I've done it. I've never found this to be a problem for students, but certainly feel free to change that number to 700 if you wish. The chart will still work as advertised. The point is to get students using fixed configurations for all the various phases of flight.
 
eman1200 said:
Doesn’t “real southeastern Italian food” belong in the Friday joke thread?
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Does sound strange doesn't it, but when the original owner (he passed away) came form Italy and he and his wife opened this place, well, delicious. and definitely real Italian food. What I don't understand is people still go to Olive Gardens! Now that belongs in the joke thread.
 
Yeah Olive Garden is a joke.

But real Italian food in Alabama..? That’s an oxymoron!
:rofl:
 
Ryanb said:
Yeah Olive Garden is a joke.

But real Italian food in Alabama..? That’s an oxymoron!
:rofl:
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See, here's a history lesson for y'all. Birmingham used to be a big steel town, and US Steel still has a plant here along with a few others. Soooo, when the immigrants came over, not all of them settled in the Northeast. Many came straight to Birmingham (courtesy of the steel companies no doubt) "off the boat" and settled in company housing and went to work. I was surprised when I moved here and discovered all the Italians and Italian restaurants here. A large Greek population as well, and they have many Greek restaurants here. It's almost the same in Huntsville AL with the German population, due to the German engineers and scientists we "captured" in WW2 for the rocket and space program.

So there, ya been edumacated! :rockon: :yesnod:
 
write-stuff said:
Here's an old presentation I did many years ago, but you still might find it useful. On a first lesson, we cover Basic Attitudes and, in the process, fill out the chart.

http://www.goldsealgroundschool.com/instrument-lessons/6-configs/player.html

and the chart to go along with it:

View attachment 60196
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That link to your video was great. Very simple explanation.

Even a VFR-only pilot like me should do this (I've memorized it for level in the pattern and descent abeam the numbers, but not for anything else...gives me another excuse to go fly).

If that's what the rest of Gold Seal's content is like, I will be a future customer...
 
Fly around with foggles, scan your instruments, hold altitude and practice climbs, turns and descents.
 
You will be blindfolded and told you have 178 seconds to live.
 
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