a first step into a larger world

James331 said:
Depends, I lived in the PNW and got a good amount of IMC, plus you can use sims beyond the mins, and saftey pilot to save money, point is if you work it right most of the CFII time you pay for should be IMC or sim
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Well now you've added safety pilot and that's likely to be hood work. I was getting the impression your beef was with hood work itself over actual, and while we'd love to get students up in actual, it's usually only possible about ten days out of 365 around here.

Do they need more experience and actual after earning the rating, if they do it here? Oh hells yes.

About the best we can do is get them up under the hood on moonless nights in the middle of nowhere so there's no "a peek is worth a thousand cross checks" possible. Haha.
 
Dude, I just saying use your CFII the best you can, and if you live somewhere it's only IMC for GA 10 out of 365, I'd say don't bother with getting your IFR, no ROI
 
I dorked up a couple questions that I shouldn't have, but still managed a 93 on the written. Thanks, @write-stuff!
 
James331 said:
Dude, I just saying use your CFII the best you can, and if you live somewhere it's only IMC for GA 10 out of 365, I'd say don't bother with getting your IFR, no ROI
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The kids doing them here grow up and move away. Denver is a ridiculously senior base for pretty much anything that has a base here. Only two exceptions to that that I know of, and only one doesn't have all their autopilots deferred. Ha.

If they got the fundamentals right, someone where there's real clouds can work with it and teach them better survival techniques. :)
 
The most challenging thing for me was being able to reprogram avionics while hand-flying under the hood. I actually found flying actual a little easier than flying under the hood. It was easier to read the instruments. The big difference was knowing that you didn't have the luxury of peeking or just ditching the hood altogether if it became too much. I only got about an hour of actual during my training, and that was an accumulation of a few minutes here and a few minutes there. After my checkride, we got a slew of mornings with low ceilings and I racked up about 5 hours of actual in about a week, on my own, 1 hr of which was XC in the clouds from 800' AGL on departure to 600' AGL at the destination. I probably learned more about actually flying in IMC during those 5 hours than I did in my entire training.

Even though I'm currently well above my currency requirements, I plan on going in for an IPC next month, and every 6 months from then on. It's easier than worrying about meeting currency requirements, only costs a couple hundred, and I know the instructor will fail about everything on my panel to challenge me. (He really enjoys that.) Plus, I'd like him to nix any bad habits I might pick up.
 
IR XC done.
A kneeboard can try to kill you in the roundout if it interferes with the yoke.
I got some more actual and had to deviate a bit for rain.
Boy are my arms tired.
 
GeorgeC said:
IR XC done.
A kneeboard can try to kill you in the roundout if it interferes with the yoke.
I got some more actual and had to deviate a bit for rain.
Boy are my arms tired.
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Congrats. I think I own that same suicidal knee board. ;)

You'll probably find as you fly more you'll ditch the kneeboard. A small steno pad by itself works fine and can be jammed under your leg or next to it in turbulence and won't go anywhere. :)
 
A few more approaches today. I'm feeling high centered on the learning plateau. Still short on hood time.
 
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Flew three more times in the past week; pattern work, some hood time yesterday, and some more approaches this morning. Today's approaches were better.
 
More approaches, more actual. Got vectored around some buildups; this time they were red on the nexrad and not green. Finished up with a CTL at 700 and 1/2.
nexrad.png
 
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I learned about duplicate identification suffixes today when I went to select an RNAV approach into KFDK and saw that I had two to choose from:
When more than one procedure to the same runway uses the same type of navigation system for lateral guidance within the final approach segment, differentiate each procedure by adding a non-repeating alphabetical suffix using the letters “S” through “Z.”
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Got a pop up clearance today and picked up some more actual. I still feel like a line following robot, but at least the gain isn't cranked up so high any more.
 
Another 4.8 today. First night approach. Yikes. protip: when you can't see the PAPIs, you are too low. That about does it for the hood time, on to checkride prep.
 
GeorgeC said:
Another 4.8 today. First night approach. Yikes. protip: when you can't see the PAPIs, you are too low. That about does it for the hood time, on to checkride prep.
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Whoa. That's really low. Don't hit any approach light towers!
 
1.4 in the sim today due to awful weather. Checkride is scheduled.
 
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Finished up the last of the hood time in the sim. Time to start filling out IACRA...
 
Thanks!

To recap, it took roughly 4 months of weekly flying, 35 hours, and 9 AMUs all in, including written and practical fees. The ground and flight portions were neither stressful nor difficult. It was a marathon, though; I left home at 7am and got back at 8pm. I was not expecting to see BasicMed stuff on it. I was not expecting partial panel unusual attitude recovery, that was fun. I wasn't expecting to fly a localizer approach on nav2 instead of the 430W ("I hope this thing works..."). The evaluator emphasized the importance of the postflight walkaround.

At this point I have all of the prerequisites for the commercial, but the current game plan is to fly in the system for the next six months.
 
Excellent, congrats!
 
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