Bird's Eye View of Training

Nathan Miller

Nathan Miller

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Oct 5, 2019
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Washington, D.C.
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Nathan
Question for the group and an update on my training.

For those who have their IR, I would like to hear the timeline of your journey.
(How long did it take you start-to-finish? How often did you find yourself training? When did you take the written? Did you have any speedbumps? Anything you would do differently? Anything you're particularly glad you did a certain way?)

Today, I met with a prospective double eye. He is one of maybe 5 at the school I'm considering. I'd like to at least meet them all before I select one for my training. They are all part time and the school just interviewed a prospective ii who could start in a week or two. Full time is preferred, since I'm unemployed for the rest of the year - why not go flat out?

Back to today's ii-- I had a good conversation with him, albeit brief since he just finished up with a student and had one foot out the door. One thing he said piqued my interest. He said I could potentially go up for my checkride in a month. 6 weeks, considering Murphy (Wx / Mx / etc). Mind blown.

He seemed solid and I would look forward to training under him. My concern is he is only available for 2 hours on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. He reminded me that the IR is only partly flown with an instructor and the rest is with a safety pilot.

Thinking out loud at this point and I appreciate y'all letting me ramble ;)
 
Had to take my written twice. Between retiring from the Navy, moving half way around the world, and adjusting to a new style of life, my first one expired before I could take a checkride. All-in-all it took me about 7 years, 59 hours simulated instrument, and 6 hours actual instrument. All dual and zero Safety Pilot accompanied.
 
Completed the written earlier this year, starting with an instructor in July.
 
Nathan Miller said:
He said I could potentially go up for my checkride in a month. 6 weeks, considering Murphy (Wx / Mx / etc). Mind blown.
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Out of curiousity, were you expecting it to take less or take longer? I think 4-6 weeks was our standard rap at the flight school.

I did my IFR straddling two planes -- an S35 Bonanza with King KX-170s and DME, and a C172 with Garmin G1000. I'd need to look in my logbook, but I recall that I spread it out over about 3 months of goofing off and cross-country "IFR" training with a CFII, and then 2 weeks of solid knock-it-out time.

I liked doing both glass and steam, as I feel it made me interpret the instruments -- needles in the Bo, and HSI on the Garmin. I seldom looked at the magenta lines on my assorted GPS/iPads even now.

I did my checkride in the G1000. This would've been in 2006 or 2007 and it was still new and novel -- my examiner couldn't figure out how to simulate partial panel on me. I told him "watch this", told SoCal Approach I was about to lose Mode C, and then pulled the AHARS breaker, killing my HSI/gyro presentation and red-X'ing the attitude background. I shot a brief little localizer approach into Pomona, and then put the breaker back in on the climbout. He was sort of ****ed at me (since I didn't pre-brief it with him), but also sort of impressed at the same time (since clearly I knew how the systems inter-related), I thought I'd pooched it -- he finally agreed that was the only way things were gonna get done by the PTS.

If I was going to do this ala rentals at a flight school, I'd get my written out of the way first and then figure out an accelerated schedule, and plan on 2-3 weeks to do everything to perfection, then go breeze through the checkride. Anything else seems like a waste of time and treasure to me.

This is one checkride I wouldn't "skimp" on with some over-accelerated course. I hear good things about PIC but I wanted "soaking time" for the knowledge, so I struck it from consideration. Others probably learn differently from me, so

$0.02 :)
 
schmookeeg said:
Out of curiousity, were you expecting it to take less or take longer? I think 4-6 weeks was our standard rap at the flight school.
...
This is one checkride I wouldn't "skimp" on with some over-accelerated course. I hear good things about PIC but I wanted "soaking time" for the knowledge, so I struck it from consideration. Others probably learn differently from me, so
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Thanks for sharing :)

I thought it would take longer. Like .. a year or three. :dunno: it just seems like the IR was "well, one of these days I'll get it". I've been talking like that since I got my PPL in 2008. It's scary to think I could have it by this July.. maybe August. It reminds me after I had my first solo - my instructor and I were debriefing and he was talking about Short and Soft TOL, cross country work and Ground Reference maneuvers and then "Checkride". Blew my mind. The checkride was akin to unobtainium, but when he laid it out like that, the light at the end of the tunnel was, for the first time, in sight.

And I share your views on over-accelerated courses. I prefer to let my brain marinate in the knowledge. Of course, for me, it usually takes longer. Me and my thick skull :rolleyes2:
 
I took my written before any lesson. Used Kings. I think doing written first can help you know a bit more about what you are doing.
It took me less than a year. Was ready for checkride in about 6 months. My CFii flys big iron for day job. So I didn’t have the chance to take lessons stacked together a lot. We took the opportunity to get a lot of IMC. I didn’t take checkride and pass until about 10 months from start. Delays were numerous. I broke my leg about 1-2 weeks before ride. Weather, death in DPE family, weather, 182 needed new bladder, Forgotten pilots license day of ride...weather but then Xanadu. Passing was more of a relief than a victory.
I really enjoyed the process and enjoy trying to stay current and proficient.
 
If you have all the cross country hours it won't take long. Normally, i'd say it's more than 6 weeks even if you commit a lot of time to it. Mostly because you are dependent on other, usually busy, people: DPE, Safety Pilot, CFII. And weather, of course. And other pilots if you are renting. But with current COVID, i'm not sure how everyone's schedule is affected. Probably a lot more free time. But, I'd probably plan for about 2-3 months if you can commit to it.

Took my written in the beginning. King course. Passed with over 90. Took me 8 months flying with last month or so mostly spent on reviews, polish, and holding for DPE. I needed most of CC time though and it was over the winter. Plus full time job. Also had to deal with CFIIs leaving. Log time was about at the required minimums.
 
genna said:
If you have all the cross country hours it won't take long. Normally, i'd say it's more than 6 weeks even if you commit a lot of time to it. Mostly because you are dependent on other, usually busy, people: DPE, Safety Pilot, CFII. And weather, of course. And other pilots if you are renting. But with current COVID, i'm not sure how everyone's schedule is affected. Probably a lot more free time. But, I'd probably plan for about 2-3 months if you can commit to it.
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Thanks for the insight. Owner rather than renter, fortunately, but that doesn't stop Murphy from coming at me through Mx problems :rolleyes: Especially with ~10,400 TTAF.

As for me, 425TT with 220 XC. (I guess there's one silver lining to kicking the IR can down the road for over a decade - takes the stress off of racking up the XC hours :p)
 
I recently started my IR training. I had all of the XC time knocked out already before I started. I have a full time job. I did not take the written first but I did a lot of studying (even took a 141 ground course before life got in the way a couple years ago).

I schedule 2 flights a week for it and have so far been able to get 1.5. At that average pace (whether with the CFII or safety pilot), I should take about 13 weeks, maybe add another week or so for more delays, holiday, etc. I'm about to take my written but with the studying I did in the past I felt confident about starting to fly even though I didn't have the written knocked out yet and it hasn't been an issue. My CFII just wants me to knock it out to have it off the plate, not because I'm lacking anything that would have been there otherwise.

So for me, 13 weeks would be best case with maybe 16 being likely and 20 being worst case.

With all that said, I also felt a little bit of surprise when I realized how quickly I could be done. I initially had a goal of finishing by the end of 2020 and now I have a goal to finish before Labor Day.
 
It took me about a year, but I lost a couple months when my first CFII retired and a couple more months trying to get on the DPE's busy schedule, plus I was only flying 1x/week. I probably could have sped things up by flying with a safety pilot but for some reason that topic never came up and I ended up flying with a CFII the entire time. Also, I started studying for the written at the same time I started training and took it about 1/2 way through. And I had the XC hours knocked out before I started.
 
Nathan Miller said:
Thanks for the insight. Owner rather than renter, fortunately, but that doesn't stop Murphy from coming at me through Mx problems :rolleyes: Especially with ~10,400 TTAF.

As for me, 425TT with 220 XC. (I guess there's one silver lining to kicking the IR can down the road for over a decade - takes the stress off of racking up the XC hours :p)
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Curious if you own a plane why you are looking at a school? Surely there are independent instructors in the DC area who have the time to knock this out with you at lower cost. Or get your prerequisites done and fly out to one of the accelerated places. Just my thoughts as someone who doesn't have an instrument rating.
 
Lindberg said:
Curious if you own a plane why you are looking at a school? Surely there are independent instructors in the DC area who have the time to knock this out with you at lower cost. Or get your prerequisites done and fly out to one of the accelerated places.
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Surprisingly, the independents want MORE than the flight school I'm at. And I would prefer to stay close to home and do it at my own pace...
 
I began my IR in Sept 2016, and finished in March of 2017. In between I was run over by a semi truck and that was a setback.

had this not happened, I was on track to finish around early November.
 
Nathan Miller said:
He reminded me that the IR is only partly flown with an instructor and the rest is with a safety pilot.
Click to expand...
Who do you have lined up as a safety pilot? Are you going to find someone who can fly up to 25 hours with you in six weeks? That’s a pretty big time commitment for safety pilots.

personally, I wouldn’t plan on using safety pilots much...I’d plan the whole works with an instructor, and if I can get some good practice in with a safety pilot now and again instead, it’s just a bonus.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Who do you have lined up as a safety pilot? Are you going to find someone who can fly up to 25 hours with you in six weeks? That’s a pretty big time commitment for safety pilots.

personally, I wouldn’t plan on using safety pilots much...I’d plan the whole works with an instructor, and if I can get some good practice in with a safety pilot now and again instead, it’s just a bonus.
Click to expand...

I have 4 safety pilots lined up and unfortunately the instructors at the school are all part time :-/
 
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