How much harder is IFR then Private?

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Melissa2983298

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Melissa
Hello,

I'm getting ready to start my IFR training in a couple of weeks. However, I've heard a lot of stories how this is the most difficult rating to obtain...is this true?

Thanks
 
Not if you put the time in on your study's .the flying is actually kind of fun,although challenging . Well worth the effort.
 
My IR was the easier rating I never got. Not saying that it's incredibly easy, it isn't, I just found it easier than the rest of them.
 
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IR is hard, as it should be. But if you got through PPL, the same determination will get you through the IR. It's also very different. For one thing, there's no pattern work and by the end of your training you will have forgotten how to land gracefully.
 
I didn't find the IR training and prep for the checkride to be as challenging as the PPL.

You've got the flying part done with the PPL. IFR is learning more/new procedures and regs and lots more time in the foggles. Once you've got the rating, the skies literally open up to you for future flight planning. It's the most valuable rating a pilot can have, IMO.

Personally, I would say that, to date, my hardest rating to prepare for was the CFI .
 
Melissa2983298 said:
Hello,

I'm getting ready to start my IFR training in a couple of weeks. However, I've heard a lot of stories how this is the most difficult rating to obtain...is this true?

Thanks
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Is it the most challenging? Probably. I've never taken the ATP or a type rating so can't speak to those.

You fly, and you've earned your PP and probably your Commercial. You must enjoy challenges, yes? If so, the IR is the most fun. You will be a different and a much more capable and confident pilot. Have any problems with ATC radio work? They will go away. Are you sometimes anxious about operating in congested Class Bs? That will go away too either by training in them or later flying in the system. Do you feel like you'd like to fly with more precision? You will.

Sounds like you are serious about going for it. Thousands have gone before and you will too. Enjoy!
 
I found the checkride to be easier than my PPL. But just like any other rating, it requires hard work.
 
I am recently instrument rated (April 2014), and I found IFR training to be a bit easier than my PP training. I have to confess that I started my preparation at least 2 years before starting training that includes passing the written exam. If you know what to expect and prepare well, it is not hard at all.
 
For me the IR was more challenging than my PPL.

I got my commercial just after my IR, and found that rating to be really fun. It was great looking out the window doing the various ground reference and landing tasks.
 
It depends, I think, on how much skill you have developed/retained since obtaining your private. If you can't hold a heading and an altitude, then you are going to have issues right there learning that. Are you able to contact ATC and request flight following? If not, there is something else you are going to have to learn to do. I am sure there are many other examples as well.
 
I've been "in the process" of finishing my IR for the last 5 years…:(:mad2::D

Anyway, I've always found (personally) the theoretical knowledge hard to penetrate. As I'm over 40 now, I really have noticed a sharp decline in my abilities to retain information. I'm actually cramming as we speak right now, as I'm hopefully finishing up end of the month. What I've found the hardest subjects are procedures and that old nemesis of mine: weather. Weather has always been my weakness and here I am again trying to make sense of it all. Just reading an Aera Forecast (logically named an FA report) report gives me whole-body rashes. Radar Summary charts and Outlook charts - you can keep them all. Yet, I know they're important, and I have no choice. I just wish they were more user friendly.

Hopefully I'll get through it all without contemplating ritual Harakiri with a very blunt butter knife…. :D
 
It depends on the conditions you are doing your training flights in. If you under the hood in VFR conditions it isn't as hard as training in actual IFR. Part of that is psychological, and part of it is real with more turbulence and the possibility of picking up ice. I did my IFR training in Seattle and I was exhausted after most flights. It requires much more concentration than VFR flight and that is just plain tiring.
 
Melissa2983298 said:
Hello,

I'm getting ready to start my IFR training in a couple of weeks. However, I've heard a lot of stories how this is the most difficult rating to obtain...is this true?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I am doing mine now, I am about half way. It is fun and it is challenging. But when the instructor says look up and you are where you are supposed to be, it is a rush.
 
The IFR rating is very doable. I considered the effort level very similar to the effort I put in the private cert. IFR has more rules that directly impact the flight so there's more book learning. Work hard, it's worth it.
 
Like other have said, it depends.

For some translating the student/private emergency "flight solely by reference to instruments" into a a sustainable scan and control is a large hurdle. But that's probably pretty rare unless one has an instructor who doesn't spend the needed time at the early stages.

The larger hurdle for some tends to be the greater level of knowledge required. More detailed regs. Expectations of greater systems knowledge. And, above all else, instrument flight is about procedures and operating in a system where one pilot's error can have distant effects.
 
I guess it's different for everyone. I didn't think it was that bad, and that was still back when airplanes had ADFs! :) I thought it was a lot of fun, and I was super motivated. A hardcore geek, I discovered instrument charts halfway through my private, and I was absolutely mesmerized by the approach plates, enroute charts, etc etc, I just HAD to know how it all worked. Besides, I enjoyed talking to ATC on the radio, and I was dying to know what all that jargon instrument pilots threw around was all about. I also liked flying through & above clouds (as a passenger). Since, early on I didn't venture out too far from home base, my initial interest was more academic than practical (that changed soon after).

Anyway, I think getting your IR will make you a better pilot, at least while you train, then we get rusty & slack off again. :D If you have aspirations to take your flying "career" further (like flying on business, flying non-profit medical missions, commercial flying), IR is a must in a practical sense.
 
I realise that this is an old thread...but...why not. In case someone stumbles upon it via search engine like I did...

I am taking my instrument checkride later this month, so I'm not completely qualified to comment here...but I think instrument training was/is positively brutal. Much much more difficult than my private was, and has taken almost twice as long. As with anything, YMMV.

Now, to be fair, I got my PPL twenty years ago, and quit flying almost seventeen years ago. I decided to get back in the cockpit, get my BFR - sorry "flight review" - done, get a plastic license, and start instrument training. I'd never seen a gps in an airplane before, much less used one. Last I heard, Loran-C was going to save the world. So all of that weighs in on the difficulty, I'm sure. Probably the most difficult part was trying to figure out how to set up and use a Garmin 430 and 650. The UI on these units is horrid.

If you're reading this wondering if you should get your IFR ticket, the answer is "yes", in my opinion. As has been said above, it will make you a far better pilot in almost every imaginable way. But while some folks here thought it was "fun" or "easy" - and bless 'em all that it was - for me it was/is really tough.

Here's hoping the checkride goes well... <cross fingers>
 
Melissa2983298 said:
Hello,

I'm getting ready to start my IFR training in a couple of weeks. However, I've heard a lot of stories how this is the most difficult rating to obtain...is this true?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Welcome dude!


Most difficult no, that would probably be the initial CFI.

As far as easier, depends on how your noodle works.

Some folks have a hard time being good VFR pilots and find comfort in the more paint by numbers/procedural IFR world.

Some folks are more stick and rudder and eyeballs outside types and find VFR comes much easier than IFR.

Just depends on you, but I wouldn't worry too much about it so long as you get a good and EXPERIENCED, as in has a good amount of IMC time, CFII
 
I found it considerably more difficult than my PPL. A lot of that was because I had never bothered to work on my ability to hold a course and altitude well, and had relied too much on my autopilot during all my cross country flights prior to beginning instrument training. I also wish I had learned more about my GPS and how to utilize all its features prior to starting the training. I also wish I would have shot more VFR approaches prior to starting. It took a while for me to get proficient under the hood, and a lot of it was because things like setting up the GPS for the approach took too much of my concentration away from my scan, and made me get off course/altitude. Another factor was finding safety pilots to get extra practice in between lessons. And damn there were a lot of rules to learn!

But it did make me a much better pilot. It literally changed the way I fly. Even my wife noticed the difference.
 
I think he meant me :) If so, cheers James, thanks very much!
 
Not harder, just, different. A LOT more book work. Flying the airplane is still number one, but if you're still working on being an effective flyer it will be harder than PPL.
 
You have to hold altitude, talk to ATC, read and follow the charts and tune the radios. There is more equipment in the airplane that has to work correctly. And if you get in the clouds you have some serious consequences if things don't go right. So, yes, its harder IMO.
 
If you've taken 17 years off, yeah, instrument training is definitely going to be a challenge. For one thing, you're 17 years older, so learning takes place at a different pace. Sounds like the Geoff is motivated and going about it the right way. Don't forget to enjoy it too!
 
I know I’m far in the minority, personally I thought the commercial ride was the hardest, but that’s because I’m more analytical than artsy.
The IR was not easy, but it worked out fine. We didn’t have all this Garmin turbo 2000 stuff when I did it... But we did do stuff like NDB intersection holds with a fixed compass card and no DG. Used the mag compass.

I know some of you here can relate to that....
 
I found the CPL SES and land add on really fun and easy, was more of a fun flight than a check ride.
 
Private pilot is nearly all about learning stickmanship.
Instrument rating is nearly all headwork.
 
It almost seems that majority of the people replying to this thread say its not that difficult. What i am wondering is how long have you guys been flying VFR before you had started for your IR? I just got my PPL little over a year and was going to start my IR traing but i feel that there is so much more to learn in VFR.
 
Lenny said:
It almost seems that majority of the people replying to this thread say its not that difficult. What i am wondering is how long have you guys been flying VFR before you had started for your IR? I just got my PPL little over a year and was going to start my IR traing but i feel that there is so much more to learn in VFR.
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Guessing I had like 150-180hrs and a year or so of flying when I started on my IFR. 85% of that was tailwheel and backcountry stuff, but I did have a good grasp on radio work.
 
Lenny said:
It almost seems that majority of the people replying to this thread say its not that difficult. What i am wondering is how long have you guys been flying VFR before you had started for your IR? I just got my PPL little over a year and was going to start my IR traing but i feel that there is so much more to learn in VFR.
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I don’t think anyone said IR is easy. Especially if you get some oddball clearance that you’ve never heard before. But perhaps you’ve never done an arc, let alone an arc in.
 
Lenny said:
It almost seems that majority of the people replying to this thread say its not that difficult. What i am wondering is how long have you guys been flying VFR before you had started for your IR? I just got my PPL little over a year and was going to start my IR traing but i feel that there is so much more to learn in VFR.
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Lenny you're always learning in aviation. I've been at it a long time and still learning. The Instrument Rating will make you a better pilot. Get to it! Good luck.
 
Two of my colleagues have been pilots. Neither had any difficulty with the PPL. Both got pink slipped during the IR ride. Both are smarter than me. Small sample size, but it speaks to me.
 
steingar said:
Two of my colleagues have been pilots. Neither had any difficulty with the PPL. Both got pink slipped during the IR ride. Both are smarter than me. Small sample size, but it speaks to me.
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Bad CFIIs
 
steingar said:
Two of my colleagues have been pilots. Neither had any difficulty with the PPL. Both got pink slipped during the IR ride. Both are smarter than me. Small sample size, but it speaks to me.
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What makes smarter people any better? I have flown many smart people (as aCFI) that can’t grasp the concept... and many common folk who are great.

You really do need to get over yourself.
 
James331 said:
Bad CFIIs
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I think not. At least one (if not both) used a fellow who retired from teaching education at a University. That is, he taught people how to teach. Got a gold seal or gold star or something of the like from the FAA. I’ve flown with him and been impressed, and I definitely can’t say that about everyone.
 
Kritchlow said:
What makes smarter people any better? I have flown many smart people (as aCFI) that can’t grasp the concept... and many common folk who are great.

You really do need to get over yourself.
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Don’t need to get your panties in a wad just because you don’t agree with my conclusions. Just calling it as I saw it.

Funniest thing is they both did the IR in the same airplane. Maybe that farging son of a bastich Skylane had it in for them.
 
steingar said:
Don’t need to get your panties in a wad just because you don’t agree with my conclusions. Just calling it as I saw it.

Funniest thing is they both did the IR in the same airplane. Maybe that farging son of a bastich Skylane had it in for them.
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Right... it’s the planes fault.
 
Currently studying for the CPL written. 8 years since PPL, and 2 years since IFR.

Info I am taking on board is really feeding the inner aviation geek with more details of “why things are” and “why it behaves that way”. More so than past ground schools.

Really enjoying it.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Currently studying for the CPL written. 8 years since PPL, and 2 years since IFR.

Info I am taking on board is really feeding the inner aviation geek with more details of “why things are” and “why it behaves that way”. More so than past ground schools.

Really enjoying it.
Click to expand...

I’m thinking of doing my CPL also... I’m guessing it won’t be to bad???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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