I am not sure if this should be in here or in "Cleared for the Approach." I wrote this as a basic over view to help would-be and new IFR students to understand what the IFR training is all about so that they can see the big picture. Most of the course work I have seen starts teaching you about specific trees in the forest, but doesn't really describe the forest for you. As a result, some of the trees don't really make much sense at first. I have seen several posts asking about what is IFR training, so I don't think I am unusual in wanting to understand the big picture. Understand that this is just a general outline. There are a lot of specifics that you have to learn, and there are likely some areas of omission that some of the experienced CFIIs on here will point out. With that caveat, here goes:
The point of the IFR rating is to be able to fly from point a to point b without being able to see due to clouds. That means you have to be able to take off safely from an airport, climb to some type of en route course, and then come down and land safely. So, right there you have three phases of flight. But before you take off, you need to understand the pre-requisites for your flight. So, I think about IFR in four phases: 1) flight planning, 2) take off, 3) en route navigation, 4) approach to landing. One might also add a fifth category for emergency procedures, such as lost communications, lost instrumentation, and unusual attitude recovery, although these could also be addressed in the above categories.
Flight Planning:
This means understanding 1) what is required for you to be PIC in IFR (for example, your ratings and your recency of experience ("6 hits"-- six approaches, a hold, and tracking a nav signal in the last six months), and when you have to do an IPC)), 2) when IFR is required, 3) what equipment and condition is required of your aircraft, 4) what weather requirements there are for your planned flight, and 5) how to interpret the weather so that you can decide whether it is safe and legal for you to fly. The two big safety of flight weather issues for IFR are thunderstorms and ice. There are others, but these are the biggies. So you need to know if you are going to likely encounter either, and if so, what to do.
Of course, you need to plan for adequate fuel on board, and that means knowing how long you will be flying. This turns on your chosen route, and whether you have to plan to fly to an alternate airport. Whether you have to file and plan to be able to reach an alternate airport depends on the weather predicted at your intended destination, (The 1-2-3 rule) and whether your intended airport has a published approach procedure (if not, then you must always filing an alternate.) Whether you can select a particular airport depends on whether there are published approaches for that airport, any restrictions on use of that airport as an alternate airport (alternate minimums, as indicated by the triangle-A on the approach plate) or even specific prohibitions against using that airport as an alternate, and the predicted weather at that airport at the time of arival. Then there are the considerations of whether a particular airport, while legally permitted, is a good choice in light of the likely conditions when you would need to use it.
You will need to know how to file your flight plan.
Departure:
You need to know how to get your clearance.
You need to know the various types of departures that you can use to safely get away from the ground. There are four types of departures: 1) a diverse departure (basically just climbing strait out on the run way heading to a certain height, and then turning on the course given to you by ATC) 2) an obstacle departure procedure (which you find in the TERPS manual write-up for that airport, and which you know to look for if you see the triangle-T on that airports approach plate) 3) specific instructions from ATC, and 4) a SID (a standard instrument departure procedure) which ATC may assign to you. Departures 1 and 2 are what you are likely to perform at a non-towered airport, or maybe a class D. Departures 3 and 4 you are more likely to see at towered airports. Number 2 (ODP) is one that I think is not well addressed in the various texts I have seen, and is not really at all addressed on the FAA written, although I think it is critical. If you are well into your IFR training, and have no idea what an ODP is, or where to look to see if there is one at your airport, I strongly urge you to go research this topic.
En Route:
You need to know how to interpret the en route charts and how to navigate based on them. You need to know what the symbols mean, etc., and how you can locate yourself on them based on your VOR, ADF, LOC, etc. You need to know what the altitude requirements are so that you can determine how high you need to be in order to avoid obstructions, and to be able to receive acceptable navigational signal reception. Also, as will be addressed below, you need to know this so you can decide what to do if you lose radio communications.
You also need to know what are your mandatory reporting requirements-- specifically what you have to advise ATC. For example, loss of navigational equipment, a change in your estimated arrival time, or arrival at a mandatory reporting location if you are not in radar coverage.
Approach:
You need to know how to transition from your course on the en route charts to the airport. This could be simply flying direct if you are in VFR conditions while on your route of flight. If you aren't, then you have to be able to know how to transition from the en route course to the approach charts. This means figuring out how to navigate from your course to an IAF (initial approach fix), which is the required start of every approach unless there is an exception that allows you to fly direct to the final approach course. You need to know when you don't have to fly to the IAF.
You need to know how to fly a hold in case its necessary for sequencing or a course reversal.
You need to know when you are required to fly a course reversal, and how to do one in order to remain within the space requirements to ensure obstacle clearance.
You need to know how to think in three dimensions, and to know what altitudes you can descend to based on your location as you fly the procedure.
You need to know how to decide that you have missed the airport, and must fly the missed approach course, and how to interpret what the approach plate tells you to do when you go missed.
Much of your in-flight training experience will be spent here learning how to maintain situational awareness and control of the plan as you try to fly a specific course, tune the radios as necessary, descend at the proper times at the proper rates, time your legs, and make your required radio calls. This training will very likely start with basic instrument flight control training while not trying to do approaches so that you can finely hone your skills to permit you to be ready to fly approaches. This should also include learning the specific power settings that give you the particular forward speed and vertical speed for each part of a typical approach.
You need to understand the various types of approaches and how to do the ones your plane is equipped to handle (ILS, VOR, ADF, GPS, etc.). You need to understand the ceiling and visibility requirements for each type of approach.
Lost Comm issues:
The possibility of losing communications is a huge part of the design of the FAA IFR procedures. This can't be overstated enough. Hopefully you won't face this in real life. But the "system" is designed so that it can work even if you can't talk to ATC. As a result, you have to be able to know how to do all of the above procedures in the event that you lose radio capabilities. That means that you have to know how to follow each of the FAA navigational charts and information to make sure you don't hit any obstructions, and you know where to fly and when so that ATC will know how to plan for your safe arrival and clear traffic out of your way for you. And, most importantly, but often overlooked, you need to understand all of this so that if ATC tells you to do something that would run you into the ground (they do make mistakes) that you can recognize that it isn't safe to do what ATC tells you to do.
Instrument Failures:
You might lose a gyro, or have your pitot static system fail in flight. You need to know what these failure modes look like, and how to react so that you don't crash and die.
There are a lot of specifics under each topic I didn't touch on, and there are other areas some might add. But this is to give a 10,000 foot view of where you are going. Good luck.
The point of the IFR rating is to be able to fly from point a to point b without being able to see due to clouds. That means you have to be able to take off safely from an airport, climb to some type of en route course, and then come down and land safely. So, right there you have three phases of flight. But before you take off, you need to understand the pre-requisites for your flight. So, I think about IFR in four phases: 1) flight planning, 2) take off, 3) en route navigation, 4) approach to landing. One might also add a fifth category for emergency procedures, such as lost communications, lost instrumentation, and unusual attitude recovery, although these could also be addressed in the above categories.
Flight Planning:
This means understanding 1) what is required for you to be PIC in IFR (for example, your ratings and your recency of experience ("6 hits"-- six approaches, a hold, and tracking a nav signal in the last six months), and when you have to do an IPC)), 2) when IFR is required, 3) what equipment and condition is required of your aircraft, 4) what weather requirements there are for your planned flight, and 5) how to interpret the weather so that you can decide whether it is safe and legal for you to fly. The two big safety of flight weather issues for IFR are thunderstorms and ice. There are others, but these are the biggies. So you need to know if you are going to likely encounter either, and if so, what to do.
Of course, you need to plan for adequate fuel on board, and that means knowing how long you will be flying. This turns on your chosen route, and whether you have to plan to fly to an alternate airport. Whether you have to file and plan to be able to reach an alternate airport depends on the weather predicted at your intended destination, (The 1-2-3 rule) and whether your intended airport has a published approach procedure (if not, then you must always filing an alternate.) Whether you can select a particular airport depends on whether there are published approaches for that airport, any restrictions on use of that airport as an alternate airport (alternate minimums, as indicated by the triangle-A on the approach plate) or even specific prohibitions against using that airport as an alternate, and the predicted weather at that airport at the time of arival. Then there are the considerations of whether a particular airport, while legally permitted, is a good choice in light of the likely conditions when you would need to use it.
You will need to know how to file your flight plan.
Departure:
You need to know how to get your clearance.
You need to know the various types of departures that you can use to safely get away from the ground. There are four types of departures: 1) a diverse departure (basically just climbing strait out on the run way heading to a certain height, and then turning on the course given to you by ATC) 2) an obstacle departure procedure (which you find in the TERPS manual write-up for that airport, and which you know to look for if you see the triangle-T on that airports approach plate) 3) specific instructions from ATC, and 4) a SID (a standard instrument departure procedure) which ATC may assign to you. Departures 1 and 2 are what you are likely to perform at a non-towered airport, or maybe a class D. Departures 3 and 4 you are more likely to see at towered airports. Number 2 (ODP) is one that I think is not well addressed in the various texts I have seen, and is not really at all addressed on the FAA written, although I think it is critical. If you are well into your IFR training, and have no idea what an ODP is, or where to look to see if there is one at your airport, I strongly urge you to go research this topic.
En Route:
You need to know how to interpret the en route charts and how to navigate based on them. You need to know what the symbols mean, etc., and how you can locate yourself on them based on your VOR, ADF, LOC, etc. You need to know what the altitude requirements are so that you can determine how high you need to be in order to avoid obstructions, and to be able to receive acceptable navigational signal reception. Also, as will be addressed below, you need to know this so you can decide what to do if you lose radio communications.
You also need to know what are your mandatory reporting requirements-- specifically what you have to advise ATC. For example, loss of navigational equipment, a change in your estimated arrival time, or arrival at a mandatory reporting location if you are not in radar coverage.
Approach:
You need to know how to transition from your course on the en route charts to the airport. This could be simply flying direct if you are in VFR conditions while on your route of flight. If you aren't, then you have to be able to know how to transition from the en route course to the approach charts. This means figuring out how to navigate from your course to an IAF (initial approach fix), which is the required start of every approach unless there is an exception that allows you to fly direct to the final approach course. You need to know when you don't have to fly to the IAF.
You need to know how to fly a hold in case its necessary for sequencing or a course reversal.
You need to know when you are required to fly a course reversal, and how to do one in order to remain within the space requirements to ensure obstacle clearance.
You need to know how to think in three dimensions, and to know what altitudes you can descend to based on your location as you fly the procedure.
You need to know how to decide that you have missed the airport, and must fly the missed approach course, and how to interpret what the approach plate tells you to do when you go missed.
Much of your in-flight training experience will be spent here learning how to maintain situational awareness and control of the plan as you try to fly a specific course, tune the radios as necessary, descend at the proper times at the proper rates, time your legs, and make your required radio calls. This training will very likely start with basic instrument flight control training while not trying to do approaches so that you can finely hone your skills to permit you to be ready to fly approaches. This should also include learning the specific power settings that give you the particular forward speed and vertical speed for each part of a typical approach.
You need to understand the various types of approaches and how to do the ones your plane is equipped to handle (ILS, VOR, ADF, GPS, etc.). You need to understand the ceiling and visibility requirements for each type of approach.
Lost Comm issues:
The possibility of losing communications is a huge part of the design of the FAA IFR procedures. This can't be overstated enough. Hopefully you won't face this in real life. But the "system" is designed so that it can work even if you can't talk to ATC. As a result, you have to be able to know how to do all of the above procedures in the event that you lose radio capabilities. That means that you have to know how to follow each of the FAA navigational charts and information to make sure you don't hit any obstructions, and you know where to fly and when so that ATC will know how to plan for your safe arrival and clear traffic out of your way for you. And, most importantly, but often overlooked, you need to understand all of this so that if ATC tells you to do something that would run you into the ground (they do make mistakes) that you can recognize that it isn't safe to do what ATC tells you to do.
Instrument Failures:
You might lose a gyro, or have your pitot static system fail in flight. You need to know what these failure modes look like, and how to react so that you don't crash and die.
There are a lot of specifics under each topic I didn't touch on, and there are other areas some might add. But this is to give a 10,000 foot view of where you are going. Good luck.
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