Instrument training

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Harrisono

Filing Flight Plan
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Dec 1, 2025
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Harrison
I was talking with a family friend over thanksgiving about what I should do for instrument. I've just been trying to save to afford instrument. I am currently in college getting a degree while flying at the same time. In two weeks I will be going home for Christmas break for about a month. Family friend is a CFI and has offered to help me and instruct with a plane that is a lot cheaper than what I am paying at my current flight school. Main question is should I do a couple instrument flights at my school before I start with him or just wait until then? I have my written in a couple of weeks so I have the ground pretty much down.
 
Better ask the flight school. Are you training under part 141?

Anyway I’d do it but with the understanding the hours may not apply to the school.
 
There’s no harm/no foul working on basic attitude flying and scan, just understand those hours may not be usable if your current program is a Part 141 program.
 
I'm currently in a part 61. Getting a degree in Business and doing a part 61 mom and pop shop on the side.
 
Harrisono said:
I was talking with a family friend over thanksgiving about what I should do for instrument. I've just been trying to save to afford instrument. I am currently in college getting a degree while flying at the same time. In two weeks I will be going home for Christmas break for about a month. Family friend is a CFI and has offered to help me and instruct with a plane that is a lot cheaper than what I am paying at my current flight school. Main question is should I do a couple instrument flights at my school before I start with him or just wait until then? I have my written in a couple of weeks so I have the ground pretty much down.
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don't close the door on the school but, save the mooney and fly with your cfi friend, but also realize you can get flight time credit / practice with a cfi but time required to be indorsed for ifr training may have to be with a CFII. I did my ifr training with a cfi friend (we worked on ifr stuff under fogle's in vfr conditions, perfectly legal) Then finished up with a CFII, much lower the cost of going to a commercial school. Both the cfi friend and CFII were independent. The quality of training was at least equal to a school and may have been better.
 
Do some lessons at the school.
I had a couple starts and stops with a couple different schools/instructors for various reasons when I started instrument training.
For me I liked the different teaching methods people used.
Interestingly, the guy I finished with was the only one that had me flying different power settings and configurations, turns and climbs before we even did anything else.
Looking back, that should be what every instructor starts with because you fly those settings all the time in training.
 
Getting your IR will take as much if not the same time / hours as your PPL did. Plan accordingly. IMHO, don't short change school at this time. Which means if you can't keep a constant pace on IFR training, if you'll be dragging it out because of school and finances, don't do it now.
 
Why don't you use your instrument time with your instructor at home to hone your basic "flying by the numbers" training. Then when you start your IR at school, you will already have the basic scan and the idea o power setting/attitude numbers down, although the numbers will change if you transition to a different aircraft. But the principles are the same in any aircraft once you know the "numbers." Once you get past the basics, it's a ton of approaches and instrument XC time, plus getting comfortable with the radio work in the system.
 
chemgeek said:
Why don't you use your instrument time with your instructor at home to hone your basic "flying by the numbers" training. Then when you start your IR at school, you will already have the basic scan and the idea o power setting/attitude numbers down, although the numbers will change if you transition to a different aircraft. But the principles are the same in any aircraft once you know the "numbers." Once you get past the basics, it's a ton of approaches and instrument XC time, plus getting comfortable with the radio work in the system.
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I like this. :yeahthat:

The problem with instrument training is the progression of the lessons. @Harrisono, the biggest problem with "random" instrument training is that it's casual. I can easily picture a friend, even a CFII friend, showing you how cool it is to fly an instrument approach and see that runway right in front of you. But think back to when you learned to land as a student pilot. There was a whole bunch of airwork to accomplish - airspeed control, slow flight, stall avoidance, even ground reference maneuvers - before you were ready to fly a decent pattern, let alone land unassisted. That's even truer for instrument training.

If your friend is going to do what @chemgeek suggests, great (even if the target airspeeds are different than what your eventual CFII wants to see). But beyond that, I'd be concerned about creating bad habits that take longer to fix than learning it correctly at the beginning.
 
Start under the hood and fly straight and level, then climbs and descents to a new straight and level altitude, then climbing and descending turns. Level means within 50 feet, straight means within 5 degrees.

This is the intrinsic required skill that IMHO determines future IMC/IFR comfort. Yes, speeds are important, but you are in a spam cam where 90 knots will do just about everything anyhow - climb, cruise, approach, etc. Approaches are relatively easy, though navigators may have some buttonology to learn of course.

Once you are comfortable, start doing the same thing partial panel. The goal is that down the road on a dark and wet night, you'll be comfortable on the gages to the degree required. Getting the rating will make you are better pilot; being able to actually continuously use the rating in earnest will require dedication and probably your own aircraft down the road.
 
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