Realistic instrument schedule?

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MIFlyer

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MIFlyer
Background: ASEL Private (a bit over a year ago). work full time plus family.

Goal, get good instrument training, quickly.

I'm working with one of our club instructors to map out a plan, but thought I'd get some other perspectives as well.

I have zero instrument time, will be training (hopefully starting end of month) in our club 172s (dual VOR, GNS430W). I have about 30 hours in these planes, and almost all of my hours at this airport

I could see flying between 1-2x per week, with a "sprint" possible around Christmas/new years when work slows down for two weeks (potentially flying as often as once per day, except Christmas eve and day).

how quickly can I realistically go through this? If I fly

2 x per week for
Nov 27th
Dec 4
Dec 11
Dec 18
then, dec 26-jan 1 (6 days) fly say 4-6 of those days

If a lesson is 1.5 in the air, then the low side is 1x per week for 4 weeks plus say 3 of the 6 holiday days would be 7 lessons at 1.5 each so 10.5 in the logbooks

if it works out well (2x per week and all 6 of those days) then I could have 21 hours in before the end of the year. and could fly say 6 times per month January -> checkride (so 10 hours/month) would get me to 40 hours at the end of February, so is it realistic to think i'll finish in march, or possibly april if I can do this schedule?

Flight instructors are great, mostly ex (or current) airline guys. Chief instructor is also a former DPE and has seen a lot. Great group to learn from.
 
AT LEAST twice a week. More is even better. That's been my experience teaching instrument students. So, you have a good plan. I'd even try and fly with different CFIIs as it sounds like you have a good bunch there. Learn something different from them.
 
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If you've done the written and are close to 50 XC PIC you're ripe for a 10 day course.

Might need to use a week of 2018 vacation time.

Otherwise, yah, April or May are realistic. I say that because I'm a bit pessimistic and nothing goes on plan, so something will keep you from flying the schedule you outlined.
 
Hi Mscard. yes, chief instructor says that they agree on a syallabus and talk pretty frequently, so it's easy to find one of 3-4 people who can fly with you, which makes scheduling better. our club planes don't fly much in the winter, so plane should be generally available which should help.

interesting that you recommend even more frequently than 6x per month. IR seems like something that people seem to take a long time to accomplish. I want very good training, but would also like to get the IR done an then get back to flying for fun again.
 
Ravioli said:
If you've done the written and are close to 50 XC PIC you're ripe for a 10 day course.

Might need to use a week of 2018 vacation time.

Otherwise, yah, April or May are realistic. I say that because I'm a bit pessimistic and nothing goes on plan, so something will keep you from flying the schedule you outlined.
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yes, that's interesting. I'm thinking that if I can get 20 hours in over the next 6 weeks, that I can always do a finish up after the first of the year.

Since my plan is to buy an Aztec, I could also get the 20 or so hours in, and then go to Prairie air to get my multi, finish the IR and log 20 or so hours in the PA-23, which will help my first year insurance premiums.
 
MIFlyer said:
Hi Mscard. yes, chief instructor says that they agree on a syallabus and talk pretty frequently, so it's easy to find one of 3-4 people who can fly with you, which makes scheduling better. our club planes don't fly much in the winter, so plane should be generally available which should help.

interesting that you recommend even more frequently than 6x per month. IR seems like something that people seem to take a long time to accomplish. I want very good training, but would also like to get the IR done an then get back to flying for fun again.
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By flying with different instructors you may pick up tips/techniques from them, which broadens your knowledge. By flying a minimum of 2 times a week you hopefully won't regress. For any certificate or rating this is the case, and why I always say at least twice a week for Private, Instrument etc. You always build on previous lessons and flying a lesson 2-3 times a month you will end up repeating previous lessons, more often you most likely won't. Good luck!
 
I did mine in 6 weeks. I was flying 4-6 times a week. My CFII went to OSH the fifth week, so I did my written and oral prep that week.

It can be done on your schedule, but the 2 times a week in the beginning is going to put you behind the curve since weather has a way of getting in the way.
 
texasag93 said:
I did mine in 6 weeks. I was flying 4-6 times a week.
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About the same here. I decided to take a few months off after my last job ended in January 2016 during which I got my instrument rating.

I did mine in about 5-7 weeks flying instruments a maximum of 5 times per week with each flight (except the cross country) being 1-2 hours. I still went up solo here an there to keep my tailwheel currency and had a couple days where I did 2 flights, one instructional one solo as I decided to also complete night, towered landings and my long cross-country for my commercial while I had an abundance of time on my hands.

I started out Part 141 January 11, 2016 and moved quickly to my first stage check about a week later but after lots of flying and money over the next 2 weeks with little progress on stage check #2 due to a game of "musical instructors" and the rigid inability of the Part 141 school to move on to section 3 of the syllabus while waiting for the chief instructor to clear his 2-3 week backlog and complete my stage check, I decided ot go back to part 61 at the beginning of February.

Starting out part 61 in February, I lost about a week due to my instructors availability, a needed BFR/safety review for the flight club I was in and just transitioning and determining where I was at, what I still needed to learn and work on coming out of part 141; basically syncing my instructors part 61 syllabus/methodology with the part 141 syallabus. I then lost about another week in February due to weather and plane availability but I was pretty much ready for my checkride by the end of February; I needed a couple more hours that we planned to complete in 3 or 4 flights over the week prior to the checkride to help polish everything off.

Knowing I was going to lose the last 3 days of February and first 4 days of March to a planned vacation by my instructor took and the next 7 days after that to my own vacation, I tried to get a DPE for late in the 2nd week of March but I tried over a dozen DPE's and none of them had availability or had already booked checkrides up to their limit for the quarter. The best I was able to do was schedule the first available slot in the new quarter on April 4 so I lost almost 3 weeks to DPE availability. I didn't fly many instrument training sorties in March; I did 1 flight of an hour the 2nd and 3rd week and 2 flights of an hour the 4th week just to keep fresh/current which was also enough to complete my needed hours. I then flew 3 flights of 1.5 hours each doing mock-checkrides in the week prior to the check ride.

All told it was 12 weeks from start to finish but 3 of them were spent not flying at all, 2-3 were spent flying lightly while waiting on the DPE or chief examiner and there was 1 week in there spent transitioning between Part 141 and Part 61 because I foolishly though Part 141 would help me get the rating faster. Had I started out Part 61 from the start, I probably would have had my check ride at the end of February before my instructor went on vacation.
 
Ravioli said:
If you've done the written and are close to 50 XC PIC you're ripe for a 10 day course.

Might need to use a week of 2018 vacation time.

Otherwise, yah, April or May are realistic. I say that because I'm a bit pessimistic and nothing goes on plan, so something will keep you from flying the schedule you outlined.
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If you want it now the 10day course is great, take some time off and get it done. Your local people might be good but sitting in the left seat of a A320 for thousand of hours does not make a real good CFII.
 
Back in my instructing days, if a student came to me and was willing to fly twice a week, I got most done in 40 hours of instrument dual. I planned instrument lessons at 2 hours flying and 1 hour of ground. Not a 10 day program but 9-10 weeks.

The biggest issue I see are CFII that haven't really flown IFR themselves. They may have academic knowledge, but very little actual knowledge. One simple test is to ask them if they train in actual instrument conditions. If the answer is no, find another instructor.
 
jonnyjetprop said:
Back in my instructing days, if a student came to me and was willing to fly twice a week, I got most done in 40 hours of instrument dual. I planned instrument lessons at 2 hours flying and 1 hour of ground. Not a 10 day program but 9-10 weeks.

The biggest issue I see are CFII that haven't really flown IFR themselves. They may have academic knowledge, but very little actual knowledge. One simple test is to ask them if they train in actual instrument conditions. If the answer is no, find another instructor.
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Train in instrument conditions might be hard in the south west or other parts that do not see that opportunity. If you can train in actual instrument conditions that's great not everyone gets that chance and after the rating is a poor time to experience it for the first time. If you want to get it done take the 10 day program and get it done or 9-10 or more weeks. Whatever way you go you will be able to file and go IFR most flights are not hard IFR so just get it done.
 
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