So it goes...,

Jason608

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Mar 2, 2015
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174
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Arizona
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Jason608
I started my IFR journey August 2016. This has has not been the hardest thing I ever learned, but has been the most frustrating thing I have ever done. I started with the CFI that taught my ground school. An excellent but outdated CFI that frustrated me to no end. I had my hours complete, confident, ready to go and a few weeks before Christmas. Met with the DPE, just to find out the airplane had a failed co-pilot seat adjustment. Rescheduled six weeks later, ready to go, met with the DPE and my XC was not valid. Apparently a visual does not count as an approach. Another six weeks later, redo the XC, meet with the DPE, and find out the night before the club steam gauge C182 blew a rod. Ok, I will take the G1000, I had 7 hours in that, no problem. Missing maintenance documents, Checkride canceled. Screw this I quit. Probably would have busted due to lake of G1000, so a blessing in disguise.

Wait two moments, meet a great CFI at Sierra Aviation, out of Santa Fe, I'm based in Phoenix. Use all my American points, spent 6 weeks studying, starting over, becoming the best I can be. As of two weeks ago, I pass my IFR Checkride with flying colors, the best I can be. Get home, following weekend, take my first Solo IFR XC, goes great. Setup for this weekend to take the family to San Diego comic con, and the club plan has a bent rod. Fine, still have points, we will go commercial on on Friday.

Twitter blows up on Monday that an evolution went down at falcon. Not very uncommon since we have so much training traffic in the SW. However the story seems familiar. When I did the aviation seminars IFR ground school there was a student that quit the second day. Actually, I took the written, passed with a sucky 77% so I decided to take the class again. There were four of us in the seminar. Alan sat across from me, about the same age. He was running a technical training company out of Scottsdale AZ. Very successful and I was jealous. I spoke to him during the break, and he had a Cub and Cessna 400. However he wanted something faster, like an evolution or turbine. He hated the IFR class, left the second day saying he would self study and memorize the material. I remember wishing I was that confident because this IFR crap is hard.

Alan died last night just off of Falcon Field in that Evolution. Screw this, this crap is much harder than I thought.
 
I started my IFR journey August 2016. This has has not been the hardest thing I ever learned, but has been the most frustrating thing I have ever done. I started with the CFI that taught my ground school. An excellent but outdated CFI that frustrated me to no end. I had my hours complete, confident, ready to go and a few weeks before Christmas. Met with the DPE, just to find out the airplane had a failed co-pilot seat adjustment. Rescheduled six weeks later, ready to go, met with the DPE and my XC was not valid. Apparently a visual does not count as an approach. Another six weeks later, redo the XC, meet with the DPE, and find out the night before the club steam gauge C182 blew a rod. Ok, I will take the G1000, I had 7 hours in that, no problem. Missing maintenance documents, Checkride canceled. Screw this I quit. Probably would have busted due to lake of G1000, so a blessing in disguise.

Wait two moments, meet a great CFI at Sierra Aviation, out of Santa Fe, I'm based in Phoenix. Use all my American points, spent 6 weeks studying, starting over, becoming the best I can be. As of two weeks ago, I pass my IFR Checkride with flying colors, the best I can be. Get home, following weekend, take my first Solo IFR XC, goes great. Setup for this weekend to take the family to San Diego comic con, and the club plan has a bent rod. Fine, still have points, we will go commercial on on Friday.

Twitter blows up on Monday that an evolution went down at falcon. Not very uncommon since we have so much training traffic in the SW. However the story seems familiar. When I did the aviation seminars IFR ground school there was a student that quit the second day. Actually, I took the written, passed with a sucky 77% so I decided to take the class again. There were four of us in the seminar. Alan sat across from me, about the same age. He was running a technical training company out of Scottsdale AZ. Very successful and I was jealous. I spoke to him during the break, and he had a Cub and Cessna 400. However he wanted something faster, like an evolution or turbine. He hated the IFR class, left the second day saying he would self study and memorize the material. I remember wishing I was that confident because this IFR crap is hard.

Alan died last night just off of Falcon Field in that Evolution. Screw this, this crap is much harder than I thought.
Congrats for diligence and not taking short cuts.
 
I'm currently working just south of CHD and saw this all over the news. Overconfidence and underequipped kills every time. God bless you for taking the safe route


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After doing a little more investigation this morning. Looks like he earned his instrument rating, and he definitely had way more flying experience than I have. The interesting thing I found was the Evolution registration is "pending". Which leads me to believe he just got the airplane.
 
I suspect the Evolution is a handful when things are going well, and even more so when they're not. I suspect very strongly that the associate of the OP who crashed did so due to lack of experience, and that the cause of the crash was not related to IFR operations. There are guys who've flown all over the place IFR in certificated piston singles for decades.
 
that the cause of the crash was not related to IFR operations. There are guys who've flown all over the place IFR in certificated piston singles for decades.

Agreed. Doubt it was anything to do with IFR. VMC all weekend.
 
Read about the Evolution on their website. This comment stuck out:

This great Evolution airframe surrounds you in a custom, luxurious cabin, pressurized to 8000 feet at FL280 with a 6.5 psi pressure differential (better than the airlines!).

That is utter B.S. All the air carrier equipment I flew had a differential of 8.6 psi. Makes me wonder about some of their other claims.
 
Stay around aviation enough and you will know someone that piles one in. Stay with it longer and that list will grow longer as well.
 
You've had it worse then me, but only a little. I think I'm up to five different attempts to get the rating, and nothing yet.

I've passed the written (98), have all my hours, but I need a sign off. I left my instructor that I got most of that with because flying at night just wasn't working for me and he's not available on weekends. Even hired PIC to come out and do a three day finish up course. Cancelled that a day and a half in. Turns out, the weather is not their problem, and apparently they're under no obligation to ship a working flight simulator. Instructor made it clear that three days may well elapse and I'd have nothing for my $3000. So screw that.

The two year clock is ticking on the written and I just moved to a different state. Hopefully I'll find someone here and get it done, but...
 
The two year clock is ticking on the written and I just moved to a different state. Hopefully I'll find someone here and get it done, but...

Where are you located, I did not see a location in your profile? If you can make it happen, I can introduce you to the Santa Fe guys. Very old school and efficient. KSAF has all the approaches and an ARC. The DPE, another great guy, is usually available. Since I already had the hours, I spent most of the time in the simulator. $50hr for the sim $50 for the CFI.
 
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