Instrument Rating

[Htwjr]

Just got my instrument rating this morning.  I have had my ppl and the mooney for 3 years and I have really learned a lot from this forum that no doubt helped with the ir.  I wanted to say thanks to everyone here for the advice.   I will be making a donation to the site but keep in mind that most of my money lately has been going to the plane, gas and instructors.  Thanks

[carusoam]

Congrats!

gaining experience is like making MS donations, start with small and comfortable steps before taking on too much... 

File and fly often!

Best regards,

-a-

[RLCarter]

Congrats

[Brian Scranton]

NICE WORK!!!! 

[Oldguy]

Congratulations!

[kortopates]

Congrats! Now comes the fun part and the hard part - staying proficient. Don't loose those partial panel skills you worked so hard to get - your life could depend on them.


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[XXX]

Way to go!

 

 

[clh]

Good Job

[N201MKTurbo]

Cool!

Now you can go fly blindly through bumpy thunderstorms and get ice on your plane! Have Fun!

 

I just noticed your N#. I owned N6319Q for 19 years. Your plane must have been sniffing my planes tail on the production line. The current owner is a Mooneyspacer but he doesn't post much.

Edited November 11, 2016 by N201MKTurbo

[DVA]

Congrats! Now file IFR every time you take a trip regardless of the weather and learn how to fit in smoothly and confidently. Ask for and shoot full approaches on your trips and post what you learn here so others can benefit from your hard work and investment. 

[Danb]

WTG 

[DonMuncy]

Congratulations. Your use or your plane should go up considerably.

[thinwing]

On 11/11/2016 at 1:14 PM, DVA said:

Congrats! Now file IFR every time you take a trip regardless of the weather and learn how to fit in smoothly and confidently. Ask for and shoot full approaches on your trips and post what you learn here so others can benefit from your hard work and investment. 

That's is actually how it's done

[carusoam]

If you can focus on it... 10 days...

If you need to spread things out cause work gets in the way... a month...

If you need to spread things out because finances get in the way...  a year...

If you need to spread things out because life gets in the way... a decade...

First time I tried, it took a decade...

I tried one of the ten day programs,  that is a cognitive overload challenge...  it probably took a couple of weekend days to finish.  Some days got lost due to weather!

Xmas vacation time is what I used...

If you want the IR, just get started... 

 

Best regards,

-a-

[gsxrpilot]

It took me a year to do it. But I was just taking a lesson whenever I had the time to fit one in. I also didn't have an airplane at the time. Now as an owner of a Mooney, I can't imagine not having the rating. 

[Danb]

I was transitioning to a Mooney and getting my Ifrating at the same time no hurry took about 2-3 months.

[AndyFromCB]

On 11/11/2016 at 2:24 PM, kortopates said:

Congrats! Now comes the fun part and the hard part - staying proficient. Don't loose those partial panel skills you worked so hard to get - your life could depend on them.


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Better yet, get a standby gyro or electronic standby like the Garming G5 if you're planning on flying real IFR. Proficient in training doesn't always translate into proficient under helmet fire. That would be the first thing I'd put in any aircraft that doesn't have one yet.  Plenty of other things to kill you while aviating, no reason why a blown vacuum pump should be one of them.

[Bob_Belville]

2 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

It took me a year to do it. But I was just taking a lesson whenever I had the time to fit one in. I also didn't have an airplane at the time. Now as an owner of a Mooney, I can't imagine not having the rating. 

Similar, it took me six calendar months. I bought my first Mooney right after starting instrument training in a 172. I had 32 hours under the hood when I got the rating. I remember taking a weekend ground school prep for the written which was given the next day.

[kortopates]

Better yet, get a standby gyro or electronic standby like the Garming G5 if you're planning on flying real IFR. Proficient in training doesn't always translate into proficient under helmet fire. That would be the first thing I'd put in any aircraft that doesn't have one yet.  Plenty of other things to kill you while aviating, no reason why a blown vacuum pump should be one of them.

Of course that's the smart thing to do. And from other post you seem like the type that takes safety of equipment and your personal proficiency very seriously.
But my point is it doesn't relieve us of needing to practice partial panel with our specific equipment. But it should make it pretty easy with an extra AI, especially when you know how to use your GPS track info.
But we continue to see fatal accidents from vacuum pump loss. IMO, it stems from the same attitude of "I don't do hard IFR". They're just planning to descend or climb through a layer so they really don't believe they need a backup AI - after all they are starting with bare bones 6 pack and radio's. They often have other panel priorities. And they don't think they need to maintain their partial panel skills to do casual IFR either. But they are the most likely to become a statistic when they loose their vacuum pump and need to descend through a layer - as we saw again just this past May.
On the other hand, those that train for true IFR even though they may never be planning to get into it are the ones that will do fine. And since they are working hard to maintain proficiency they know how hard it really is without a standby AI and are the most likely to install them.


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[201er]

Welcome to the better pilot club 

[midlifeflyer]

16 hours ago, Scrabo said:

Congratulations 

I have been thinking about trying it again, I started a few years ago but life got in the way. 

Whats the average length of time to get the IFR ?

Mine was 9 months, mostly training evenings after work.

[Guest]

I don't imagine that the FAA issues two instrument ratings IFR "light" and IFR "hard" do they?  They don't do it in Canada.  

Some form of back up attitude gyro makes the most sense.

Clarence

[peevee]

On 11/11/2016 at 3:14 PM, DVA said:

Congrats! Now file IFR every time you take a trip regardless of the weather and learn how to fit in smoothly and confidently. Ask for and shoot full approaches on your trips and post what you learn here so others can benefit from your hard work and investment. 

Man, I wouldn't even consider a cross country vfr. Being on an ifr plan makes everything so much easier. 

[Hank]

26 minutes ago, peevee said:

Man, I wouldn't even consider a cross country vfr. Being on an ifr plan makes everything so much easier. 

It's not hard. Your preflight weather check will tell you all you need to know about MOAs and other SUA. Then get in the plane and go if the weather is good enough. I took my wife 1320 nm each way, from WV to WY and back, the year after I bought my Mooney. Started Instrument training a year later, completely unrelated to our flycation. Lots of flightseeing and ground-bound sightseeing both ways--it was a great trip!

Alohabetically, WV --> WY is pretty small, but it's a pretty far distance on a map . . .

Edited December 11, 2016 by Hank

[kpaul]

1 minute ago, Hank said:

Alohabetically

Now that is a new one for me.  You must have spent some time in Hawaii.