Logging Actual Instrument Time without Instrument Rating

[201er]

I made another video discussing how the FAA allows a private pilot log actual instrument time even without an instrument rating! Helpful if you are building time to apply for an instrument rating, but not always a good idea!

 

 

[skydvrboy]

I had one of those black hole incidents right after getting my license with my whole family onboard.  I took off at night with a high cloud layer from a rural western Kansas airport that I was fairly familiar with having been there a few times during the day.  Everything seemed perfectly normal until I left the runway lights behind and then... WHOA!!!  Not even a single farmhouse light in sight with the small town directly behind me.  I immediately went head down and kept telling myself, just keep the wings level and keep climbing, there's nothing out there.  I didn't look up from my gauges until I reached 1000'.  By then I could see some nearby towns and started my turn for home.  One of the scariest flying moments I've had.

[Flash]

2 hours ago, skydvrboy said:

I had one of those black hole incidents right after getting my license with my whole family onboard.  I took off at night with a high cloud layer from a rural western Kansas airport that I was fairly familiar with having been there a few times during the day.  Everything seemed perfectly normal until I left the runway lights behind and then... WHOA!!!  Not even a single farmhouse light in sight with the small town directly behind me.  I immediately went head down and kept telling myself, just keep the wings level and keep climbing, there's nothing out there.  I didn't look up from my gauges until I reached 1000'.  By then I could see some nearby towns and started my turn for home.  One of the scariest flying moments I've had.

I had a similar experience in rural Mississippi. What made it scary was that I wasn't expecting it. It's one thing to read about this kind of thing and another to live through it.

[201er]

6 hours ago, skydvrboy said:

I had one of those black hole incidents right after getting my license with my whole family onboard.  I took off at night with a high cloud layer from a rural western Kansas airport that I was fairly familiar with having been there a few times during the day.  Everything seemed perfectly normal until I left the runway lights behind and then... WHOA!!!  Not even a single farmhouse light in sight with the small town directly behind me.  I immediately went head down and kept telling myself, just keep the wings level and keep climbing, there's nothing out there.  I didn't look up from my gauges until I reached 1000'.  By then I could see some nearby towns and started my turn for home.  One of the scariest flying moments I've had.

Well congratulations, instrument rated or not, you can log actual instrument time for the time you operated the aircraft solely by reference to instruments under actual instrument flight conditions. 

[Hank]

10 minutes ago, 201er said:

Well congratulations, instrument rated or not, you can log actual instrument time for the time you operated the aircraft solely by reference to instruments under actual instrument flight conditions. 

I don't log Actual in minutes, ever since my first lesson the logbook matched the Hobbs / tach in tenth-hour increments. 

But my first black hole departure got my attention!