It's official...

[usafhaynes1]

I'm mentally and emotionally exhausted but I am officially an IFR rated pilot. My mooney is getting IFR cert on Monday. Now it's time to learn ifr workload in my plane versus a Cessna g1000.

That check ride was difficult.

[Aron Peterson]

Way too go.  Now you get to go places and are not hampered.  Congrats!!!

 

Aron

[carusoam]

Congrats!

Best regards,

-a-

[funvee]

Congratulations!

[Rwsavory]

That's great. Congrats!

[RocketAviator]

Congratulations & I feel and have felt your pain myself!  

 

Once I got my IFR ticket I then learned I had just scratched the surface of what IFR was really all about at least for me!  Much of what was taught is or at least I have never used and much more I wish I had been taught regarding real IMC flying, if that makes any sense?  A CFII - ATP pilot told me right after I achieved my Instrument Rating "congratulations you just earned the right to kill yourself legally if you think you know anything about flying IMC".... he was so right and the learning curve never has never stopped or for that matter gotten any easier for me...!

 

It has been a great ride for me, I just wish it was easier, I had no idea of how much work it would be going forward!

 

I wish for you many safe and rewarding flights!   

[Oscar Avalle]

Congratulations!

[usafhaynes1]

LLL,

I want to pick your brain for all of your experience. I may be IFR rated, but I'm terrified of flying through actual imc. Why? 99% of my training was vmc.

Anyone else who has actual imc experience in a mooney please share your experiences so I can learn. I truly feel that I'm not ready to fly actual IMC conditions in my mooney. I want to learn so I don't become a NTSC fatality report.

[carusoam]

Do your first flights in VMC...

Then splurge on a CFI or CFII to support you in actual IMC flights.

It's like buying yourself a really nice birthday present!

You know exactly what you want...

How does that sound?

I am not a CFI.... But I know a couple here......

It's money well spent.

Best regards,

-a-

[bnicolette]

Congratulations are definitely in order. Way to go!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[1964-M20E]

LLL,

I want to pick your brain for all of your experience. I may be IFR rated, but I'm terrified of flying through actual imc. Why? 99% of my training was vmc.

Anyone else who has actual imc experience in a mooney please share your experiences so I can learn. I truly feel that I'm not ready to fly actual IMC conditions in my mooney. I want to learn so I don't become a NTSC fatality report.

I have some suggestions for you.

 

1. file IFR every time you fly even in VMC.  Keeps you in the system and communicating with ATC

2. Go on many short cross country flights 100 to 150NM on IFR plan in VMC with scattered  to broken clouds maybe 40 to 50 and file to be in the clouds.

3. Fly under the hood with a safety pilot to help build your confidence on an IFR plan doing approaches

4. Pick several days where it is 1500 scattered to broken file IFR and do multiple approaches at your airport.

5. Pick a nearby airport on a similar day and again file IFR and do multiple approaches.

6. For these flights do all the pre-flight needed have all your charts and plates ready and available

7 As time goes on you will build the confidence and go down to 700 to 800 overcast.

8. Find a day where it is about 900 to 1000 overcast and the tops are about 2500 to 3000 and shoot approaches to your airport.  While being vectored around you most likely will be above the clouds and you will shoot the approach through the overcast layer.  This is great because when you are on top you can settle down and get yourself ready for the approach.

 

The first time I went IFR on a "real flight" I was coming home from ORL.  There were many clouds and rain along my path.  Before I took off with my pax I took several deep breadths.  Once I was in the air and in IMC I focused on my scan flew the plane and everything was fine.

 

You have proven to the FA you are IFR qualified now you just need to prove it to yourself.

 

Advice to me was to take it easy in IMC at first plan your flights with >800 ceilings at your destination.

[Mike A]

Congratulations! Your IFR ticket definitely turns flying from a hobby to an actual mode of transportation.

I second the guys saying to get a CFII to go on your first real IMC trips. I used to bring mine on business trips until I got reasonably comfortable.

Think of your rating as a chance to keep learning. Like everything you will definitely still have good flights and bad flights. 2+ years into it I still have off days where I want nothing more than to not be in the soup.

[jnisley]

Congratulations!

1. File an IFR flight plan and fly the system every chance you get (even on the nicest days)

2. Start with high personal minimums and adjust them (up or down) depending on recent experience of both pilot and equipment. (In other words, anytime your plane has not been flown for a while or has had a mechanic work on it, be very careful, mechanics are human and they do mess up.)

3. Make sure your family/friends understand that an IFR rating isn't a "fix all" for dealing with weather, it's only an aid.

[RocketAviator]

Ditto... Ditto on what 9164-M20E said.  

A couple more things I would add.

 

File and fly just like it will be IFR on EVERY FLIGHT... Best thing I have ever done and it automatically keeps you current!  Sooner than later it will be IFR and you will be better prepared!

May I also suggest that if you are "terrified of flying through actual imc" don't do it on your own just yet, best to take a CFII or even another pilot with real (hopefully recent) IMC experience with you.   I could not encourage you enough and there so much to be said for having extra support while you get more comfortable, I don't know about you but I never had a switch go on and say you are ready, it came after much of what 9164-M20E suggested and there is NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING>>> NOTHING!

Also I suggest you stay out of thunderstorms and icing FOREVER.... THEY BOTH KILL no matter how good you or how good you think you and your plane are!!!

Practice your landing in winds as your skills permit, start light and move forward   I was taught by an old Marine pilot who said anyone can fly in good weather "you boy need to learn to fly when it is not perfect"... every time the wind blew as it does often in El Paso we flew!  He taught me how to fly the length of a runway and determine if the aircraft I was flying had sufficient cross wind control in order to land safely.  This was one of the best flying lessons I ever learned and have used it many times.  I think I read something like this technique on another post in Mooneyspace so I guess he was not the inventor of the techniques as he told me he was... LOL  In any case if you have ANY concerns DO NOT TRUST the terminal broadcast information and in many of the small airports I fly into have no weather!!! If in doubt test fly it, it is cheap insurance, great fun and great practice!

 

Don't be terrified of IMC, get as good as you can at it, I believe you are showing what I think is a good healthy fear & respect for Mother Nature and it will serve you well! 

 

I feel sure if you keep your sights set and understand it takes time and practice of good safe skill & habit forming & sound decision making  = experience = LIVE LONG enough to share your experience with others!

 

Keep me posted get a pilot buddy to hold you accountable in continually building your flying skills, fly often, even if you ride along with others and are not the PIC.  Offer to be the safety pilot for anyone who will have you (and that you are qualified to act as of course)!

 

You can do it! 

[RocketAviator]

One thing more I have personal minimums for planning purposes which are 1000' & 1 mile.  I am and have many times landed in less but I never start out if the forecast is less than my personal minimums.... why add more odds against what is already risk all be it a controlled risk a risk non the less!

 

These Mooney people are beyond fantastic with their sound advice and help, they have been great to me the short time I have been a Mooney owner.  There is such a wide range of experience here and not all shoes fit the same.  Find the ones that fit you and be the best at it!

 

You can do it..... 

[usafhaynes1]

Let the choir sing for all posts are exactly my personal considerations. My ifr certificate is a license to learn!

[DonMuncy]

I think that most all instrument rated pilots will agree with me, that flying "in" IMC is no problem at all. There are only two problems. First, is those first few seconds between the time you enter IMC and the time you get your mind on the gauges. Originally that terrified me, but after you experience it a few times, that feeling goes away. The second problem is the rapid rise in the pucker factor as you progress downward on an approach. Naturally, this problem goes away the instant you break out into VMC. You learn to handle this by not going unless the ceilings are forecast at 1000 feet. When you get comfortable breaking out at 1000, try 800, then 600,etc. Truth is, I don't fly real IMC often enough, so I still insist on 600 to 800 ft. 

[rbridges]

Congratulations.  Now get up there and stay current.  

[Nathan Peterson]

Nice job Captain!!!  

[flhelo]

Congrats!!

[DrBill]

WAY TO GO !!    I was at CPK a few months ago on a PNP flight.   Real nice airport.. Took the car to a local eatery and had a good time.

BILL

[aviatoreb]

Well done!

 

I felt the same way as you when I first got my IFR - it was months before I was willing to actually punch through a cloud.  But I took advice and I was filing IFR everywhere I went.  I had a friend whom I trusted for his good decision making but otherwise he was almost at the same point as me in his training - just a little bit ahead.  We punched through clouds together on flight plans, "light IMC" (high ceilings smooth air - cherry picked).  There is something to be said for NOT going with a CFI once you have had the proper training since then you KNOW the responsibilty and the success is on your own shoulders.  Flying with a good mate is a good thing.  I can say that almost 4 years on I am sometimes a little disappointed when a proper IMC day turns severe clear.  I do love preflighting my airplane on a gloomy day with sunglasses on my baseball cap knowing that I will need them in the sunshine in 15 min over the tops.

 

Do train without your autopilot and with limited technology.  Stuff doesn't always work as expect - esp autopilots.  Make sure you can handily.  I relearned that just last fall when the plastic on switch on my autopilot failed - and what do you know - it decided to fail on a proper imc flight.  No problem - I hand flew it.  The autopilot should be a convenience and not a necessity.

[Oscar Avalle]

 

I have some suggestions for you.

 

1. file IFR every time you fly even in VMC.  Keeps you in the system and communicating with ATC

2. Go on many short cross country flights 100 to 150NM on IFR plan in VMC with scattered  to broken clouds maybe 40 to 50 and file to be in the clouds.

3. Fly under the hood with a safety pilot to help build your confidence on an IFR plan doing approaches

4. Pick several days where it is 1500 scattered to broken file IFR and do multiple approaches at your airport.

5. Pick a nearby airport on a similar day and again file IFR and do multiple approaches.

6. For these flights do all the pre-flight needed have all your charts and plates ready and available

7 As time goes on you will build the confidence and go down to 700 to 800 overcast.

8. Find a day where it is about 900 to 1000 overcast and the tops are about 2500 to 3000 and shoot approaches to your airport.  While being vectored around you most likely will be above the clouds and you will shoot the approach through the overcast layer.  This is great because when you are on top you can settle down and get yourself ready for the approach.

 

The first time I went IFR on a "real flight" I was coming home from ORL.  There were many clouds and rain along my path.  Before I took off with my pax I took several deep breadths.  Once I was in the air and in IMC I focused on my scan flew the plane and everything was fine.

 

You have proven to the FA you are IFR qualified now you just need to prove it to yourself.

 

Advice to me was to take it easy in IMC at first plan your flights with >800 ceilings at your destination.

 

 

 

Really excellent advice. I would just add fly by the numbers! 

[carqwik]

Not much more to add...lots of excellent wisdom.  Like you, I had about very little time of real IMC when I got my ticket (trained in SoCal...surprisingly, didn't really get any marine layer flights for some reason).  I was not sure if I could ever really fly IMC by myself...then one day had to do an actual ILS in Palomar (KCRQ).  Thought I was going to suck up the seat through my butt...kept telling myself just fly the plane like in training.  it was a shallow layer but felt like it took a long time to get through it...  Then slowly got some more practice...a little bit more difficult IMC as I progressed...then a night time departure out of KSMO with a 4,000 foot marine layer.  Now that took a lot of concentration with freq changes, vectors, etc handed out by LA approach (before they made it all into Socal).  Absolutely beautiful at night to break out to the moon making the cloud tops look like a blanket. 

 

My suggestion would be to not take a CFII with you as you venture into light IMC at first...do it on your own to get a taste but make sure it's "easy" IFR.  Then, start to take on trips where the IMC time gets a bit more difficult each time.  Eventually, you'll get very comfortable doing it.  And as others said, avoid icing and t-storms like the plague.  Never ever fly in solid IMC if there is a possibility of t-storms without some kind of real time wx detection. 

[Hector]

Congrats!! Others have said it well. Set high personal minimums at first until you build confidence and experience.