IFR training...

Your description reminds me of my own JAR IR training I did 30 hours in the FNPT 1 and I had a very hard time just flying that thing and thought it was impossible to do all things at the same time. I thought I was a competent VFR pilot and seeing myself make all those mistakes got me very frustrated. My instructor was very good, he ignored most of the mistakes and just told me to be confident that it will fix itself over time.

I found the FNPT training to be a better use of my time than the actual aircraft training. Maybe because I did it at a large airport where a lot of time is lost with startup, taxi, departure, etc. and where every approach is a non standard approach (mostly because it has to be high speed to not block the airliners).

Also after getting the IR ticket, I didn't feel like a competent IR pilot. It took me a long time until I did my first flight below VFR conditions and until today I have never done a real approach below 800ft ceiling.

PS: I still remember my early PPL days when I was able to fly the aircraft and to do the radio but not at the same time...

IR training is hard, no question about that. Everybody finds it hard.

It does "click" eventually but it can take many hours.

My advice would be to never fly (in a sim or in a real plane) any IFR procedure unless you can do it "by hand" on the table. And never fly any IFR procedure in the plane unless you can fly it on the sim (and even a cheap sim - FSX with a €10 joystick will do). This is because one is not learning effectively when doing too much other stuff, and flying on instruments is hard enough without also having to work out what some approach plate is saying.

So, buying FSX and playing with it at home will save you thousands of Euros.

I did the UK IMC Rating and using FS2000 I saved many many hours. I still needed about 20 hours of flight training to pass; the minimum dual requirement was 15hrs. A few years later I did the FAA IR which took another 25hrs (which was really hard but I was flying twice a day, and everybody will get very good flying twice a day). A few years later I did the JAA IR conversion which took another 25hrs or so (flying once a week, which is not really enough). Add that all up

The current JAA IR is 50hrs for SE, 55hrs for ME, so you have a lot more to play with, but you still don't want to take say 70hrs (a big waste of €), hence my suggestion of sim time at home. And it's easy to take 70hrs or more, with e.g. breaks in flying due to very bad weather, work issues, etc. Quite a number of UK IR students go way past 50hrs. Also some schools operate in a way which stretches out the training...

I sometimes become "blocked" when I need to read-back ATC instructions, forget to descent when flying over the FAF, forget to put the altimeter on 1013 when flying a SID cleared to FL50, etc, etc.

I think this entirely normal. It takes a while before you can catch up with the aeroplane. When I was training in the US, I started by writing on the kneeboard any alt or frequency or squawk before reading it back until I was sufficiently ahead to be able to put them in from memory. You are learning a lot in a short time, it clicks but the road to that point can take a while and be frustrating.

With things like the pre-takeoff checks, if you try to do just one thing at a time ie run up, clearance, line up (including pre takeoff items), it is harder to forget things.

writing on the kneeboard any alt or frequency or squawk before reading it back until

I still do that and I don't see reason why to stop this practice :)

BTW I don't do anything else while getting the clearence - I simply don't accept it if I do something else - you can always declare "not ready to copy".

BTW I don't do anything else while getting the clearence - I simply don't accept it if I do something else - you can always declare "not ready to copy".

Indeed, that is now my SOP as well after having stalled my aircraft in convective IMC once while trying to write down a lengthy clearance. Aviate - navigate - communicate, the classical thing.

lenghtaman

Reading you post reminded me of a comment from an observer sitting in the back seat when I was doing a IFR training flight. He said every other comment from me to the student was the same 2 words "what's next ?" :)

What you are describing is pretty classic for a new IFR pilot. The challenge of IFR flying is to stay ahead of the airplane. You will find that as you gain experience you will get use to the rhythm of IFR flying which helps in being able to anticipate what to do next. In general you should not be learning anything new while in the airplane, you should be practicing skills you have already learned in the sim.

As Peter and others have said practicing on a MSFS is a huge help to build your procedural skills. The only caveat is this should be directed training. That is you should be doing exercises assigned to you from your instructor and a screen shot of the track to show your instructor is a good idea.

Finally I would like to make an observation. I will start by saying please do not take this the wrong way. I have taught around 10 PPL's for the instrument rating. All were safe pilots but not one could fly the aircraft accurately enough to commence IFR training. In every case the first 2 to 5 hours of dual was a VMC review of straight and level, climbs, descents, turns, at various airspeeds and combinations and practice keeping the aircraft in trim. Only when they could accurately set the correct pitch attitude for what performance was desired and set the right amount trim with out a lot of experimentation, did we put the hood on and start the IF drills.

To be a good IFR pilot the flying part has to be automatic as you need most of your brain cells to listen to the radio, configure the nav aids, keep situational awareness etc etc. If you are struggling to hold altitude and heading and having to constantly retrim then there won't be enough brain cells left over for the IFR stuff.

So my advice is if you are not progressing in your course a review of basic aircraft handling may be worth while.

If you are struggling to hold altitude and heading and having to constantly retrim then there won't be enough brain cells left over for the IFR stuff.

Funnily enough I highlighted this to a friend on the weekend who was doing a night vfr rating. I told him that I thought accuracy was the biggest difference an IR made for your general flying.

He went out that night and said he held every altitude to +-50ft. That sort of thing sets you up for instrument rating training.