Well, it actually ended on Saturday at 15:20 at Gloucester Airport with a first time pass of the IR Skills Test. 
This has been one of the hardest journeys I have taken, which started back in January when I started the TK. The Theory took approx. 3 months and then I started the flight at the beginning of June. I chose Rate One Aviation in Gloucester for the flight training because of location, equipment and their knowledge. Flight training totalled approx. 26 hours over 5 intensive 3/4 day sessions. I can’t believe it’s all over, I still feel I’m in shock. It feels like the end of a journey, but I know it’s only the end of the beginning and the learning will really start now. My thanks to Jim Thorpe and Mark Bills at Rate One.
well, congratulations, I can feel your joy. :-)
I’d like to ask a few questions if you don’t mind.
How many hours did you have before starting the training?
How many of those hours where on instruments?
How spread apart where the 5 intensive sessions?
Congratuations Rob2701!
Well done!
Well done, Rob2701.
The IR is the hardest of all things you can do in GA. The FAA DPE I had for the FAA IR told me the only harder thing is the CFII (instrument instructor). He said the CPL and the ATP are a “walk in the park”. The FAA IR was a lot harder than the JAA IR but the JAA IR was still a lot of work even though I did the “15hr” conversion route.
Your flying will be transformed from now on – if you use the IR correctly and get your hands on a suitable aircraft. No more scud running, no more studying VFR charts and trying to work out complex airspace. Just autoroute and fly (well, more or less 
).
Peter wrote:
No more scud running, no more studying VFR charts and trying to work out complex airspace
I don’t understand this. With VFR you can chose to fly free as a bird in G, or you can file a flight plan and be “guided” all the way from A to B through C/D air spaces and TMAs and anything in between. I can understand IFR is “easier” from some aspects, or more predefined, but it’s not like it is complicated flying VFR, at least not in Scandinavia, and not in Germany either by the looks of it.
Anyway, congratulation.
With VFR you can chose to fly free as a bird in G
The UK is easy!
The FAA IR was a lot harder than the JAA IR but the JAA IR was still a lot of work even though I did the “15hr” conversion route.
Then you have not seen the German IR rating. Compared to the classic german IR rating the FAA IR is a day at the beach :-) At least it felt like that for me. 35 hours flying, 15 hours in the simulator, a simulator checkride that was really hard, and TONS of theory …
Congratulations Rob – a major achievement. I know the weather this last weekend would have made scheduling the test and pre-test practice more difficult.
Peter wrote:
The FAA IR was a lot harder than the JAA IR
I’d comment that the EASA IR skills test would be considered just as hard as the FAA one (although different emphasis), and that you probably found the EASA test easier because you already had quite a few hours IFR experience by then. I would doubt the EASA CB IR is significantly easier to obtain than an FAA IR for a newbie.
LeSving wrote:
it’s not like it is complicated flying VFR
I’d say that if you are touring in foreign countries, it can be more difficult to understand the complexities of airspace/routings and work around them – for example, French danger areas, higher level “VFR airways”, likelihood of VFR transits through some zones. Those aspects can generally be forgotten when in the airways/IFR system, although they remain when flying IFR in Class G.
LeSving wrote:
I don’t understand this. With VFR you can chose to fly free as a bird in G
Although this is true in Scandinavia, I invite you to come down to France and do a flight in the Paris area, or anywhere in France on a weekday. Then we’ll discuss…
