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Instrument Rating done. What next?

great write up @fattony.
Where is the thank you button ;-)

Fairoaks/EGTF

Many thanks for the writeup, Fattony.

It obviously resonates with my JAA IR study… except I did 7 exams of mostly garbage whereas you did 14

Most people fly holds using some adhoc method e.g. NAV to the fix and HDG for the rest of it, and those with the very latest avionics can fly them automatically. The FTO industry has developed a complex procedure involving “gates” but I don’t know any private pilot who flies holds that way, and modern commercial traffic flies them using automation also.

As you seem to be based around Shoreham, I’ll drop you a line if I am going somewhere IFR.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

fattony wrote:

it’s a matter of finding the right button on the audio panel, listening out for the Morse, comparing the Morse with what’s written on your plog all while maintaining straight and level in IMC, not deviating by more than 5 degrees heading and not by more than 100 ft of assigned level.

Those of you that fly IFR regularly will do all that as second nature

I don’t know about others but I doubt I would pass an initial IR right now; in real life your skills deteriorate in certain ways; you almost never fly holds and if you do the autopilot/FMS does it, you almost never fly an NDB approach, and the autopilot is on while you fiddle with the radios!

The Initial IR test is a rite of passage to some extent, I can see why it is so difficult and doubt it could ever be made easier. It’s the same as all exams, I once knew a lot about electromagnetic field theory, but that was 35+ years ago. However the qualification that included this knowledge has opened doors for me.

Darley Moor, Gamston (UK)

@fattony What an informative, detailed and inspiring post about your route to the IR. Thanks for taking the time to share and we look forward to hearing about your future adventures…

UK, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

As you seem to be based around Shoreham, I’ll drop you a line if I am going somewhere IFR.

Thanks. That would be wonderful. I actually live in Surrey but Shoreham is only an hour’s drive. In fact, I saw you there last week. I was going to come over and say hello but I was very close to my skills test and was feeling the pressure at that point.

Fairoaks, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

You can’t be serious… Even if you spend millions, you are still looking at a “slow SEP” sort of speed and if you are lucky half the range. And the hourly cost is huge compared to piston GA.

Semi serious. It is all just nonsense really. Speed, cost, range means nothing if no other options will get you where you want to go. Where you want to go therefore almost always coincide with the places you actually are able to go to, in comfort, and without it taking too much time using whatever plane you have. Only a helicopter will bring you to “all” the places you want to go to. A bigger and faster plane will get you farther, in more comfort and faster, but it won’t get you to that little paradise of an inhabited island you actually would go to, if you could.

It reminds of an old joke about the girls in Rio, only turned upside down.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

The FTO industry has developed a complex procedure involving “gates” but I don’t know any private pilot who flies holds that way

It is a UK thing, and may have roots in the RAF, and if you have to teach it, you develop a certain affection for the subtlety, and in all fairness, intelligence in setting you up to intercept the QDM smoothly. Like a short wave signal that comes and goes, UK IR examiners focus on this portion, while other times they regard the NDB hold as an impractical exercise and might just check that you can adjust for wind and more or less find your way back to the beacon. Tracking QDR beacon outbound on the procedural approach is treated much more carefully. Having said this, Peter’s bête noire, the 170A, does seem to try and gold plate the NDB hold.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom
37 Posts
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