Where to do IR Flight Test

You might like the DA40. Very easy to operate with benign handling. You might also like the situational awareness the G1000 provides. Unfortunately the input of commands to the G1000 with double knobs that sometimes require a push is counter intuitive to put it gently.

I wouldn’t sweat about the test too much. AFAIR one precission, one non precission, one holding. From my own experience with exams, one flies the route that was trained before and examiner is happy to help. If he was hostile, who would appoint him for the next exam?

zuutroy wrote:

Because there’s no CBIR and difficulties with PBN training here, I’ve decided to abandon the full IR course I was doing here. I have done 30 hours and I’m going to Belgium to do the 10 hour CBIR course, probably over the course of 2 long weekends, training 3 hours a day. Of my 30 hours, 20 have been in 172, and 10 in my Mooney. The new place uses DA-40 and their SIM I think is based on it too. I’ve never flown a DA-40 before so I guess there’ll a learning curve there. If its G1000 based then I’m definitely going to take a while to get used to it. My question is whether people think I should do the skills test in Ireland in my Mooney (which I know pretty well, and where I know the test route approaches almost without using the plates), or go back to Belgium and do it in the DA-40 where I will have built up my IR training and procedures and will be more current in IFR type flying, partial panel etc?

I used my Mooney for training too and did the ATO part on a C172. I know the Mooney well and did my exam on it too. I’d advise you to do so too. What helped me a little is that I did a pre-exam with my examiner a week before the actual exam. We lined up the paperwork so on the day itself I knew what to expect and there weren’t any snaggs on the administrative side of it. I also flew a couple of IFR procedures on a VFR flightplan in VMC to get myself reaquainted with the Mooney after I got the course completion form from the flightschool.

If you’ll be flying the Mooney after the exam I’d fly it as much as you can. A waste of time to get current on a G1000 when you won’t be using it.

I agree. Do it in your plane, for all the good reasons.

This is a situation which many have found themselves in, with FTOs largely unwilling to train or test in customer planes, and that’s before you get onto the topic of training and testing in N-regs in Europe. After the FAA CPL in 2007 I managed to do everything in my plane but before that it simply wasn’t possible.

Once you are teaching IR as an ATO there are constraints around approved training manuals, course and instructor standardisation, instructor currency on type, possible insurance issues which mean only a few ATOs might agree to instruct in an owner/pilot aircraft. Because of the relative scarcity of IR instructors it then becomes a one off favour to the IR student.

There is no conspiracy it’s just the way the industry is organised.

… and that‘s why IR training should be allowed entirely outside of ATOs…

zuutroy wrote:

I’m going to Belgium to do the 10 hour CBIR course

just out of curiosity, where are you going to do this ?