mmgreve wrote:
As one who is training for the IR, I have to mention NDB holds. The rest I find either simple or good to train, but I’m seriously considering sending CAA an invoice to cover the many hours of NDB holds.
You will be even happier when you realise you will almost never do a hold in practice let alone a hold using an actual NDB for guidance.
Staying disciplined and doing a proper walk-around and pre-flight check in heavy rain and high winds…
I haven’t flown for a while now and (as some of you know) I took my IR just in the middle of last year. Looking at your answers it’s pretty simple to avoid most things in the list by making a couple of IFR flights in good weather to regain some currency. Some other advice about that?
Getting complex amended clearances enroute in unfamiliar airspace while flying single pilot IFR.
I’ve had trips in the US with 4-5 amended clearances during a 4 hr trip, each featuring something like a 10-fix readback.
Interpreting and accepting (or rejecting) these routes on the spot takes a lot of mental energy – add a congested frequency, challenging enroute weather decisions and some mechanical issue you’re troubleshooting, and you really start to feel how limited human bandwidth can be…
JasonC wrote:
You will be even happier when you realise you will almost never do a hold in practice let alone a hold using an actual NDB for guidance.
Which is my frustration A) I burn a ton of money going around in circles, trying to best guess the wind in order to nail the inbound B) We spend so much time on otherwise simple holds that it leaves little time to practice the things that might save my life one day
JasonC wrote:
Actually I also agree with taxying. Brussels in particular is a nightmare.
Reminds me of my TWR/GND days at EBBR when I vectored a Citation to the GA apron. Poor guy couldn’t see a single taxi line 
airways wrote:
Reminds me of my TWR/GND days at EBBR when I vectored a Citation to the GA apron. Poor guy couldn’t see a single taxi line
Romeo 2, Outer 3, Inner 4…….The GA Apron itself is one big mess! But taxiing there makes Schipol look like Shoreham.
Procedure when I started. I was not comfortable about where the enroute part ended and the approach part began – and the clearances (or lack of) that went with that. As you start flying it kind of sorts itself out naturally. I fly a SID, or Departure Procedure as they’re now called, every time I depart my home field. I’ve never had a STAR, but will probably encounter that in the turboprop eventually.
Today I’d say it’s weather mainly. Aggravating this is my utter lack of interest in meteorology. It was always the subject I had the hardest to understand, yet it is so important. I find it very nebulous. Sorry for the pun.
Peter wrote:
getting lost at complicated airports where the signs are bad.
This is not so much about IFR, though, is it (unless it’s bad vis and you find it even harder to navigate the airport then).
Incidentally, without realizing there was a similar thread here today, I just started another one polling for your pet hates in flying in general (regardless of flying rules):
http://www.euroga.org/forums/hangar-talk/5482-your-pet-hate-in-flying#post_97903
This one on particular IFR challenges is interesting, though, too – especially for those like me who aren’t flying IFR yet.
Convective weather and (potential) icing!
