Get Started on an Instrument?

[cookmg]

Hey Guys.

I'm looking for some advice. I have 140 hours. I got my private 4 years ago and it's been a little slow moving since then. I have now commited myself to a career in aviation and so, my goal is to work on my ratings . . . through CFI. I hope to finish in the next year, year and a half. As of now I have about 30 hours of PIC X-C. I fly in San Diego and with my somewhat limited flying schedule it's been hard to find solid VFR weather lately. My goal was to have my 50 hours of PIC X-C in the next couple of months. But, it looks like that might be tough.

So, do you think that I can get started on an Instrument rating with just 30 hours PIC X-C? How much X-C will I be able to pick up during training? I figure I can always mix in some VFR X-C flights in my training to build that time.

Should I take the knowledge test before I start training?

Finally, I am really excited about this next step towards becoming a professional. Any other advice on instrument training/flying will be much appreciated. Thanks for the time guys.

Mike

 

[Dan CFI/CFII]

I'd say go for it!

The written you can DEFINATELY do first, get it out of the way. And since you want to do it again pretty soon, do the Instrument Instructor (and IGI if you want) writtens at the same time, it's the same test bank.

As to how much X-C you can pick up during training, it'll be a minimum of three hours, although my students probably average about 10 hours of X-C surind the instrument training. But, I've had students that wanted to go real fast and get it as soon as possible, so we'd just take a day a week, fly about two and a half hours away to a metro area with a lot of approaches, spend the day doing approaches, then fly back. You can build some X-C time into your instrument rating if you so want. Just go talk to your local instrument instructor and see what they'd suggest.

Dan

 

[jsoceanlord]

i used the king video courses to pass all my writtens - i'd recommend them. also, if you read those books with all the test questions 2 - 3 times, you'll have the answers pretty well memorized.

king is based in san diego.

for more advice go see rich essery (?) and co. at golden state flying club at gillespie.

 

[cookmg]

With the private license, although the min. requirement is 40 hours. We know that it will usually takes atleast 50 and the average is around 60 (roughly). What is the story with the instrument rating?

Part 61, is it likely that you can do it in 20 hours airplane, 20 hours sim? Given quality instruction, plus hard work and dedication by the student, what is a reasonable amount of time in airplane and sim? What is the average?

Thanks.

Mike

 

[bobbysamd]

Instrument training

You might need some more time than the mins to finish. Those times really are minimums, assuming training up to standards only. You and your instructor should strive for you being trained to proficiency. This important for a couple of reasons; one, your instrument abilities are your bread-and-butter in professional aviation. You want to develop them as highly as possible as soon as possible. Moreover, instrument training develops your control touch to a fine point, which will help the rest of your flying (that's more than one reason.). Second, people get nervous during flight tests and sometimes fly to less than the standards to which they were held during training. You want the confidence of knowing you can be a little off that day and still pass. Therefore, to achieve these goals you might need (and consider taking) more time. By the way, most people need more times than the FAA minimums, so don't worry about it if you do.

You can go to a weekend course for instrument ground (I did, for both instrument and the CFI-I writtens), go to a real ground school to acquire in-depth knowledge, watch John and Martha, or just memorize the ASA book. I agree that you should take the written before starting training or as soon as possible thereafter.

Finally, I recommend Mike Pappas as your examiner.

Hope all this helps. Good luck with your IFR training.