IMC
Ever felt unable to make that flight because you’re not sure how the weather will be when its time to return? Do you think you would fly more confidently knowing you have the skills to deal with cloud or poor visibility? Or do you simply wish to keep challenging yourself and become an ever more accomplished a pilot?
The IMC rating is the logical next step.
At Turweston we have many years experience of teaching the IMC rating to PPL holders with a wide range of experience levels. We are also fortunate to be located close to several airfields which offer instrument approaches and to navigational beacons which allow cost-effective training. The test can be conducted in-house with our resident examiner.
The 15 flying hour course can be flown in the Piper Cherokees or the Piper Warrior which is fully IFR equipped.
CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL
It all began one day when I found my flying to be very erratic. One minute I’d be 400 ft lower than my planned altitude and the next I’d be 30 degrees off course. This was probably due to lack of practice, which in turn was due to the poor weather, but nevertheless I thought I’d better do something about it. I then read in a magazine about how instrument flying training helped improve flying accuracy, so that was it!
To recap, I fly from Turweston on an NPPL which I’ve held for nearly six years and have around 180 hours total flying. I fly with my flying partner, John Blake, whom I’ve known since we trained together at Sywell. We decide where to fly and one of us flies there, the other back. See my notes on our trip to Birmingham airport last year as an example.
Anyway, back to instrument flying. I emailed Simon Braithwaite, who I fly with whenever I need an instructor, and asked his opinion. Simon came back and said he thought this was an excellent idea as, although I couldn’t obtain an IMC rating (I fly on an NPPL remember), I could do the training until I (or he) got fed up. As a result of this, John said he’d also like to get a piece of the action so we all agreed a date and John and I started reading books and watching videos. About instrument flying that is.
As an adjunct to this I posted a thread on PPRUNE (if you haven’t looked at this you're missing a treat) and asked for details of any books or videos which other people had found useful. The first reply I got said that if I thought I could teach myself instrument flying from books the best one would be ‘How to commit suicide in one easy lesson’. I replied that I did in fact intend to use an instructor and, following this, received a huge number of replies, most of which were both helpful and encouraging. One person even offered to lend me a selection of books and videos and I’m steadily working through these.
On the appointed day John and I arrived at the airfield and Simon briefed us on instrument scans, VORs, visibility limits, correct planning, and a lot of other things from our PPL training days which both John and I had forgotten. I drew the short straw and elected to fly first. Simon explained about the VORs in Piper Cherokee G-AYJR (why is everything different in every aeroplane?) and what he expected me to do. So, after takeoff at 500 ft, Simon took control whilst I put my foggles on. These are like glasses except that the top part is frosted over to prevent you seeing out. I then took control and concentrated like crazy on the attitude indicator (the most important instrument, and which you look at every time you’ve looked at anything else). When everything had settled down Simon prompted me through turns, descents, increases and decreases of speed until my head was spinning (luckily not the aeroplane!). I found it needed a huge amount of concentration but was just about manageable. To give an idea of the concentration required, we were monitoring the emergency frequency and someone transmitted a mayday somewhere in Snowdonia. I didn’t even hear it!
Simon then asked me to confirm our position using the VORs. My first attempt put us over Chipping Norton which didn’t look right as we were directly over a busy motorway. My second attempt was a bit better, putting us a few miles west of Banbury when in fact we were right over the top. I then flew to Daventry VOR, not forgetting to allow for drift (well I did actually, until Simon reminded me), and then turned south on a heading which put me on a right base approach to Turweston. This worked out OK so I landed and changed places with John who had been sitting in the back.
John’s experiences were similar to mine except that Simon gave him heading and height changes just prior to landing back at Turweston. When John took his foggles off he was a bit surprised to find he was on short final to land. Nevertheless he pulled off an excellent landing and we both agreed that, thanks to Simon’s patience and encouragement, we had learnt a huge amount and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
To anyone who hasn’t tried this I would thoroughly recommend it. John and I can’t wait until our next lesson in March, so in the meantime it’s back to the books and videos. About instrument flying that is.
Mike Mison
