I’D ARGUE THAT AN INSTRUMENT RATING AND STAYING CURRENT IN ITS USE ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECES OF SAFETY EQUIPMENT A PILOT CAN HAVE IN THEIR POSSESSION.
Inadvertent flights into IMC are one of the highest causes of accidents in general aviation, and, surprisingly, about one-third of those accidents involve instrument-rated pilots. What does that tell us? It’s critical to be trained to fly instruments, but it’s just as important to make sure those skills are current.
It’s not just having the ability to fly in IMC that makes an instrument rating valuable. Flying at night, especially over a rural area with little ground light, is not much different than flying in the clouds. Spatial disorientation is also more likely at night. Even if a pilot has no desire to fly in the IFR system, they’ll be a safer pilot having received the training for an instrument rating.
We recognize the value of keeping our aircraft airworthy by adhering to a regular inspection and maintenance schedule. Yet, somehow, not all pilots place the same importance on developing and maintaining their piloting skills. Airline pilots who fly IFR every day receive semi-annual recurrent training. So, it only makes sense that those of us who fly far less frequently have a greater need to continue to improve and maintain our skill set.
While technology is changing rapidly and putting more information at our fingertips, the actual skills needed to fly IFR have remained unchanged. A pilot properly trained to fly instruments should feel equally confident, whether flying an airplane equipped with a glass cockpit or one that uses “round dials.” When obtaining instrument training, the methods and procedures taught shouldn’t only be applicable to the specific airplane used for training but also transferable to all aircraft, whether glass or round dials. There are many benefits to first learning to use round dials. In doing so, the pilot gains a better understanding of how the “raw data” displayed on those instruments relates to each other before a computer begins to integrate the various inputs.
The benefits of flying with a glass cockpit are many and are to be desired. However, along with these benefits comes a hidden danger. Because these systems do such a good job integrating all of the data, pilots may end up relying too much on the electronics and unwittingly transfer the responsibility of flying the airplane to the electronics.
The instrument pilot must be trained to understand exactly what is happening, stay ahead of the airplane, anticipate what is coming next, and be prepared to execute the proper actions in the right sequence and at the right time.
So, how does this kind of initial instrument training work? It has to begin with considerable emphasis on the basic attitude and instrument control of the airplane. All flying, regardless of what is being done, is made up of climbs, turns, and descents. There is nothing else. What about straight and level? Straight and level is a series of small corrections using climbs, turns, and descents to constantly correct back to the desired altitude and heading, i.e., straight and level flight.
Since basic attitude instrument control is foundational to all flight, it should receive its due and be practiced until it becomes a habit. What happens too often in instrument training is that this skill is rushed through, wanting to get to the “good stuff,” not realizing that basic attitude instrument flying is the good stuff. Many students who come to us for training who first started elsewhere began flying instrument approaches without the foundational skills to be successful. These are often the ones who over-rely on aircraft electronics to take care of them and are always behind and unprepared to handle problems when they arise.
The instrument training syllabus needs to be structured in a building block manner. First, basic attitude instrument flying, followed by instrument navigation, learning how to fly to and from navigation aids or waypoints, tracking a desired course, determining position, and more. Then instrument approaches are introduced, with learning what to do on each segment of the approach and having a system to stay ahead of the workload. Finally, all of these skills are put together in actual IFR cross-country flights.
Underlying all of this must be ground instruction to make sure the student understands the theory of how and why these procedures work. The best flow of instrument training is to first learn the procedure in ground instruction, practice it on a flight training device, and then implement it all in the airplane.
One very important part of instrument training is learning how to manage the workload. American Flyers’ training accomplishes this in two main ways. First, by dividing the approach into its various component segments: transition, initial, intermediate, final, and missed approach. By doing this, the student is taught to focus only on the data for the approach segment he is flying. Of course, the entire approach will have been studied before beginning, but while flying the approach, only the altitudes, headings, etc., for that segment need to be kept in mind rather than trying to memorize the entire approach.
The second helpful workload management tool is learning to use the 6Ts: turn, time, twist, throttle, talk, and track. The 6Ts serve as an approach checklist, reviewing everything that needs to be done in the proper sequence every time a change is made during the approach. These tools will not only help with workload management, but they will also ensure the pilot stays ahead of the airplane and won’t have to wonder if anything important was missed.
In the end, the instrument pilot has to be a prepared and thinking pilot, constantly being situationally aware. He or she will have prepared themselves before getting in the airplane by studying the likely route to be assigned by ATC and becoming familiar with any intersection names that may be part of their clearance. They’ll also have studied the likely approach to be used at their destination based on the current ATIS and forecast surface winds. Even though they may plan to use the autopilot to fly en route and on the approach, he or she will always be aware of where they are on the approach, knowing what is coming next, and making sure all is happening as expected. They will stay ahead of the radio frequencies being used both for communication and navigation. They’ll take full advantage not only of their training but also of the wonderful capabilities of their modern aircraft while skillfully remaining pilot-in-command.