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Having been an instructor in an altogether different profession, we have a saying that still holds true today, and I have carried this philosophy, as well as a few others, through my adult life:
"There are only two reasons for failing in this world, either you are unwilling, or unable."
While life may not always be that simple, we can gauge how much we get out of something, by directly measuring how much effort we have put in. The Instrument Rating is no exception.
The syllabus is not really unique in itself, everyone must learn the same information, physical skills, and apply those skills. What is unique, is the individual, and what they themselves bring to the course. Your
here because you want to take flying to the next level, to be a better
pilot, the acquisition of this rating will make you one, how could
it not? No-one is twisting your arm to do this course, nor am I going to be standing over you with a large stick. It's up to you.
It would be easy to post lesson plans up here and leave it at that,
and while it might give you an idea of the course itself, it does not really give you much insight into the actual reality and progression of the Instrument Rating. There will be physical and mental skills to acquire and you will not progress from one to the other until you have attained a particular skill on which you can build. A solid foundation must be built before other skills can be taught. Since everyone is unique in the way they learn, I am going to refrain from posting hours for a given task, again, it is entirely up to you how quickly you master a skill.
In IFR, unless it is an emergency, turns are made at standard rate,
with a few exceptions. What is standard rate? In category A aircraft,
standard rate can be defined as:
3 degrees of turn per second resulting in a full 360 degree turn in 2 minutes.
How do you calculate the correct bank angle for the speed your flying, easy, take 10% of your KIAS, add 5 and you have your standard rate turn. Of course, there might not be time to do all the math in the cockpit when things are piling up on you, so you can just as easily put the wing in the TC on the line which indicates 2 minutes and you have your standard rate turn.
While your learning to fly with precision, your also going to be gaining discipline. To help with that, your going to start your training with the five T's drilled into your brain. In the beginning, this will help you enormously and keep you out of trouble.
Turn (Starting a turn initiates the whole sequence, every time)
Time (Do I have anything to time, hold, approach, ect)
Twist (Do I have my correct course selected.)
Throttle (Do I need to reduce speed, am I at correct speed.)
Talk (Have I been instructed to report anything? FAF maybe.)
At the onset of your training the most difficult aspect your going to be facing is learning to fly to a completely different set of rules. Now the rules themselves are unimportant in the first few hours. What is imperative in your first flights is to prepare you for what is to come. How am I going to do that? Your going to learn to hit an altitude, an exact altitude, and keep it there by trimming. An assigned heading will be at the exact heading assigned, not 5 degrees off. In other words, 0 feet and 0 degree tolerance, by the time you reach the end of the course, you will be able to perform all the tasks and be well within PTS standards.
One of the principles of learning is:
"What is learned, must be learned correctly the first time."
If you learn incorrectly the first time, we will spend precious time and money unlearning and re-teaching.
If you can learn to fly within 5 feet and 5 degrees, you can certainly learn to fly 0 feet, and 0 degrees. Not to train you this way, would be doing you a great disservice. You may think it is impossible, it is not.
PHASE 1
1. Learning to fly the aircraft with precision.
(A) Trim skills. (The most important skill to learn)
(1) Trimming for an airspeed.
(2) Trimming for a climb.
(3) Trimming for a decent.
(4) Trimming for straight and level flight.
At any given time you should be able to fly with your hands off the yolk when in calm air, and the aircraft will remain at a given altitude & airspeed. (Having the aircraft trimmed perfectly.)
(B) Instrument scan. (Control performance method)
(1) Developing a good instrument scan.
(2) Instrument interpretation.
(3) Aircraft control
 As you can see, the attitude indicator is at the centre of your scan. There is a
good reason, it just happens to be your most important control instrument.
(C) Partial panel skills.
(1) Recognizing instrument failure.
(2) Triangle of agreement for pitch & bank.
(3) Flying partial panel.
Instrument panel showing a vacuum failure, AI and DG will insidiously tumble.
During this initial phase of your training, we will introduce very early on, your IFR communications skills, your P.I.C, A.D.M and Single Pilot Resource Management (SPRM) skills. S.P.R.M differs greatly from that of Crew Resource Management, where the very title implies another pilot you can rely on. Single pilot IFR is exactly that, and it is that skill that you must have, you rely on yourself for everything. At completion of this phase of training you have acquired the physical skills needed to continue on to the next phase. P.I.C is also extremely important in IFR, as it is in VFR, but we think more so in IFR and I am going to touch on it briefly here, and for good reason. When you have finally added this rating to your PPL, it will enable you to fly in less than VFR conditions. In fact, flying on an IFR flight plan at night in IMC with only your knowledge and skills to get you home safely, and your passengers I might add, you will have a much greater advantage over your VFR peers and by the same token a much greater responsibility. Flying on a nice sunny day with blue skies, what a nice image. What about a nasty rotten night with no visual references? Could be a nightmare. There is a regulation in the FAR/AIM which, while read, I do not think is fully understood. In my opinion, it is the single most important regulation in the entire book, in what it says, implies and means. Read it, understand it, think about it, and I am sure it will provoke some profound insights.
91.3 Responsibility and authority of the pilot in command.
(a) The pilot in command is directly responsible for, and is the final
authority as to, the operation of that aircraft.
Also during the initial training, you should have studied very hard,
and if you have not passed the written test already, now is the time
to do so. You will not progress beyond this point until you have successfully passed the written exam. Having the written exam done is a great motivator and provides you with a baseline from which you can work from, and to that end ,is preferable to have passed prior to flight training.
IFR Course cont. Home CFR Part 61.65
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