Instrument Rating

If you’ve ever wondered what’s involved in getting your instrument rating, Joe Campbell’s IFR Diary is worth a read.

Although I don’t currently have my IFR rating, it has been on my radar for quite some time now. I don’t ever see flying commercially now that I’ve settled into my career as a software developer so commercial licence and instructor are both out. Multi-engine would be great except that not a lot of places will rent you a multi-engine aircraft plus they’re twice as expensive (if not more) to rent or own. So that leaves an instrument rating.

I think a lot of PPL pilots get an instrument rating to offer more flexibility in their travels. It’s no longer a show stopper if you have inclement weather. And while that’s true, for me, it boils down once again to safety. A safer pilot is one with more options. If the weather suddenly changes for the worse a VFR pilot has to divert or turn back and hope that things aren’t as bad (or worse) elsewhere. And IFR-rated pilot on the other hand, has more options available.

And above all, and pilot with their instrument rating has more training under instrument (or simulated instument) conditions. I’m not sure what the statistics will back me up but I would venture a guess that there are far fewer IFR pilots that end up as CFIT stats than VFR pilots.

Totally unrelated, while jumping around some links on flying I found out that Stan Rogers (of “Barrett’s Privateers” fame), died on Air Canada Flight 797 in 1983. Strange the things you come across on the Internet sometimes.

Update: added traceback to a LAHS entry about basically the same thing.

1 comment »

1. By David 4 days later:

   
   
   My instrument rating has made an enormous difference to my flying. It's not normally a case of flying approaches to minima so much as getting up above a low cloud layer or through a bit of low visibility enroute. In the morning, for example, the ceiling might be 500 ft, but it's often a thin layer of stratus with blue skies up above -- 15 seconds of IMC and it's clear flying (and the ceiling has usually burned off or lifted by the time you get to your destination). Last summer, my family and I flew to nearby Plattsburgh, NY to meet a cat breeder (long story). At the airport, we ran into two pilots who were travelling together, one VFR-only and both in VFR-only planes. They wanted to get home to some town in Quebec, but there was MVFR everywhere, and IMC between them and home -- the guy at the FBO told me that they'd been there all day, looking at the weather terminal over and over to see if they could somehow find a route home. I said goodbye, wished them luck, loaded my family into the Warrior, and simply flew home to Ottawa. I logged a bit of actual IMC getting up into the clear sky, but Ottawa itself was VMC. That's a typical story for flying IFR (though I have occasional low approaches and long flights with nothing but white out the window, and one inconsequential brush with ice).