FAA flight proficiency requirements are a sore point with most pilots. It is too easy to forget about the biennial flight review or the 90-day landing requirements. One of the most difficult to meet is the six, six, and six rule for IFR currency: six approaches and six hours of instruments within the last six months.
General aviation pilots operating under FAR Part 91 have a truly awesome responsibility. All other pilots--those operating under parts 135 or 121, military pilots, NASA pilots, and those of other government agencies--are required to demonstrate their proficiency at least once each year in a checkride that is often as difficult as the original checkride, or even more so. For many, it occurs more often.
Under Part 91 we have to maintain currency only by meeting the above six, six, and six criteria. Now, I certainly do not want the FAA to even consider the imposition of greater measures; but to keep such a thing from happening, each of us flying instruments under Part 91 must maintain his skills and proficiency. This can be difficult under ideal conditions and almost impossible in others.
I start out each long cross-country in the Mooney with the best of intentions. I usually have a qualified pilot--either my wife or daughter--sitting next to me, so I will plan to don the hood during the flight to log some instrument time and shoot a few approaches at the destination. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, when we arrive at our destination, everyone on board is ready to get on the ground, stretch his legs, and make that much-needed pit stop. No one wants to sit through a couple of practice approaches, especially when the weather is CAVU and approach control is offering a quick vector to short final. Grinding through even one full- up approach comes under the heading of cruel and unusual punishment for the passengers.
To keep proficient, I do what we often did in the military or at NASA. I fly a split instrument hop with another qualified pilot needing instrument time, usually my instrument-rated daughter. We'll fly early on a Saturday or Sunday morning before too many others are out and about. We have two routes that we fly from our home base at Houston Gulf Airport (formerly Spaceland) on the southeast side of Houston. These routes are permanently stored in the GPS. Our favorite route takes us over to the VOR approach to Jefferson County Airport at Beaumont, Texas, about 60 miles away. This has the advantage of giving the first pilot under the hood a few minutes of straight-and-level flying before starting the approaches.
Beaumont Approach Control is very accommodating during the early weekend hours and will give us just about any approach we want, even those going against the traffic, as long as they can maintain safe separation. Only occasionally have we been turned out early on the ILS for Runway 12 because of departing traffic in the opposite direction. The first pilot usually flies a VOR, a front course ILS, and a back course with either a straight-in or a circling approach to a full stop, depending on the prevailing wind. We then taxi in and shut down, stretch our legs, and switch seats.
The second pilot launches right into the approach pattern, often repeating the above approach sequence. He or she doesn't have the advantage of a few miles of straight-and- level practice but does have the advantage of seeing all the mistakes made by the previous pilot.
The return to Houston Gulf is often flown partial panel or with malfunctions induced by the safety pilot. To say that there is a friendly rivalry between my daughter and me is an understatement, although I must admit I take a certain pride every time she finds the malfunction I have induced and handles the situation with ease.
To many of you, conducting the routine cited on a monthly basis may seem excessive, but I find that even after 37 years of instrument flying and 9,000 hours, it is the only way I can be comfortable when I file that cross-country flight plan and hear that my destination is near minimums.
It is important for all of us to realize the magnitude of the responsibility that we have when we file an IFR flight plan. Are you as current and proficient as you need to be for the conditions you may encounter? If not, fly a split instrument flight, or--perhaps better yet--look up your favorite CFII and schedule a workout with him. If you don't come away with the exhaustion of a tough workout, then you are either plenty sharp already or the CFII did not work you hard enough.
Maintain your instrument proficiency to the level displayed when you first took that checkride. You were probably a better instrument pilot then than at any time since, even though the real world can be a much more difficult challenge than the practice environment.
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