Three strikes

The knowledge and procedures are almost akin to learning to fly all over again, and that can lead to big challenges during training and in the first hours after earning the rating. Although there are dozens of different errors and little things that every pilot struggles to learn or execute properly, there are perhaps three fundamental issues behind the myriad errors.

Fixating

In nearly every case, problems with basic attitude instrument flying come down to a poor scan, and usually a pilot is fixating too much on one instrument. That goes for straight and level, turns, programming a GPS, or any other task. Fixating is one of those things that is a mystery to the new student who is flying, but immediately obvious to an instructor or observer. Often it results in a perfect heading and wandering altitude, or the perfect climb at 500 feet per minute, but a heading that deviates 20 degrees or more.

If you find yourself struggling to master basic attitude instrument flying, it’s because you either haven’t mastered a scan or your scan isn’t working for you. Play around with other scanning techniques to find the one that’s right for you, and then consciously work to refine it and ingrain it as part of your normal operating procedure.

Lack of preparation

Instrument flying should be boring. It should be predictable, methodical, and straightforward. A successful instrument flight isn’t necessarily fun. It’s complex and rewarding, and it feels more like doing well at work or in class than going for a joyride.

Clearly training doesn’t feel that way. Things come at you quickly; it’s all new; and you’re spending all your energy trying to make sure you know where you are and what comes next. But once you earn the rating, a good instrument flight will have long stretches of inactivity. That’s a good thing. It means you’re doing it right, especially if you use that time to prepare.

A successful instrument flight isn’t necessarily fun. It’s complex and rewarding, and it feels more like doing well at work or in class than going for a joyride.Preparation is key, starting on the ground. That should be obvious from the way you plan a cross-country. Most aren’t flown direct. You search out references for preferred routes and recently assigned routes, and you study navaids, terrain, and alternates, all the while ensuring you have enough fuel. Before the flight, study the approaches to make sure you’re familiar, and that you have the appropriate charts. At the airport, everything from how to obtain the clearance to the taxi route should be known before your first radio call. The radios and navigators should be fully programmed before departure (don’t just put in the first waypoint and do the rest later). Along the way, you should be monitoring your position, looking for alternates, checking the weather at your destination, and deciding which approach you would like. Then, long before you are finally cleared for the approach, it should be up and ready to go. The taxi route after landing should be planned as well.

Surprises are inevitable, but don’t be surprised by something you could have anticipated and prepared for on the ground. The two big unknowns in instrument flying are weather and air traffic control. When you are prepared for the expected, you can more easily deal with the unexpected that either of these variables throws at you. Reroutes will become easier, unexpected approaches become less of an issue, and deviations for weather are a nonevent. Without spending time fully preparing for the flight, you’ll find yourself grasping to keep up with a routine flight, and collapse when things go off-script.

Lack of knowledge

If learning to fly an airplane is 70 percent knowledge and 30 percent skill, then instrument flying is about 95 percent knowledge. Many problems can be traced to a lack of understanding of the regulations, procedures, and equipment.

You’ll hear instructors bemoan a student who isn’t perfectly clear on the regulations for lost com, but most problems are far more rudimentary. Procedure turns are a great example. Pilots are constantly flummoxed as to whether a procedure turn is required, but the regulations and the Aeronautical Information Manual make the requirements perfectly clear. The same goes for how to read an approach plate.

This problem is especially evident with modern avionics. Whereas previous generations of instrument pilots battled problems with situational awareness, today’s pilots flub buttonology. Sure, they can make a flight plan and maybe even program an approach, but that’s basic-level user sort of stuff. Do you know what happens when you go missed? What about if you’ve activated an approach and need to change it? Can you program a climbing restriction, and do you know how to sequence from a hold to the approach?

Launching into instrument conditions requires good flying skills, yes. But the real trick is knowing the regulations, procedures, and equipment well enough for it to never become exciting.

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