07-02-2017, 11:15 AM
Some random thoughts on VMC into IMC..
What sticks out to me, in terms of my flight training, is the lip service given to basic instrument training. I really don't think that 2 hours under the hood, where you can still see outside the cockpit if you tilt your head just so, is good enough for a PPL, and likewise 10 hours for a CPL.
Most sausage-factory flying schools will cancel a VFR nav if the conditions are marginal - I say why not launch, and make the go/no-go decision in the air? So you may not achieve the objectives, flying from your home base to various waypoints around the place, BUT you get exposed to something a little more real, I would think.
Why don't instructors take their students into cloud and let them figure things out for themselves (at a safe height)? We do the same for stalling - one of the things I told my students was that you should never stall an aircraft by accident, but then we went out and did it deliberately. Why not with *real* IMC?
Anyhow, just some ramblings..
What sticks out to me, in terms of my flight training, is the lip service given to basic instrument training. I really don't think that 2 hours under the hood, where you can still see outside the cockpit if you tilt your head just so, is good enough for a PPL, and likewise 10 hours for a CPL.
Most sausage-factory flying schools will cancel a VFR nav if the conditions are marginal - I say why not launch, and make the go/no-go decision in the air? So you may not achieve the objectives, flying from your home base to various waypoints around the place, BUT you get exposed to something a little more real, I would think.
Why don't instructors take their students into cloud and let them figure things out for themselves (at a safe height)? We do the same for stalling - one of the things I told my students was that you should never stall an aircraft by accident, but then we went out and did it deliberately. Why not with *real* IMC?
Anyhow, just some ramblings..