First Instrument Lesson

I had my first instrument lesson today. My CFII and I spent two hour all together. The first half hour was on the ground, discussing what we'd do going forward and what we'd do in this lesson today. Once we got in the plane, he went over additional preflight checks that are necessary for IFR flight.

The flying I've done so far has all been VFR -- Visual Flight Rules. IFR refers to Instrument Flight Rules and IFR flying is done with reference to the instruments. If the plane is in the middle of a cloud, looking outside isn't going to be very helpful since you can't see anything but the cloud. Consequently, the pilot needs to be able to control the plane and fly accurately and precisely solely by reference to the instruments in the plane.

After takeoff, Kyle had me put on the foggles, which look like sunglasses but are totally black on the sides and the front except for a small square opening. Wearing the foggles allows a pilot to see the instruments but not see out the front or sides of the plane, so it simulates flying in weather when you can't see out.

Today, we spent about an hour on basic instrument flying. We did straight and level flight, turns to the left, turns to the right, climbs and descents, all with reference solely to the instruments. (While I was looking at the instruments, Kyle was watching for traffic outside, since we were actually flying in clear weather).

I hadn't done any instrument flying since the small amount that was required for the private pilot license. I really enjoyed it last year and found that I enjoyed it again today. It forces you to fly very precisely and to control the plane much more accurately than is truly needed for visual flight, which is one of the reasons why doing an instrument rating will help a pilot become a much better pilot even for visual flight.

I hope to move forward with the instrument training reasonably quickly, with a goal of finishing it over the next couple of months. We'll need to work around my business travel but I hope to be able to get in either two or three lessons each week.

:-)