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What is the best way to go about getting my instrument rating???

Asked by: 2262 views Instrument Rating

I'm wanting to get my IFR certification and am wanting some direction on how to go about it. I have the time flexibility to dedicate towards a week long class and fly a few hours a week.

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2 Answers



  1. fugae fuit malleator on Mar 25, 2017

    Are you looking to do a condensed program or à la carte at your local school?

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  2. John Scarry on Mar 26, 2017

    This question has been open for a while so, since no one more experienced than me has commented, I thought I’d give my opinion.

    First, there are lots of good options, but one really bad one. I know lots of pilots who learned to fly by going out to the airport for a couple of hours every weekend for a year. Probably not the best strategy for the PPL and definitely not a good strategy for your IR.

    Whether you can benefit by a condensed course (10 day PIC type) or not depends a lot on how well you fly now. If you have flown a lot in the last six months, can hold a heading and altitude, are comfortable talking on the radio, and using your GPS to navigate, then the accelerated course could work for you. If you have lots of distractions—work, family, social—then getting away from home for two weeks can get you focused on just flying.

    On the other hand, flying with a local instructor has advantages as well. If the flight school has an aviation training device (ATD) you can learn the proper scanning techniques before spending time in an airplane. For a hundred dollars or so, you can practice at home. Reading charts and setting VORs can be confusing at first, so spending time on the sim is time well spent, in my opinion.

    It can be cheaper since you can spend time under the hood with a friend rather than an instructor. At our local school, students often pair up for hood time. This benefits both students, since watching others make mistakes, means you can try to avoid them when you fly.

    The downside to flying in a local club or school is that instructors are not dedicated to you for 10 days. If you can get two or three instructors working with you, then when one flakes out you can use the others.

    If you go the local school route, you will still need to commit a substantial amount of time to getting your rating. At a minimum, I’d think that three or four hours a week of sim time, flying, and studying—(each, not total) would be necessary to get your rating.

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