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4 Answers

Student pilot practice instrument approaches with CFI.

Asked by: 4768 views Flight Instructor, Student Pilot

I'm a part 61 student pilot with 29.8 hours only 1.7 of which have been simulated instrument.  I'm blazing through the syllabus and only have 2 solo's (the long XC, and a short/soft field solo practice) left on the syllabus before doing a simulated checkride with my instructor and the chief flight instructor.  Assuming I match the estimated lesson times from the syllabus (I won't for the XC, I plan to make it longer than it calls for by a little bit), I'm projected to come out with only 36 hours and 2.3 simulated instrument.

Obviously this isn't enough and so I need to repeat an instrument lesson for no really good reason (not to mention needing to burn some more time in the practice area).  I have no issues with maneuvers under the hood, strange attitude recovery etc.  I ran into my old instructor and he suggested that it might make sense for me to do a checkout in a 172, and do some practice approaches for the hood time instead of spending more time doing turns to a heading.

My new instructor is only a CFI, I could go up with one of the CFII's, but I was curious about what the regs say about a CFI directing practice approaches to a student pilot.  After I have my PPL I could go up with my current instructor and he could act as safety pilot.  As a student though I can't act as PIC with passengers, and the CFI can't give dual for instrument (other than the basic maneuvers required for PPL?), right?  Do I have that correct?

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4 Answers



  1. Aaron on Aug 25, 2014

    There’s nothing wrong with this, as long as you don’t mind accepting instruction on IFR maneuvers from a non-CFII… Of course, that being said you can’t count any of it towards an instrument rating, and likewise You can not log the approaches. However, as long as you don’t accept an IFR clearance, you should be good… As for what your CFI can log, I’m not as clear on that one, sorry. Maybe someone else can bail me out here? However, practice approaches are a strictly VFR maneuver. Any VFR pilot can request and execute one. The phraseology even indicates this “practice approach approved, no separation services provided.” Here’s a pretty good article:

    http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2011/October/7/IFR-fix-Practice-instrument-approaches

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  2. sadkjfasla fasdjflaskd on Aug 25, 2014

    Thanks Aaron! It’s mostly a curiosity, I’m not sure I want to do it even if I can log the approaches and such. It’s also just a weird situation as rare case of being way ahead of the curve and short on hours, so I’m considering it. However, I’m close to my checkride and it seems unnecessary to throw a curveball with a checkout in a larger plane right before the checkride.

    That said, I don’t know I have too much to lose. I’m going to burn at least another .7 dual time boring holes in the sky doing rather boring basic instrument stuff. I’d rather spend time on more advanced topics just from an overall safety perspective.

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  3. Kris Kortokrax on Aug 26, 2014

    Aaron,

    Why would you think that the flight could not be conducted under IFR? If the CFI has an instrument rating and is current, he can certainly file IFR and fly in the clouds if he wishes. The student may manipulate the controls and by doing do, log instrument time and the approaches, even though they won’t count toward instrument training.

    The CFI could only log instrument time and approaches while manipulating the controls.

    The student would be better served by receiving instruction from a CFI-I. Otherwise, he may be taught techniques that will later need to be undone by a CFI-I.

    To the student whose name resembles random typing on the middle row of the keyboard:

    Spend your remaining time brushing up for the checkride. While you may have completed all the lessons in the syllabus, I hardly think that you have perfected every maneuver and have no room for improvement.

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  4. Mark Kolber on Aug 26, 2014

    Based on my experience with not only students but VFR pilots doing flight reviews, Kris is absolutely right. You may well be the ace of the flight school but in general, thinking one has reached the pinnacle of instrument reference flight, even =after= the full three hours of required training, is at least self-misleading and at worst potentially dangerous. I would tell my current instructor I think it’s too easy.

    I agree the 172 checkout would be more of a distraction than an aid at this point. Finish it off, pass the checkride, get the certificate. There’s plenty of time for the fun of transitioning later (transitioning to 3 other aircraft and cross country flights is how I spent the first few months after earning my certificate)

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