Subj:    IFR with the Pelicans

Date:   98-04-12 08:19:38 EDT

From:   (Michael Nelson)

I returned from the U.S. on April 5th, where I did a PIC course for

my instrument rating. There are plenty of excellent, day-by-day diaries

about such training programs, which can be downloaded from the AVSIG forum.

It is not my intention to try to compete with them. Instead, I would just

like to mention some things that I experienced, which might be useful to

others.

I did my written exam on January 2, 1998. My company actually closes down

the offices (with a few exceptions) between Christmas and New Years. During

this time I went through the King tapes and exam preparation software. I

had already gone through the tapes once during last September and October

and tried one practice exam. I scored somewhere in the 80’s on that, but

then didn’t continue.

Over the Christmas break I started doing at least one chapter a day and

then proceeded to go through all of the questions. I then reset the

software and did all of the questions again, without correcting any wrong

answers. I then went through all of the missed questions and did several

more practice exams.

There is a Sporty’s in Wiesbaden about 30 minutes away, so on January 2nd

I walked in, without any prior notice, and took the exam. I actually found

the test easier than the written for the Private and I was finished in less

than half an hour. I then spent another half hour double checking. My final

score was 98%. The one question I missed was one on attitude flying, but I

am still not certain exactly which question it was.

As my "graduation present" for the written I started watching the King

tapes on the instrument oral and checkride. I think I went through the oral

section three times and the checkride tape once. I also started carrying

the ASA Instrument Oral Exam Guide with me and read that on business trips,

during meeting breaks, etc.

I had already received information form PIC last September. Their program

with a fixed schedule sounded just right for me, since I wanted to be able

to complete an entire course and finish with a checkride within a two-week

trip to the U.S. I made final arrangements with them on January 7th. The

two factors that needed coordination were picking a place where the weather

was likely to cooperate in late March and getting Lufthansa to give me a

frequent flyer trip to this destination for the desired dates.

Between the written and my trip I started practicing instrument flying on

the computer. First, Steve Carter (my E-Mail CFII) sent me a set of NOS

plates for Illinois and Wisconsin and I started flying approaches on FS5.1

with low clouds, low visibility and some winds and turbulence. Then, at

the recommendation of fellow AVSIG’er Barry Wallis, I bought a copy of IFT

Pro 6.1. (Barry’s and my pilot training have paralleled each other for the

last several years.) Barry sent me a set of NOS plates for Florida and I

flew all of the approaches (except GPS or RNAV) at least once. I did about

30 minutes every evening and found it best to switch back and forth between

IFT Pro and Flight Simulator, since they both "felt" different on the

computer.

The final destination was Stuart, Florida and my flight was to Miami on

March 21. The PIC course was scheduled to start on the 22nd at 8am. I

rented a car in Miami and drove up to Stuart, about 2 hours to the north.

It was about 7pm by the time I arrived in Stuart. 

I checked into the Holiday Inn, which was listed as being the closest to

the airport. I soon found several short comings of the motel. 1) The only

way to let daylight into the room was to open the curtains and let everyone

walking by get a good look at you everything in your room. 2) There was no

desk in the room, but only a small round table. As soon as we set up the

PIC simulator it was obvious that that table wouldn’t do for the long run.

3) The people there were not particularly helpful nor friendly.

Needless to say, I had no problem waking up in time for my training. With

the time change I was awake by 3:30 in the morning. Finally, about 5:30 I

got up and went out jogging for about 30 minutes. After I showered and

dressed I walked over to McDonald’s for a quick breakfast. On the way back

from breakfast I walked into the Ramada and the Howard Johnson’s on the

other side of the road and asked about their rates. 

The Ramada was only one dollar less, but the Howard Johnson was $10/day

less. The people there were very friendly and were willing to show me

several of their rooms with desks. (Keep in mind that this was about 6:30

in the morning.) The rooms were bigger. You entered the room from a

hallway, so you could actually have daylight in the room without being an

attraction for other hotel guests. They also offered a complimentary

breakfast buffet. I ended up moving there and it proved to be the right

decision.

Tom Gilmore of PIC arrived at 8 and we carried the simulator into the room

and put it on the little round table. That was when we started discussing

about other hotels. We reviewed all of my paperwork and then started flying

the simulator. About 10am we went out to the airport and started working in

a Warrior.

Up until this course all but one hour of my time had been in 152’s and

172’s. The hardest part of the whole course was learning to land the Piper.

I kept thinking that the throttle must go back further, since we seemed to

float for ever. Tom kept saying, "I’m not here to teach you how to land",

but he gently coached me enough that by the fourth day I was able to prove

that I really did know how to land a plane.

We flew for 2.8 hours and then returned back to the motel for more

simulator work. The jet lag hit me and Tom was sensitive enough to notice

and called it a day by 4pm. Before he left I gave him a copy of Joe

Campbell’s outstanding IFR diary that I had printed. To my great surprise,

he had read it when he returned the next morning. 

During the entire rest of the course we both referred back to that diary

again and again. Tom would point out which things he found especially

useful. If he didn’t agree with something, Tom would explain his method and

then point out the additional benefits he saw in doing something his way.

We had some excellent discussions from a common starting point. I felt that

the diary played a useful role throughout the course.

After getting the hotel situation sorted out the daily routine became:

6:00 Jogging along the boardwalk in Stuart with the pelicans and cranes

for company.

Take some breakfast back to the room after jogging and eat while watching

the Weather Channel.

Shower, dress and call for a weather briefing.

8:00 Tom arrives, we get some coffee or tea & juice and try to resist

the doughnuts and then return to the room for some simulator work.

Call in a flight plan.

Drive to the airport (about 5 minutes away).

Fly for several hours.

We usually managed to take a lunch break at either Ft. Pierce or Vero

Beach, which both had good restaurants.

Fly maybe another hour or so.

Return to the hotel for more simulator work until 5pm.

Get a quick dinner, do the reading assignment, complete written quiz,

plan tomorrow’s flight, sometimes watch one of the IFR videotapes that Tom

brought along (The hotel let me use a VCR in one of their conference rooms

at no charge.), practice on the simulator, watch the Weather Channel and

maybe watch something else on TV, if there was any time left and I could

still keep my eyes open.

The days went by very quickly. I found that the PIC course was enjoyable

and not as hard as I had been led to believe. Tom proved to be the

exact combination of competent professional and hobby psychologist that I

had hoped to get with PIC . We mixed good natured jesting on the ground

with expert instruction in the air. Sometimes we even combined the two when

on the simulator.

Tom mentioned several times that I seemed better prepared than most of

his students for the oral. After going through the training routine for

several days I said that I didn’t see how anyone could keep up this pace

and try to learn for the oral at the same time. Apparently, others have

done it, but I can’t imagine how they managed and still found time to eat

or sleep. We still practiced for the oral along with the checkride.

The day before the checkride the DE gave us the destination (Tallahassee)

for the cross country flight plan and his weight for the weight & balance.

The flight plan was easy, since there is a preferred route listed from West

Palm Beach to Tallahassee. I just had to find a way to get us over to the

preferred route. Finding an alternate was trickier, since all of the

obvious alternates were not allowed. We finally settled on Gainesville.

The afternoon before the checkride we quit early. I bought a book about

the weather to study some more before the oral. Then, for the first time, I

sat down by the hotel pool and just read about aviation weather.

Tom came about 7:30 on the morning of the checkride and we again made

sure that everything was OK. I had already gotten my weather briefing. I

asked the briefer to go slowly, since this was for my IFR checkride. He

came back with, "You’re taking your checkride and still asking for a slow

briefing?" and then (after the rib) proceeded to be extremely helpful with

all of the weather details.

We flew up to Ft. Pierce for the checkride, which started at 8:30.

The examiner first handed me some weather maps he had printed and asked me

to explain them. The problem was that he must have had a terrible printed,

since the maps were very difficult to read. I gave a general explanation

and he asked me what some of the numbers meant. I gave him another general

answer and told him that I couldn’t read any of the numbers on the maps. He

then asked some standard questions and then said, "Let me get out my list

of special questions." He then made me sweat for over an hour. I can’t

remember all of the questions, but here are some of them:

What is the maximum glide slope deflection in degrees?

What does the circle of little squares around Tampa mean?

Show me the line on the chart where the ATC responsibility transfers from

St. Petersburg  to Orlando.

When can you be in Alpha airspace without being IFR?

What is the minimum and maximum allowable distance in feet between

parallel runways to do a side step approach?

If you lose communications just before OLUGY intersection how do you

proceed into Tallahassee? What route do you fly? What altitude do you

maintain? Where do you hold? Draw the holding pattern for me. If you plan

to do the published procedure turn and the turn will take you more than 10

miles away from the fix, what direction should you turn?

The examiner wasn’t giving out any "Warm and Fuzzies" while this was going

on. Every once in a while he would reply, "Look it up" interlaced with a

"That’s not good enough". After about 90 minutes he said that we should now

go flying. By this time my shirt was wringing wet.

I found Tom at the restaurant to say that we were going flying. I also

said, "We have to talk about this oral when we get back."

As we were getting into the plane the examiner said, "It’s a good thing

that this isn’t for your Private license. You wouldn’t be able to fly

today." (The winds had picked up to 15G20kts, the ceiling had come down and

there were intermittent showers.)

We departed VFR and then went NW to do the VOR 14 approach to the

published miss. The examiner did do some of the radio work to keep us out

of trouble with the Vero Beach tower. He also steered us around some other

aircraft. We did this approach partial panel. Just to make it more

interesting, he also took my chart and folded it to cover my half of the

windshield. I was about a dot off, but could easily make the landing when I

went visual. We came in for a low approach.

We then went around the holding pattern twice to see if I could work out

the wind correction. We just moved the hold two miles north to stay out of

the way from planes approaching Ft. Pierce on runway 9. That was when I got

hit by the question, "When do you start your timer on the hold?" I asked

for an explanation and heard as choices, "When you have the outbound course

or when you are wings level" with the addition, "Which ever one comes first

or last?" My answer was followed by another, "That’s not good enough." By

this time I was starting to wonder just how bad things were going to turn

out.

We then went out west for some air work. We did steep turns, a constant

rate climb, a timed turn, a nose low and finally a nose high unusual

attitude. All of these went without a problem or a comment. It seemed that

the examiner would have to steer us around traffic fairly frequently. At

times he would have me descend to stay out of the clouds and we also went

through several healthy showers (guessing from the sound and what I could

see from under the foggles). 

Then we lined up to do the ILS runway 9 approach. I had the approach

well under control and had figured out a good wind correction angle. I was

about 500’ AGL when I got the question, "What are the three ways to

identify the missed approach point?" That was when I noticed that I had

failed to start the timer. (It probably wouldn’t have been much good

anyway, since we had a DC-3 on our tail and I was told to keep our speed

up.) I told him that when my glide slope reached decision height was the

best indicator. He then asked to name two more methods of identification

followed by another, "That’s not good enough" and then a "Fly the

airplane".

We went back west again and did the NDB approach to runway 9. This turned

out to the my best approach. I had the wind correction angle from the ILS

and I remembered to start the timer. I was also able to fly at the usual

approach speed. We were close in when he turned on the NAV radio to see how

well I lined up with the ILS and I was only half a dot off. He said, "I

can’t believe how close you were with that NDB. Now circle to land on

runway 14."

I started to do the downwind when I heard, "I said circle. This isn’t

pattern work." My landing was good and we taxied to the restaurant. I shut

down the plane and he smiled and shook my hand. That really threw me.

As we walked back inside he told me, "Don’t let anybody start a

discussion with you when you are on short final. Just tell them to shut up,

even if it’s an examiner. I just wanted to see how far off of the

glideslope I could get you. If you had been off by more than two dots the

ride would have been over." Then he laughed. He asked for my logbook and

suggested that I get something to drink while he did the paperwork.

I found Tom and got a Coke. I said that I thought that I had passed, but

I wasn’t really sure. I went back and the examiner asked for my license.

That was emotionally the hardest part. The thought kept going through my

head, "Wait a minute! I just got this license last July. I don’t want to

give it back!" I gave it to him anyway and received my temporary Instrument

ticket in return.

Everything went quickly from there. We had to return the plane to

Merritt Island. I filed and we flew through IMC for about 30 minutes. This

was my first time without foggles. From there we returned to Stuart, packed

up the simulator and I invited Tom for an early dinner. We had skipped

lunch.

The following day my daughter (Inga), who is a high school exchange student

in St. Louis this year,  flew down with USAir and we met in Ft. Lauderdale.

From there we drove about 10 minutes to Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport

and started asking about renting a plane. The first school was booked out,

but the second was willing to rent a 172 for the following day. We agreed

to do the checkout a 4pm and asked about a hotel. There was a Travellodge

right down the road, that worked perfectly.

The following day I filed for an IFR trip up the coast to Ormond Beach.

We ended up flying for 45 minutes in solid IMC when they finally let us go

higher and break out on top. Great ride, but no view. Between Vero Beach

and Melbourne this towering gray wall appeared in front of us and I asked

to divert to Vero Beach.

We landed and had lunch while we looked for somewhere else we could

go. Nothing looked promising, so we filed for the return to Executive. We

ended up spending another 20 minutes in the clouds and rain while being

vectored over Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. At least we got the plane

washed and I got over an hour of actual cloud time on my first solo IFR

flight. Inga was also my first passenger after I got my PPL. Having one of

the kids next to you on these "first flights" really focuses your

attention.

Inga flew back to St. Louis on April 3rd and I departed for Germany the

next day, arriving at 6:30 in the morning of the 5th. The next day I had an

early flight to London with the return flight on Tuesday afternoon. I ended

up changing the flight back to Frankfurt to British Air. They gave me a

seat in the first row. Just as I was stowing my things I asked a flight

attendant whether there was any chance for a private pilot to visit the

cockpit. She said that she would ask the captain.

Thirty seconds later the captain was standing in front of me. I briefly

told him that I had just gotten my instrument rating. He asked, "How would

you like to see the whole thing? Why don’t you just join us?" I then went

up to the cockpit, met the co-pilot, sat down on the jump seat between the

crew members, (There is a second jump seat in a 767 looking over the pilots

left shoulder) and buckled up.

They let me use one of those very light and comfortable Sennheiser

headsets, showed me where the emergency oxygen was and how to climb out the

window in an emergency. We had a ground delay of about 30 minutes, so they

had time to discuss and explain things. It was really interesting to see

how they steer while taxiing. They use a big handle like an over sized

transformer for an electric train. Like the captain said, I got to see the

whole thing. I only went back to my seat for about 15 minutes during level

cruise, since the crew also wanted to eat, but I came back for the approach

and landing. We did the ILS for 25L at Frankfurt through some heavy rain

and it all seemed so familiar.

That’s the story. Here are just a few points that I would like to

emphasize:

Clip Boards

Everyone suggested I get a full size clip board, since my Jeppesen

tri-fold was too small. The board was always in the way on take offs and

landings. I tried putting it under the seat, but it was enough distraction

that I could lose my heading on an approach. I also had a growing inventory

of approach plates under the seat. Tom suggested that I try sticking the

clip board under my left arm, which was kind of OK. Finally, after four

days, Tom & I agreed to go back to the knee board and stayed with that for

the rest of the course.

The Instrument Rating

I have often heard people say that the rating is the most difficult thing

they have ever done. I can not share that opinion. I did not find it

that difficult. It just requires a different type of concentration than VFR

flying.

Foggles

Get some that are comfortable and that flip up and down. Removing foggles

on short final can really be a distraction. Tom liked to reach over and

flip mine down while I was climbing after take off. I even agreed to say

"Ouch" when he did it, just to satisfy any latent sadistic tendencies he

might have had.

PIC Course

I think Tom said that PIC has about 70 instructors. I only met one, but he

was every bit as good as I had hoped him to be. One thing the PIC ads don’t

tell you is that you can either pay a per diem rate of $350 or pay for the

full course package. I think that the package price is $3,800. Sometimes

the courses go longer than 10 days, especially if you need extra time to

prepare for the oral.

Hotels

You need a desk and a room large enough for the instructor and you to work

on the simulator. (These requirements should be part of the hotel

selection process.) You and the instructor are going to be in that room for

several hours every day, so it might as well be comfortable. A

complementary breakfast buffet can save all kinds of time and money.

Lunch Breaks

Even if you don’t eat something a break during the day is necessary. Flying

on instruments hour after hour is mentally fatiguing and you need some time

to clear your head.

Coming from Over Seas

If at all possible, start the course after you have adjusted to the

time difference. I was fighting jet lag for the first three or four days.

It would also help if PIC had an E-Mail address. Their ads only list an 800

phone number. The only problem is that you can’t call 800 numbers from

Germany. (Maybe it’s possible from other countries.) If not an E-Mail

address, they should at least list a fax number. PIC does have a fax, but

even that number seems to be a well guarded secret.

Flying on the Computer

It has always been a great help for me. Once Tom asked, "Am I challenging

you enough? None of this stuff seems to phase you. I ask you to do

something that I haven’t explained to you yet and you just go right ahead

and do it." If you fly enough on the computer the simulator is no big deal.

Comparing Notes

One morning I hadn’t quite finished all of my homework. I told Tom that

Barry Wallis had called the evening before and we had spent quite a of

time discussing our IFR training. Tom’s reply was, "You mean that you

were comparing notes with another instrument student? You probably learned

more from that than if you had just finished your assignment."

The Oral Exam

I actually learned a lot during the oral exam. It didn’t feel too good at

the time, but I’ll probably never forget an answer to some of those

questions I was asked. I have told the story of my oral exam to several

flight instructors and when they hear some of the questions they usually

start looking at their shoes or pretend that they weren’t listening.

  Best Regards, 

  E-mail from: Michael Nelson, 12-Apr-1998