"Paul Folbrecht" wrote in message
...
What does it take, realistically, for you to feel proficient and safe
flying and shooting approaches in actual? If you don't get actual time,
do you still regularly practice approaches simulated with a safety pilot?

I dislike flying under the hood--I don't find it to be very helpful.
Instead, I use my PC flight simulator at home to maintain proficiency. Even
though it doesn't count toward official currency, I find it much more useful
than "approved flight training devices", which do count officially (with CFI
supervision).

For official currency, I fly approaches in IMC. I don't get many of those in
the course of XC flying, so at least four times a year I try to go shoot a
few approaches on a good LIFR day. Between that, and the PC simulator, and
XC IMC flying (usually just with visual approaches), and filing IFR in VMC
to stay familiar with the ATC interaction, I manage to maintain both
official currency and actual proficiency.

--Gary