wrote:
Newps,


Exactly. The same goes for the myth that getting an instrument rating

makes you a better pilot. It makes you a better instrument pilot. It
makes you a worse VFR pilot.

With all due respect, having flown with a few hundred pilots as a
flight instructor, my observation is that pilots who have their
instrument ratings are better all around pilots than those who do not.
(Again, that is a general statement, there are certainly exceptions,
but it is true in general.) It does not make them a worse VFR pilot.
Well to the contrary, in fact, it improves their VFR skills due to
their ability to fly the airplane more precisely, something that seems
to make a big difference on crosswind landings (once they get past
spending too much time head down in the cockpit, which is also true of
VFR pilots with a moving map GPS). While it is only my observation,
pilots without instrument ratings tend to be sloppier on speed control
on landing approach, and are more likely to err on the fast side,
something that is a common cause of loss of control accidents on
landing - more energy, a squared function, to manage, and it doesn't
always get managed well. Noninstrument rated pilots also, in my
observation, tend to be far sloppier on altitude and heading than
pilots with instrument ratings and seem to be more likely to fly at
altitudes that are in violation of the east-west rule.

While the instrument rating is certainly not for everyone, the skill
sets it teaches, mostly the process of thinking much further ahead of
the airplane than one is used to doing when flying VFR, has positive
carryover value, as is usually the case with any additional training,
it has benefits beyond the specific areas being addressed.


This is my experience as well. I find that I not only fly more
precisely than before, but I also am MUCH better in my communications
with ATC and in my understanding of weather and the ATC system. Still
much to learn to be sure, but the instrument rating definitely raised my
game another notch.


As was stated here, fighter pilots in WWII got a lot of instrument
time, especially in the European Theatre where the weather often was
just plain lousy. In fact, they were known to shoot approaches down to
less than 200 and a half to get in after missions.

Interestingly, Al White, combat fighter pilot in WWII with victories,
then military test pilot and then test pilot for North American, was
probably the finest pilots with whom I've ever flown, even when he was
in his late 60s. His handling of the airplane was absolutely fluid and
I've never, ever seen anyone fly more precisely than he could, VFR or
IFR. During one series of maneuvers in a Cessna 402, I tapped the
altimeter on my side of the cockpit because it had not moved through
several 60 degree banked turns and I thought it was stuck. It wasn't.

That just isn't right to fly like that! :-)

Matt