On 2006-09-27, ktbr wrote:
Jay Honeck wrote:

3. Instrument Flying Sucks. This is something I've rarely seen
discussed here (maybe never?), but instrument flying is one of the most
boring things I've done. Neither of us learned to fly so that we could
stare at what amounts to a computer screen for hours on end. In fact,
we learned to fly for the freedom of flight, and the sheer beauty of
the experience.

I've never felt that flying IFR 'sucked' any more than flying VFR.
It *is* a little more of a challenge than VFR but that makes it all
that much more rewarding to me. You are required to maintain your
currency to a higher degree and I think that makes you a safer pilot.

The thing that Jay is probably missing is that real world IFR flying is
_much_ different to IFR training. The difference is like night and day.
For the training, you fly perhaps 40 or 50 hours under the hood, doing
nothing but staring at the instruments.

Real world IFR flying, in my experience, has been 95% VMC because you
spend a lot of time on top of clouds or between them. Since you are in
VMC, you don't look at the instruments any more than you do on a VFR
flight (after all, you still have to see and avoid when flying IFR in
VMC).

The most staggeringly beautiful flights I've had - with the exception of
mountain flying - have ALL been IFR flights. Majestic cloud canyons that
are out of this world. Bursting out of walls of sheer cloud. Spears and
tendrils of cloud between layers, illuminated by milky sunshine coming
through a high cirrus layer. A runway, lit up like a Christmas tree,
emerging from the murk at the last stages of an ILS.

Real world IFR flying is seldom staring at the gauges.

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