New IFR Currency requirements...!

Travis Marlatte wrote:

This is for currency. If one doesn't fly any real IFR over a six-month
period, then requiring a little enroute flying with the appropriate
transitions at the ends seems reasonable. It is the wording that bothers me.
It seems to imply that currency would include a single flight that entails
all the transitions and enroute time. What if I had an hour of real IFR and
an approach or two and just needed to fill in the gaps?


Those of us who make a living flying (past tense for me ;-) get a whole
lot of actual IFR. Yet, we find ourselves in the sim doing the whole
drill once or twice a year.

I think it is not unreasonable to have a non-commercial pilot show he
can do the full drill on a periodic basis, even though he has a fair
amount of actual IMC time logged recently.

After I retired I did a few ICCs in an approved training device rather
than in an airplane. Those ATD ICCs were done by a couple of very good
CFI-Is. We did the full drill, departure, short en route (tower to
tower Los Angeles Basin routes), hold, arrival, transitions; all of it.

Based on my experience as a commercial pilot and former CFI-I I feel the
benefit to both me and the CFI-I's evaluation of me, was done far bettr
in the ATD.

The real point, though, is successful accomplishment of the full, but
short, "X-Country."

The real point, though, is successful accomplishment of the full, but short, "X-Country."

But what's the point of that, if it can be shown through other means
that it is likely that one could accomplish a full cross country?

Jose
--
Humans are pack animals. Above all things, they have a deep need to
follow something, be it a leader, a creed, or a mob. Whosoever fully
understands this holds the world in his hands.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jose wrote:
The real point, though, is successful accomplishment of the full, but
short, "X-Country."


But what's the point of that, if it can be shown through other means
that it is likely that one could accomplish a full cross country?

Jose

There is no means quite as good as having a CFI-I work through the
flight with the pilot.

There is no means quite as good as having a CFI-I work through the flight with the pilot.

Well, then why not have the CFI-I work through every flight? After all,
even after demonstrating takeoff, holds, cruise, and an ILS approach to
minimums at night in a driving rainstorm ending in a successful landing
with an obligatory full stop before taking off again does not prove that
the pilot is capable of doing an NDB during the day in calm winds, or
landing on a short runway after a VOR approach, or successfully
executing a go-around if a spotted deer is spotted on the runway after
an otherwise uneventful GPS approach (which has not been demonstrated
either).

There are reasonable limits as to what we have to prove all the time,
and there are cost/benefit judgements to be made.

Jose
--
Humans are pack animals. Above all things, they have a deep need to
follow something, be it a leader, a creed, or a mob. Whosoever fully
understands this holds the world in his hands.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jose wrote:
There is no means quite as good as having a CFI-I work through the
flight with the pilot.


Well, then why not have the CFI-I work through every flight? After all,
even after demonstrating takeoff, holds, cruise, and an ILS approach to
minimums at night in a driving rainstorm ending in a successful landing
with an obligatory full stop before taking off again does not prove that
the pilot is capable of doing an NDB during the day in calm winds, or
landing on a short runway after a VOR approach, or successfully
executing a go-around if a spotted deer is spotted on the runway after
an otherwise uneventful GPS approach (which has not been demonstrated
either).

There are reasonable limits as to what we have to prove all the time,
and there are cost/benefit judgements to be made.

Jose
It's not worth debating. You always have your mind made up.

It's not worth debating. You always have your mind made up.

Actually, I don't know how I feel about the proposed rules. I don't
however think that a knee-jerk "more rules are good rules" reaction is
the correct one. It seems to me that the purpose of instrument currency
rules is to ensure that the rust stays off the IFR abilities, not to
"prove" to the FAA that one is capable of everything (although one
=should= be capable of everything the license reasonably lets one do).

What I am unconvinced of is that flying in cruise knocks any rust off
that flying an approach hasn't already disloged. Your point about good
approaches to unlandable configurations is well taken; but while one
might need to demonstrate competence to an examiner when an examination
is warranted, I'm not convinced that the same holds true for currency rules.

Jose
--
Humans are pack animals. Above all things, they have a deep need to
follow something, be it a leader, a creed, or a mob. Whosoever fully
understands this holds the world in his hands.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jose wrote:

It's not worth debating. You always have your mind made up.


Actually, I don't know how I feel about the proposed rules. I don't
however think that a knee-jerk "more rules are good rules" reaction is
the correct one. It seems to me that the purpose of instrument currency
rules is to ensure that the rust stays off the IFR abilities, not to
"prove" to the FAA that one is capable of everything (although one
=should= be capable of everything the license reasonably lets one do).

What I am unconvinced of is that flying in cruise knocks any rust off
that flying an approach hasn't already disloged. Your point about good
approaches to unlandable configurations is well taken; but while one
might need to demonstrate competence to an examiner when an examination
is warranted, I'm not convinced that the same holds true for currency
rules.

Jose

I'm with you on this Jose, I find that the approach phase when it gets
busy is where any rust shows up in spades. Flying IFR in cruise helps
to knock rust off the scan, but doesn't do it the way flying a few
approaches and having to manage quick changes in the navigation etc
does. When I am a little rusty, flying IMC in cruise to high ceilings
so I don't have a challenging approach at the end is a great way to ease
back into the groove. I don't think it is great for keeping a sharp
edge though.