Damaged the Budget Today

"Barry" wrote
Here are some comments and suggestions (I'm sure others will
disagree with parts):

Barry, even with somewhat limited experience, I would have to
agree wholeheartedly with your entire post!!

Bob Moore
ATP CFI USN
PanAm (retired)

"Barry" wrote in message
...
Here are some comments and suggestions (I'm sure others will disagree with
parts):

(Very good stuff snipped)

Thanks, Barry- great advice, and I do appreciate it. I just got off the
phone with the FBO and their course structure is much the same as you
suggested. And yes, one has to go a looong way from Houston to find
mountains

Wendy

Barry wrote:

Here are some comments and suggestions (I'm sure others will disagree with
parts):

The school should use a written syllabus, and you should have a copy. The
training should be broken down into phases, typically:
1. Basic airplane control
2. Basic navigation
3. Approaches and holding
4. Cross-country flights
There might occasionally be good reasons to deviate from the syllabus, but in
general you should be proficient in each phase before moving on to the next.
Beware of an instructor who has you doing ILS approaches on the 2nd lesson.
Doing an IFR cross-country early on can be useful to let you see how things
work, but your role will be more as an observer than as an IFR pilot.

Make sure you have a copy of the Instrument Rating Practical Test Standards
(available at http://afs600.faa.gov/AFS630.htm). Refer to it frequently
during your training, not just at the very end before the checkride.

It's better to do cross-countries with three legs, instead of retracing your
initial route. For example, instead of Houston-Memphis-Houston, do
Houston-Memphis-Little Rock-Houston.

You shouldn't need to do "loads" of short cross-countries. The syllabus I use
has four cross-countries, including the "long" 250 nm one, and together they
take about 10 hours. If you need a lot more, it's probably because you didn't
spend enough time on the earlier phases.

Go to a range of airports, both towered and non-towered.

I think that there's little value in long cross-countries - you don't learn
much droning along at cruise for three hours. The main value is in the flight
planning and dealing with different conditions. If you do decide to do a long
flight, try to get a day when the weather's not uniform along the route, and
pick a route with varied geography. I guess you have to go pretty far from
Houston (and not towards Memphis) to see some mountains.

Barry



This is excellent. I disagree with one thing though. Instead of looking
for a day when the weather is non uniform, get the cross country
requirements done ASAP VMC or IMC. Then when you get your ticket and you
find any of those challenging IMC days call your instructor and go for
it. Anything more than 100 nm legs is pretty much useless especially
since ATC will most likely put you on top. A 25 nm trip into a class
Bravo is much more entertaining.

John Roncallo

These people seem honestly concerned with
making me a proficient IFR pilot rather than simply preparing me for the
checkride,...

In my opinion, that's a very important thing. I got my instrument rating
five years ago after a too-long training period, much of which was caused by
my first instructor's view that if I had "done" everything that would be
required on the checkride, then I was OK to go, and of course I simply
wasn't. My second instructor's first words after landing from my first
flight with him were, "You're not a confident instrument pilot". I replied,
"Bingo! We're going to get along fine." We worked until I was a confident,
competent, instrument pilot.

Wendy wrote:
I upgraded from my ridiculously cheap and poorly performing Flightline
headset to a DC H20-10 in preparation for my IFR training. I haven't flown
with the DC's yet, but I will Saturday afternoon. My rationale here is
two-fold in that if I am in need of communicating, it would be a good thing
to not only have some equipment I can reliably communicate with, but to
initiate my IFR training at an airport that is controlled (KDWH) rather than
the admittedly fine uncontrolled airport I initially trained at (KCXO); the
choice of which will obviously requires a level of conversation surpassing
simply shooting the breeze.

Is this an Active Noise Reduction ANR headset. I recently purchased a DC
Non-ANR for my helicopter training and found that I like my old $100.00
Aviation Communications AC-200 better for most of my short trip flying.
The problem I have with the DC's is that the are convertible from a
helicopter cable (single jack) to a fixed wing cable (double jack).
While that is a great idea the connection sticks out longer and hits my
shoulder when I turn my head. I dont notice any more clarity over the
cheaper pair but I do notice that the DC's jell filled ear covers wont
bother me as much on long cross country flights. I also like the
individual ear volume adjustments.

The FBO where I bought the headset- Mercury Flight Systems- seems to have a
solid, while expensive, approach to the IFR experience. Rather than making
loads of short XC's, they seem to stress longer ones;
Houston-Memphis-Houston being one example. Obviously, there will be a lot
of shorter excursions in the curriculum, but I have to say that the idea of
flying under an instrument flight plan on major excursions is a challenging
surely and valuable experience. These people seem honestly concerned with
making me a proficient IFR pilot rather than simply preparing me for the
checkride, which is the general impression I got from the operation where I
obtained my initial certification. Any comments on this would be greatly
appreciated; being trained to pass the PTS is one thing, and thoroughly
understanding it is another, IMHO.

KHOU to KMEM, Thats 420 NM each way. Considering re-routing you will
probably be doing over 1000 NM of travel that day. Thats further than
I've ever flown and unless your 172 has long range tanks will most
likely require a fuel stop. And unless you have long range tanks you
will probably require a we-we stop.

I recommend you get the IFR ticket as fast as possible then do trips
like this, or shorter, with an instructor in actual IMC after you get
your ticket. I just flew 4 hours last month to Williamsburg after work
on a IFR flight plane in mostly VMC weather. I was bone tired when I got
there. If I had to fly back the same day, I probably would have fallen
asleep in the plane. And that was only a 313 nm straight line distance.

The reason I say get the ticket as fast as possible is because in most
flight school situations the longer these lessons drag out the more
chances of instructor and aircraft changes you will be exposed to, which
intern drag it out further. Putting extra requirements on the student
like this will only prolong the process. No one will ever stop you from
taking more lessons after you complete your training. I go up with
instructors all the time especially when it is really gusty or hard IFR.
But when I fly with my family I stay within my limits.

Apparently the training will be conducted in a C-172 upgraded to 180hp with
a CS prop; since I have some (short) time in a Super Decathlon this won't be
totally new to me. Instrument flying will be new, other than than my brief
exposure required by the Private program, and I am looking forward to it.
This is a challenge I really want to master, and any suggestions you all
might have as concerns beginning training would be greatly appreciated.


The modified C-172 sounds like a more unnecessary costly option. It wont
teach you anything about IFR and it will cost more to operate.

I would seriously consider a more standard approach

Wendy

Sounds like you went with the H10-60, whose dome-connector scheme does
indeed involve a longer plug at that end.. With the DC H10-13XL (ANR
headset), the cord swap from single-jack to double-jack is trivial, it
involves only the cord going from the battery pack to the panel. If you're
the type not bothered by the traditionally snug fit of DCs, the H10-13XL is
the best headset out there. I've tried the Bose X since buying my DC, and if
it'd been the other way around (trying the DC after buying the Bose), I'd
have been ****ED at the extra money wasted on the Bose. Yeah, the Bose is
more comfortable but I hate the mike boom and mike audio, and the ANR isn't
any better than the DC's, IMHO.


"John Roncallo" wrote in message
...

Is this an Active Noise Reduction ANR headset. I recently purchased a DC
Non-ANR for my helicopter training and found that I like my old $100.00
Aviation Communications AC-200 better for most of my short trip flying.
The problem I have with the DC's is that the are convertible from a
helicopter cable (single jack) to a fixed wing cable (double jack).
While that is a great idea the connection sticks out longer and hits my
shoulder when I turn my head.