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."

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 08:49:03 -0500, Roy Smith wrote:

I suppose 50 miles is somewhat arbitrary, but it seems to me that the whole
point here is to get people away from their familiar home environment. If
taking two 50 mile flights twice a year is a hardship, I don't understand
what people are doing with their ratings.

You'd think actually using the rating would at least meet the minimum
currency requirements.

I'm not so sure I'd want to fly with someone who continually was
worried about flying just enough to stay legally current.

On 02/25/07 11:18, Bonehenge (B A R R Y) wrote:
On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 08:49:03 -0500, Roy Smith wrote:

I suppose 50 miles is somewhat arbitrary, but it seems to me that the whole
point here is to get people away from their familiar home environment. If
taking two 50 mile flights twice a year is a hardship, I don't understand
what people are doing with their ratings.

You'd think actually using the rating would at least meet the minimum
currency requirements.

The currency requires actual or simulated IMC. Actual IMC may be hard to
come by in some areas, so you're left with simulated (and the safety
pilot which that requires).

You could fly IFR every day, yet still need to get a safety pilot and
do the currency every six months.


I'm not so sure I'd want to fly with someone who continually was
worried about flying just enough to stay legally current.



--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA

On Feb 25, 6:14 am, Roy Smith wrote:

Pointless? No. I do agree with you that's it's a little vague....

My point here was that if I can control the plane by reference to
instruments while doing approaches, I sure as heck must be able to do
it while remaining straight and level. What additional experience am
I gaining by simply being in cruise flight for that long?

On a somewhat unrelated note, how are professional pilots going to
stay current? Their normal flying probably takes care of that today,
but I don't know of many airlines that still use non-precision
approaches.

--Dan

In article .com,
"Dan" wrote:

On Feb 25, 6:14 am, Roy Smith wrote:

Pointless? No. I do agree with you that's it's a little vague....

My point here was that if I can control the plane by reference to
instruments while doing approaches, I sure as heck must be able to do
it while remaining straight and level. What additional experience am
I gaining by simply being in cruise flight for that long?

You get the experience of going someplace that's outside of your familiar
area, where you actually have to think about how to get where you're going,
look things up because you don't already have them memorized.

You can spend the cruise time (if you can count 15 minutes as "cruise
time") doing things like getting a weather update, reviewing your fuel
status, planning your descent profile, etc. These are all things you
should be doing on normal IFR flights anyway.

Even better, put your safety pilot to good use and have him give you a
diversion to someplace you haven't planned. Pull out the charts, figure
out a route, air-file a flight plan, pick up your clearance, and program
the GPS with the new route. That'll keep you busy during the en-route
segment.

Anybody who's flying real IFR on a regular basis will meet these
requirements as part of his or her normal flying. Even if you need to go
out and fly a bunch of approaches just to get current, going to someplace
that's 50 miles away just shouldn't be a hardship. Most places, there's
enough approaches around that without much effort, you can put together a
loop where the missed approach from one puts you to the general vicinity of
the IAF of the next.

Even if you need to go
out and fly a bunch of approaches just to get current, going to someplace
that's 50 miles away just shouldn't be a hardship.

It's an added expense which may well be pointless. That same time and
money could be better spent doing more approaches under different
circumstances (including failed instruments)

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.

In a previous article, Roy Smith said:
The way the rules are written today, you can maintain currency by getting
vectors to the same ILS at your home drome 6 times and doing one hold.
Repeat every six months. By this time, you should have the fixes and
altitudes memorized and can probably read back the vectors in your sleep.

All the real world IFR flying I've done since getting my ticket has
involved flying in or over clouds en-route, and maybe once in a while
doing an ILS where I break out soon after crossing the FAF. I've never
done a real circle to land (and I hope I never have to), and I've only
once done a LOC-BC approach in the clouds (which with a HSI was pretty
much a non-event). So if all I did for currency was fly 6 ILSes at my
home airport, I would be pretty well prepared for what I'm going to
encounter in real life. I've been trying to mix it up a bit, however, but
there's only so much a safety pilot will put up with, especially since
they decommissioned our NDB approach.

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
"I'm starting to suspect she has a part-time job in one of the circles of
Hell and is telecommuting."

Dan wrote:
So what does everyone think about the proposed new IFR currency
requirements? The major changes seem to be that 1 hour of cross-
country time will be required, along with six approaches, consisting
of BOTH precision and non-precision, and two types of holds.

Some of this can be completed in a PCATD, but an instructor must be
present. (I wonder if a remote MSFS console via the Internet counts..)

Most of it sounds OK to me, however I think the 1 hour of cross-
country time is pointless. What would be considered cross-country? It
is a little vague...

Here is the link:

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2...df/E7-1467.pdf

The interesting bit starts on page 31 of the PDF.

I've never done a takeoff under the hood. I wonder if it would be ok if
I did that just before rotating or if it needs to be done for the
entire roll. I'm glad my home airport runway is 100 feet wide...

Yes, I know we can legally take off zero zero. It's just not something
I think I need to practice every six months.

With a /G plane, the hold over the radio station and intersection are
no different. I wonder where these requirements are coming from? Has
someone been complaining that pilots aren't doing holds very well and
should practice more? An hour cross country? My last currency ride actually
did last more than an hour. We didn't cross much country though. We
did a GPS at Chapel Hill and from the hold at the missed went to the
nearby IAP for the GPS at my home airport at Sanford. They're 21 miles
apart.


--Dan


--
Don Poitras

An instrument take-off can be done under the hood, but the
FAA practice has been to put the hood on at 100-200 feet.
And then fail an engine on a twin.


"Don Poitras" wrote in message
...
| Dan wrote:
| So what does everyone think about the proposed new IFR
currency
| requirements? The major changes seem to be that 1 hour
of cross-
| country time will be required, along with six
approaches, consisting
| of BOTH precision and non-precision, and two types of
holds.
|
| Some of this can be completed in a PCATD, but an
instructor must be
| present. (I wonder if a remote MSFS console via the
Internet counts..)
|
| Most of it sounds OK to me, however I think the 1 hour
of cross-
| country time is pointless. What would be considered
cross-country? It
| is a little vague...
|
| Here is the link:
|
|
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2...df/E7-1467.pdf
|
| The interesting bit starts on page 31 of the PDF.
|
| I've never done a takeoff under the hood. I wonder if it
would be ok if
| I did that just before rotating or if it needs to be done
for the
| entire roll. I'm glad my home airport runway is 100 feet
wide...
|
| Yes, I know we can legally take off zero zero. It's just
not something
| I think I need to practice every six months.
|
| With a /G plane, the hold over the radio station and
intersection are
| no different. I wonder where these requirements are coming
from? Has
| someone been complaining that pilots aren't doing holds
very well and
| should practice more? An hour cross country? My last
currency ride actually
| did last more than an hour. We didn't cross much country
though. We
| did a GPS at Chapel Hill and from the hold at the missed
went to the
| nearby IAP for the GPS at my home airport at Sanford.
They're 21 miles
| apart.
|
|
| --Dan
|
|
| --
| Don Poitras

On Feb 25, 8:14 am, Roy Smith wrote:
Pointless? No. I do agree with you that's it's a little vague. I'd like
to see them define better what they mean by "cross country". There are
various definitions of cross country in the book for various purposes. I
think what makes sense here is "a full stop landing at an airport 50 miles
from your point of departure", although I suppose Alaska bush pilots might
object to having their destination limited to an airport.

The definition of cross-country time per FAR 61.1 (3) only requires
the flight to include a landing at a point other than the point of
departure. The 50 NM only apply for the purpose of obtaining
aeronautical experience for the obtention of a private, commercial and
ATP certificates.

(3) Cross-country time means-

(i) Except as provided in paragraphs (b)(3)(ii) through (b)(3)(vi) of
this section, time acquired during flight-

(A) Conducted by a person who holds a pilot certificate;

(B) Conducted in an aircraft;

(C) That includes a landing at a point other than the point of
departure; and

(D) That involves the use of dead reckoning, pilotage, electronic
navigation aids, radio aids, or other navigation systems to navigate
to the landing point.