Paul Folbrecht wrote:
I'm looking for input from you guys that have had your rating for awhile
and who do stay current and fly in IMC regularly. What does it take,
realistically, for you to feel proficient and safe flying and shooting
approaches in actual? If you don't get actual time, do you still
regularly practice approaches simulated with a safety pilot? As your
overall time increases, does it take somewhat less flying to maintain
that same level of comfortable currency?

I don't get as much actual, or stick time in general, as I'd like to
(especially in the winter). Realisticly, if I don't devote one flight a
month to hard-core instrument work (i.e 2-3 hours under the hood with 4 or
more approaches), I'm not keeping sharp enough. That's about 4x the legal
minimum. I also try to set off on longish trips sometimes, so I'm not just
flying the same approaches over and over.

I try to mix things up. One flight might be "VOR night", where I turn off
the GPS and fly everything with just 2 nav radios. My most recent flight
was devoted to exploring the new software upgrade we just got in the GPS
(LNAV/VNAV approaches, for example). I like to have my safety pilot throw
stuff at me (like inventing random holds). Train to a higher standard than
real life, so real life seems simple by comparison.