Earned my Instrument Rating Yesterday!

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 10:04 am

Well despite the 15-20 gusting to 25 winds yesturday in mountainous terrain, I earned my instrument rating on the first attempt. It was a workout and a long checkride due to the fact that we had to fly almost an hour to get to a NDB approach but I am satisfied with the results and relieved that I have this rating behind me.

This is such a great process to go thru and it has really taught me how much I did not and still do not know about flying.

I was lucky to have a great instructor and friend who has also built a RV7. He knows his stuff and one day I will be glad that he put me thru the wringer during the training!

Brantel

PPSEL & IA

Post by **Spike** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 10:52 am

Congratulations!!!

Out of curiousity, how long did it take? I have been working on mine for what seems like FOREVER.

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 11:22 am

Spike wrote:Congratulations!!!

Out of curiousity, how long did it take? I have been working on mine for what seems like FOREVER.

It took me a little over a year start to finish. I already had my 50hrs PIC cross country so that helped.
The fact that I cherish my family and I am building my RV caused it to take longer than it would if I was single and not building an airplane.

What hurts is logging 2 hours but only being able to apply 1.8 or so to the simulated instrument time. This adds up over 40 hrs!

I decided to do my entire 40 hrs of simulated or actual time with my instructor so this also added to the time and expense but I concider this well spent because it helped me get rid of some bad habbits and to drum the proceedures into my head.

I ended up with 40.7 hrs of simulated and actual instrument time. All in an actual airplane and no simulators.

papakeith · Post by **papakeith** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 11:26 am

Congrats!

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 11:48 am

Nice work! This rating alone is the most valuable post PPL rating one can get, even if you don't intend to fly IFR all the time.

tmbg · Post by **tmbg** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 11:50 am

I'm working on mine, but I keep getting setbacks...

for one, spending a month in the hospital didn't help.

But, the worst is the fact that my avionics keep breaking. My number 2 nav is a Narco NAV-121 which stripped its gears, and my avionics guy sent it off to be repaired. Three months ago.

My number one nav is a KNS-80, VOR/LOC/GS/RNAV. I recently noticed my GS wasn't working, and mentioned it to my avionics guy, and he pulled the unit and the indicator. My indicator has a GS deviation problem. Now I have ZERO nav radios in the plane, just an ADF

Seriously considering selling off all my radios and investing in a 430W and an SL30.

dons · Post by **dons** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 2:07 pm

Congrats on the IR!

I got mine last year, so it is fresh in my mind how you must feel to get that one under your belt.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 3:40 pm

COOL!

Congrats!

You are at the top of your game right now!

CJ