The IFR Mindset

killbilly

killbilly

Vocals, Lyrics, Triangle, Washboard, Kittens
Not sure if this belongs in this forum, but I wanted to cast a wide net. And I'm purposely tagging a number of you who have given me some sage advice over the last couple of years or written well-reasoned opinions about flying that I filed away for later thought...

I'm doing the ground-school portion of my IR stuff online right now (and not liking it...may follow it up with a better one) and learning about some of the nuts and bolts of flying in the IR system. I've also been reading the Instrument Flying Handbook and Machado's Instrument Pilot Survival Guide just for variance/color.

Machado wrote a chapter about the mental process of flying IFR, which was interesting because I haven't seen that addressed in other things I've read. @Seggy once told me that the core of flying IFR is simply following procedures, and I've seen a number of postings from more senior folks like @CaptBill, @SteveC and @jtrain609 talking about IR flying in terms of process. Several of you have talked about the most important thing being "the next two things." @drunkenbeagle has broken down a lot of it for me into more manageable chunks but I'm trying to think of good processes to follow to flow it together....

And of course you've got @Boris Badenov and @mtsu_av8er who can tell you horror stories about braving lines of storms whilst inverted, sharks everywhere, air medals slapping them in the face while flying an airplane held together only by the layers of paint...

In all seriousness, though...I'm going to start the air portions of this relatively soon and I'd really like to be better at this than I have to be.

  1. How does one keep from getting overloaded?
  2. How do you handle curveballs that ATC throws at you? (IE - completely changes your clearance while you're in a 'dangerous' area....how do you keep from hitting a mountain while you're trying to get adjusted to the new clearance?)
  3. Now that you've flown IFR for a long time, what do you wish you'd been taught in the beginning?
  4. What skillsets are vital and which ones are useless in IR flying?
I figured those 4 questions might help me get in the right mental place....they may not be the right questions. I don't know what I don't know yet. Am I making this too hard?

EDIT - don't limit responses to those 4 questions if you think of something I didn't cover...like I said, I don't know what I don't know yet.
 
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1. Practice. The more you do it, the more natural it becomes.
2. Tell ATC you need a hand. Ask for a safe heading so you have time to pull out the chart, or program the GPS. If this doesn't work - say "unable" to their requested change.
3. That I could say "unable".
4. Im not sure which ones are useless. The vital one is a good scan. Practice it often, and on every flight. Stop and ask yourself quickly "whats my airspeed" or "what is my heading" and make sure that you know. If you don't, work on your scan - especially interpreting what you are seeing.

(My IFR skills decent and I rarely have problems- but probably not as good as many others on this board, and I am looking forward to reading everyone else's responses to this as well.)
 
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Boyington said:
1. Practice. The more you do it, the more natural it becomes.
2. Tell ATC you need a hand. Ask for a safe heading so you have time to pull out the chart, or program the GPS. If this doesn't work - say "unable" to their requested change.
3. That I could say "unable".
4. Im not sure which ones are useless. The vital one is a good scan. Practice it often, and on every flight. Stop and ask yourself quickly "whats my airspeed" or "what is my heading" and make sure that you know. If you don't, work on your scan - especially interpreting what you are seeing.

(My IFR skills decent and I rarely have problems- but probably not as good as many others on this board, and I am looking forward to reading everyone else's responses to this as well.)
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Thanks. That's really helpful. Don't limit it to the questions listed...I'd like for this to be a helpful discussion for everyone.
 
1. I do my best to be ahead of the airplane. I try to be mentally “spring-loaded” to accomplish tasks at the appropriate time. When something unexpected occurs, I don’t feel like I’m already busy doing other things. And if you’re worried about your scan, don’t be. It’ll improve with time and eventually become second nature, like breathing.

2. I prioritize. You already know about Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. Stick with it. ATC isn’t fully aware of all the tasks you’re handling, and they’ll understand if you respond with “Standby”, or “Unable”. Take the time you need to keep clear of that mountain, and then chat with Center about that new route.

3. Task saturation can and will occur. Have your instructor place you in some situations where you are saturated, and then work through getting out of them.

4. Multitasking, prioritization, and flexibility. Flying a perfect loop while using only the spade and horizon for reference.
 
1. How does one keep from getting overloaded?

Be ahead of the airplane procedurally, and always fly the airplane first. Have a good instrument scan, and that will reduce workload. A big part in preventing being overloaded is to always be 2 or 3 steps ahead of the airplane and have a plan for what is suppose to happen next.

2. How do you handle curveballs that ATC throws at you? (IE - completely changes your clearance while you're in a 'dangerous' area....how do you keep from hitting a mountain while you're trying to get adjusted to the new clearance?)

Anticipating curveballs is always a good start, but there are certainly times where unanticipated things can happen. A great way to minimize risk in that moment is to make sure you know what you're doing and where you're going before departing a known safe course. Don't be afraid to ask ATC to repeat a clearance or ask for some clarification on what ATC is asking/expecting you to do.

3. Now that you've flown IFR for a long time, what do you wish you'd been taught in the beginning?

I wish I had done my training in a 6 pack airplane. I did it all on glass with the G1000. Automation management is great, and managing what could potentially be an extreme level of information presented in order to get the job done has been valuable. However, the 6 pack scan takes a lot more discipline to do correctly than it does with a 10.5" screen with an attitude indicator, and heading airspeed and altitude transposed right over top of the entire attitude indicator...

4. What skillsets are vital and which ones are useless in IR flying?

Having a good scan, and proficient instrument flying skills are vital. I also believe that having proficient and accurate knowledge of IFR flying & IFR procedures in every aspect is crucial to good ADM, and a safe uneventful outcome of an IFR flight. Useless IFR skillsets? I couldn't tell you. I don't think I would discount any IFR knowledge you can get in your mind. It is all very useful in one way or another.
 
1. Know your equipment. Regardless of the particular airplane you're in know the buttonology to get what you need where as expeditiously as possible. Whether it's a G1000, an FMS, or a 6 pack and Ipad know how everything you're utilizing works and what it's thinking and what it's going to do and NEVER 'assume'

2. Prepare for the flight. Research the nav aid's along your route and any STARs etc at the airport you're going into. This one helped me extensively. Just because they tell you your clearance initially isn't a guarantee that's what you'll be flying when you get there. If they change it up and you don't have to ask for the phonetic for every GPS waypoint it'll make everything go a lot smoother and faster with less headache.
 
I'm going to take a shot at this one since I consider myself re-new to IFR. I got my instrument rating more than 20 years ago but lived in Colorado for 20 of them. Not much opportunity for flight in the clouds there. No, I've moved to North Carolina and have to put into practice what I've been preaching about instrument flying.

First, note that all of the people and references you mentioned are talking about process. It really is all about process and procedure and understanding what the next two things are.

The second item of note is that instrument training is artificial. You do mostly approaches and approaches and more approaches with unrealistically short times between them. That is important since it's how you learn to handle when things start coming quickly, but it is not how 90+% of IFR flight behave. A few months ago I had a non-instrument rated pilot act a safety pilot for some catch-up currency work. His post-flight comment is worth noting: "That really demystified the whole thing for me."

With those in mind, here we go. You'll detect a theme:

1. Context, situational awareness and yes, again, process. Understanding the system, where you are, what to expect and what those "next 2 things" are likely to be means you can anticipate when things are likely to get busy. Personal SOPs where certain things are habitual means you mind is freer to handle the new and different.

2. In the real world, your current route is not taking you into a mountain and you are on that clearance until you accept a new one. There is rarely any reason to rush. ATC isn't there to ball you up. A very simple example: you are on your initial leg after departure. You are just reaching your cruising altitude when ATC comes on with "I have an amended to your clearance; advise when ready to copy." Remembering that part of the "process" is aviate first, there's no reason why the initial response can't be "stand by by one." Level off, set your cruise power, run your checklist, pull out your pad and pencil and then reply with "ready to copy." Don't worry, if delay is an issue, you'll be told.

3. Two things: (1)To not sit idle. Hard to teach that when training is so approach-intensive. There are large segments of very low workload times. Use them to prepare. I've gotten into the habit of setting radios way in advance to what I think I will need. My destination ATIS/AWOS are ready to go and I even check them as far out as I can or will call Flight Watch for destination weather so I can have a good idea what approach will be used and brief it when I have plenty of time. (2) the 3-second rule: don;t take you eyes off the flight instruments for more than 3 seconds at a time, even if it means entering one digit at a time on a radio.

4. The calculation based on the 1-in-60 rule are pretty useless. A reliable scan is a precondition for any IFR flight, but situational awareness - the context I mentioned earlier - is what gets you from here to there with the least aggravation.
 
MidlifeFlyer said:
(1)To not sit idle. Hard to teach that when training is so approach-intensive. There are large segments of very low workload times. Use them to prepare. I've gotten into the habit of setting radios way in advance to what I think I will need. My destination ATIS/AWOS are ready to go and I even check them as far out as I can or will call Flight Watch for destination weather so I can have a good idea what approach will be used and brief it when I have plenty of time.
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It's hard to stress the "don't sit idle" enough. You will get to cruise, or finish your approach brief and think there is nothing to do right now. Wrong! There's always something you can be doing to get ahead of the aircraft. If you do that 90% of the curveballs from ATC will be no problem. For instance, if they tell you to fly direct to the IAF, and you've already got it loaded in your GPS and know where it is, you can just select it and go there. If you were waiting to load the approach and do your approach brief until later, now you've got to figure out where that fix is, load it, and then turn.

Priorities are also huge. Don't fly through a course because you were busy doing a checklist and forgot where you were.
 
I hope you don't mind me chiming in since I haven't flown single pilot IFR in years. I think all four questions are interrelated.

I think the others have hit this answer on the head - knowing your procedures, both for the airplane and the IFR system, cold. It takes awhile, but eventually under normal ops, flying should be subconscious allowing you to continue to anticipate where the airplane will be in time and space for the next phase (be it a course change or preparing for an arrival). It's an ebb and flow. For example, you check the weather and you know it'll be a challenge physically manipulating the controls, so you get your cockpit set up as best you can so you can focus most of your energy on staying on flight path. Maybe the weather is decent, and you know you're going to be in a high traffic volume area. In that case, you maybe make a mental plan that sets your limits. Maybe beyond a certain point in space switching runways will bury you, so you decide after passing that fix you tell ATC "unable".

The one thing that is paramount, and people get lax on is "where can I land NOW if I'm fire"

I have yet to find things I've learned in the beginning of IFR training that I haven't used or incorporated out flying around. Some things are more sporadic than others, but nothing has been forgettable.

I think the biggest lesson to learn in the airplane is learning your own behavioral cues, that are individual to you, that show you on are early on the path to task saturation. When you identify this, you can train yourself to start nipping these situations in the bud. Also, if you get task saturated (which we all do), how can you get yourself safely recombobulated.

Some solid advice from the other posters.
 
MidlifeFlyer said:
I4. The calculation based on the 1-in-60 rule are pretty useless.
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On the contrary, at least in a single-seat fast mover without an FMS, being able to figure out the correct number of radials displacement required at the inbound turn of a hold is quite valuable to assessing crosswind corrections, positional awareness, and managing workload while setting up for an approach.

Or, in calculating a lead radial on an arc-to-radial or the lead DME in a radial-to-arc.

It is very useful when doing an HSI fix-to-fix/point-to-point too.

So, while it may be useless in whatever equipment/environment you've been flying in, I find there are plenty of other real-world situations where I use the the 60-to-1 rule in instrument flying in pointy-nosed fast jets.
 
This subject matter is one that is neglected in the teaching process, and often is not emphasized enough. It is a hard question to answer; how does one go about teaching experience? You will develop a sense, much like you learned to ride a bicycle, and realized that your learning was simply guided to expand your perception with in certain constraints. What you are asking is essentially how do I keep out of a mental bottle next next during periods of high task saturation? Procedurally, radios, your scan, reading approaches, flight planning, knowing how to use your GPS and automation effectively are relatively rudimentary tasks and knowledge.

My best advice: learn how to sense rates of motion of what the instruments are telling you. From there, the learned knowledge is easier to accomplish and flying the airplane does not go to waste.

Sure, trim! Sure, learn how many clicks it takes to turn the knob of a frequency so you can focus on your scan. Knowing how to rapidly make correct inputs in your GPS is a great skill to acquire. But if you struggle with not understanding rates of motion in qualitative terms it will take longer, you will be behind the airplane.

And even if that sucks, just have an out, to every decision you make.

http://forums.jetcareers.com/threads/cfiis-how-do-you-teach-task-management.135652/
 
n57flyguy said:
This subject matter is one that is neglected in the teaching process, and often is not emphasized enough. It is a hard question to answer; how does one go about teaching experience? You will develop a sense, much like you learned to ride a bicycle, and realized that your learning was simply guided to expand your perception with in certain constraints. What you are asking is essentially how do I keep out of a mental bottle next next during periods of high task saturation? Procedurally, radios, your scan, reading approaches, flight planning, knowing how to use your GPS and automation effectively are relatively rudimentary tasks and knowledge.

My best advice: learn how to sense rates of motion of what the instruments are telling you. From there, the learned knowledge is easier to accomplish and flying the airplane does not go to waste.

Sure, trim! Sure, learn how many clicks it takes to turn the knob of a frequency so you can focus on your scan. Knowing how to rapidly make correct inputs in your GPS is a great skill to acquire. But if you struggle with not understanding rates of motion in qualitative terms it will take longer, you will be behind the airplane.

And even if that sucks, just have an out, to every decision you make.

http://forums.jetcareers.com/threads/cfiis-how-do-you-teach-task-management.135652/
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I have seen students get completely task saturated by completely fundamental tasks such as being able to make the GPS display the proper information, or use the autopilot to make it do what they want it to do.

Well said! I notice my students who struggle most are the ones who have a difficult time interpreting rates of motion of instruments, and relating that to what the airplane is actually doing.
 
n57flyguy said:
It is a hard question to answer; how does one go about teaching experience? \
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It isn't just "hard" -- it is impossible.

The only way to get experience is to experience it. The only way to build judgment and airmanship is through experience. It cannot be taught academically. Certain restrictive rules frameworks can be set up, and sets of rote-memorized or checklist-annotated rules can be created for students to follow, and thereby you can severely limit the number of actual decisions a student needs to make. All the while he is gaining experience while flying within that framework.

That being said, as instructors we can provide some training wheels for students on which they can set out with their fledgling judgment and airmanship and get some experience for themselves. Foremost, we can model good behavior and judgment, and our students can simply mimic our decisions when they are presented with decisionpoints. Second, we can set up training scenarios and allow our students to exercise their own decisionmaking within the scenario we have set up.
 
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For me it's all about procedures and staying ahead of the aircraft. Your instructor will give you a bunch of acronyms for remembering things. USE THEM! Do your T's, and write clearances down. I had a student come up with an acronym to remind himself where he was, where he was going, and what was after that. He would keep repeating it to himself every minute or so and it was really effective. I can't remember what it was, but use whatever works for you. Know your standard control/performance settings for your aircraft. What power and attitude will give level flight. Climb. Descent? Mentally fly the approaches you are planning on doing several times before a training flight. Being familiar will help you focus more on flying the aircraft. Clear as mud?

The one thing I wish I knew in training is that if you're feeling behind the aircraft you are further behind than you think. Ask for a hold or delay vector to get get back on track. Don't let the aircraft take you where you haven't already been mentally.
 
It sounds silly, but listening to approach clearances and the like on liveatc proved to be helpful for me. Before I got my PPL, I was an uber flight sim nerd. While I was in Korea in the Army, I had plenty of time to flight sim online (VATSIM) and learn the system. Once I started my IR, since I knew what to listen for, it was probably the easiest rating so far for me. Flying IFR has a rhythm & cadence. 95% of the time, you "should" know what ATC will be telling you. It's that 5% that requires all your training. ;)

You got this!
 
Hacker15e said:
It isn't just "hard" -- it is impossible.

The only way to get experience is to experience it. The only way to build judgment and airmanship is through experience. It cannot be taught academically. Certain restrictive rules frameworks can set up an environment and sets of rote-memorized or checklist-annotated rules for students to follow, and thereby severely limiting the number of actual decisions a student needs to make, all the while he is gaining experience while flying within that framework.

That being said, as instructors we can provide some training wheels for students on which they can set out with their fledgling judgment and airmanship and get some experience for themselves. Foremost, we can model good behavior and judgment, and our students can simply mimic our decisions when they are presented with decisionpoints. Second, we can set up training scenarios and allow our students to exercise their own decisionmaking within the scenario we have set up.
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I agree, hence the rest of the post, teaching ones self through experience, and an idea of what I feel is an important part of that in learning how to fly instruments. I also agree that based on such experiences and models can be transposed, but often are not. Conversely, an instructor will forget something, or their student will be encountered with something an instructor could have not taught them. So the point we are getting to is teaching based off experiences, creating perceptions and experiences to a student through mediums such as SBT and decision making models.

Side bar: was there an(y) emphasis in AF UPT on the OODA loop, developed by Boyd? An integrated approach to his model?
 
n57flyguy said:
Side bar: was there an(y) emphasis in AF UPT on the OODA loop, developed by Boyd? An integrated approach to his model?
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Not specifically, although there is a lot on Boyd and OODA taught in the Squadron Officers School that most O-3s/Captains (not just pilots, but all flavors of officers) attend. That training is flavored toward using OODA as a leadership decisionmaking process, not necessarily an airmanship decisionmaking process.

UPT is actually one of those highly-regulated, everything-has-a-rule-or-a-checklist environments that tries to limit opportunities for students to actually have to make decisions. As students go through the training pipeline into different types of graduate training, the procedural framework is slowly rolled back and pilots are little by little allowed to exercise more and more judgment.
 
So, here's my take on IFR in general. IFR flying is a triangle built of three sides, instrument scan, task management, and procedural knowledge. Without any one of the sides, the triangle falls apart.

/\
scan / \
/ I \ Procedural Knowledge
/ F \
/ R \
Task Management



So, instrument scan is one of the most fundamentally important parts of flying in the clouds, but it isn't everything. There are plenty of guys out there that can fly in the clouds well but are lousy IFR pilots. Instrument scan has to be second nature to fly IFR like a pro. You should be equally comfortable maneuvering the airplane by reference to instruments as you are visually. This is something that takes practice, but is probably the simplest skill to learn.

Procedural knowledge comes next. It's simply impossible to operate IFR without procedural knowledge and apply the skills of your scan without this knowledge.

Task management is the base of the triangle and is the brains behind scan and procedural knowledge. Anyone can study the procedures and regurgitate the correct answer. A truly good instrument pilot is miles and miles out in front of the airplane and knows what's coming next. I've heard people say, "don't let the airplane take you anywhere you haven't flown in your head five minutes ago" but I think that misses the point, or crosses into discussions of airmanship in general. In the IFR world, it's more like you should know what things you need to do when, and what you can put off - this is the part where experience really comes in. When do you start down? When should I configure? Should I turn the lights and ice protection on early so I don't have to do it when I'm crossing the IAF? Do I load the approach now or later? What speed should I fly? Am I flying too fast to be able to complete my checklist items? I'm busy now, why don't I couple up the autopilot to take care of this issue? And so on ad nauseum.
 
Hacker15e said:
Not specifically, although there is a lot on Boyd and OODA taught in the Squadron Officers School that most O-3s/Captains (not just pilots, but all flavors of officers) attend. That training is flavored toward using OODA as a leadership decisionmaking process, not necessarily an airmanship decisionmaking process.

UPT is actually one of those highly-regulated, everything-has-a-rule-or-a-checklist environments that tries to limit opportunities for students to actually have to make decisions. As students go through the training pipeline into different types of graduate training, the procedural framework is slowly rolled back and pilots are little by little allowed to exercise more and more judgment.
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And in speaking of transposition, The Loop does that well (in thought so far) and even to a greater effect outside of cockpit and the military. Its conformity knows little bounds, which I like and have been pondering ideas to incorporate it into the civilian cockpit.

That makes sense for a practical approach at UPT, from what I know about it, I just did not realize the significance of constraints on judgement at that level. In any case, I am a fan of the famed Loop, its intricacies, paradigms, and broader knowledge it imposes. Part of it is understanding his character and mindset additionally.
 
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