The Turkey flies instruments

TheFlyingTurkey

Fetus Worshiper
Well, instrument ground school started today. Pretty basic stuff, just a review of the instruments, how they work, and how they can fail, or give false readings. I am still building time doing cross countries. I need another 6 hours solo cross, and I will be done with time build. Then on to instrument training with an instructor, which should be Thursday or Friday.

The Turk.


By the way: Freakerkookman is the best!
 
Well, time building is finally done. I have 40.3 hours PIC cross country, and just over 103 total hours. After 3 days of instrument ground we have already had 2 quizes, and a stage test tomorrow. I was assigned my instrument instructor, (who is by chance, the same instructor I had for private) and my first lesson in the sim is tomorrow. I am looking forward to it.

The Turk.
 
you'll hate the frasca at first, but you'll get used to it pretty quick. it really helps you get good at your scan of the instruments because its so jumpy.
 
The Frasca is difficult to fly at first, mainly I had trouble holding altitude, I was chasing it all over the place. But after 3-4 hours I have finally got the feel for the thing, and I am pretty smooth with it. I have done some BAI work, vertical S, pattern A and B. Doing all of that with partial panel, vacuum failure.
Tracking and intercepting VOR's was fun, but for some reason tracking and intercepting NDB's was more difficult for me. Basically finding out where I am in relation to the NDB and knowing which way to turn was the difficult part, but after some practice I am getting it. That is where I am so far in the instrument training.
As far as ground school goes, after one week, we have already had 2 quizez, and one stage test. And I understand it will be like that every week, for the 4 remaining weeks of ground.

The Turk.
 
Instrument training is going well. Passed the latest ground school test, and the Frasca is much easier to fly now. Now I am doing holds, DME arc, holding on VOR radials and NDB bearings. I have 2 more simm sessions, then the Stage 1 check.
At first I thought learning instruments was going to be a struggle, but now I am more confident, and I am actually looking forward to the lessons, and finally getting out of the Frasca and doing it in the real thing.

The Turk.
 
How's the Frasca compare to flying a real plane? does it have force feedback on the controls or anything? or sound?
 
its got a spring that puts tension on the controls but its no where as sophisticated as you might think. its really just a very realistic instrument panel with flight controls. the sound is one tone that sounds like an engine whirring sound. usually never on because its just annoying and doesn't change at all with different control settings. pretty much a useless option, but its funny. the machine basically just makes you learn to have a very good scan between different instruments, its not meant to simulate real-feel control surfaces. it works very well for what its intended to do, making you super efficient and very attentive to whats going on inside the cockpit.
 
Exactly what Dakovich said. And I would add that, I dont even use the rudder pedals when I fly it, they are way too sensitive. You definately do not get a "feel" for it, all there is, is that spring that you feel when you pull back or push forward all the way. It even makes a springy sound.

The Turk.
 
if you touch the rudders in the AST HAWK sim you almost automatically go into a crazy inverted spin...one of that machines many quirks
 
Well, I passed instrument stage check 1. Pretty easy overall. The oral was short, about 30 minutes, and covered all the instruments and their errors, how VOR's and NDB's work, and how to enter holds.
The flight portion was a ride in the Frasca. I had to takeoff, do a constant rate climb, turn to headings while climbing. Track a VOR, intercept a specific radial, and enter a hold. Then tracked a NDB, and held on a specific bearing. Lost my vacuum driven gyro instruments, and had to make a few compass turns. Did a couple unusual attitude recoveries and that was it.
Now tomorrow, I get to actually fly in the Archer, and put this stuff to use in the real world! The more I learn about instrument flying, the more I like it.

The Turk.
 
Well, flying the Archer is sooo much better than the Frasca. But the workload is higher, you cant freeze yourself in the Archer like you can in the Frasca!! I have flown 2 ILS approaches, and it was awsome. At about 240 feet, I looked up from under the foggles, and there was the runway, all lit up, and I was right on course. Really cool. Tomorrow I fly the VOR approach into Vero, cant wait. Ground school is going a little quicker now, had another stage test today. Only 2 weeks of ground left, actually its less than that, we have class until next Wednesday, off for Thanksgiving, and then the final exam on Friday.

The Turk.
 
I passed my stage 2 check today. Not too difficult, the oral consisted of reading the approach charts, and a few questions about minimums, and seeing the runway "enviornment" before landing.
The flight was good, I filed IFR to kVRB, got vector's to the VOR approach to 29L, went missed, tracked the 300 radial on the VOR and held. Then we went over and shot the begining of the ILS 9 at KFPR, VFR because they were landing on 27, so we did the approach and broke it off before entering class D airspace. That was it. Stage 3 will be much tougher.

The Turk.
 
Congrats dude... i envy you
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!!! .. you seem to be having fun with your IFR training
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... Good luck and keep us updated Turk
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!!..
 
Well, we are getting down to the nitty gritty with my IFR training. Only 2 training flights left before stage 3, and then the FAA checkride. I am still in ground school, and the final exam is Friday. Looks like I will have my stage 3 check this weekend, then the checkride sometime next week. I cant believe how fast instrument training went.
On Sunday I flew a cross country IFR flight from KFPR to KTIX with practice approaches at KVRB, KMLB, and KCOI. I did a total of 6 approaches (2 partial panel) and had a total of 3.4 hours. I was really tired after that one. But I learned a lot, and I cleaned up some of the mistakes I had made before. I am looking forward to my long cross country under IFR, which should be this Friday.
So far Pan Am has really lived up to its promise of quick training. If I do well, and get my instrument rating next week, I will probably go right into multi-engine training and have my private-multi before Christmas break. I am really looking forward to flying the Seminole!
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The Turk.
 
turkey,
You are flying (no pun intended) through this. how many hours do you have in the frasca and in the plane for instrument? also are you part 141?
 
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Busy week: Well, I passed the instrument written exam on Tuesday, ( I also took the CFII written and passed that too. It's a good idea to take both, as both test's come from the same bank of questions.) I passed the "stage 3 check" Wednesday, and I have my Instrument checkride tomorrow, Friday.
Doug, Perfect timing on the checkride thread, it has already come in handy.
Once I got out of the Frasca, and started flying the airplane, I really started to enjoy my instrument training. For a while there I was frustrated, and discouraged, but that all turned around quickly, and I love flying instruments. (But wearing those Foggles really blows.)

Fukoki, as far as my instrument training flight time goes: (Part 61)

Frasca: 27.6 hours
Archer: 22.2 hours
Total flight time: 126.7

So I guess I am moving pretty quick, but it seems about average to me. Well, back to the books...

The Turk.
 
sounds like you're doing awesome turk, keep it up. i almost did the same thing with the writen tests, take IFR and CFII together but i decided against it. some people like that idea, some people don't. i personally decided to wait on the CFII so that it would force me to restudy all the instrument stuff back to front later in my training when i might be more apt to forget something. kind of a way to keep me from slacking i guess. anyway, keep up the good work
 
Best of Luck on the check ride! I hope the weather holds off for you. I did mine after the remains of a hurricane blew through. Not much fun when weather gets crazy. Then I had another check ride get canceled because of heavy rains. Oh well, I passed them both. Study hard and keep your head in the game. You'll do great!! As for the Frasca, it's worth it in the end.

The gold stipes will look good on your uniform! Let us know the details.
 
Dude! 22 hours for instrument in the archer! that is shorter than the syllabus! unheard of! Either you're a genius or they are putting something extra in the water in Florida!
I guess there are some differences at phoenix. As of like 2 months or so ago the guys here are no longer allowed to take the cfii test and the instrument test at the same time. also our part 61 syllabus only calls for two stage checks. I think that has been so for quit some time.

keep it up and you will be the next pan am poster boy!
 
fukoki, we used to have only 2 stage checks also, but they added a stage in the middle just recently. As far as the flight time... wow you're right! 22 is shorter than the syllabus. I didn't even look at it until you mentioned it. But I went over on the Frasca by 2 hours, so I guess it evens out.

I had my check ride today, but the weather was so crappy we didn't fly. So I just did the oral, and nailed it!
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The ceilings were down to 700', and the examiner didn't want to do steep turns, and unusual attitudes in actual IMC. So we will do the flight tomorrow. I really wanted some actual time, but oh well...

The Turk.
 
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