Using Flight Director

I can't imagine learning, and I would absolutely never teach primary IFR training with an FD. Heck, I firmly believe in doing it in a round dial airplane. As others have said, if you can't fly IFR without an FD, you should be only flying VFR.

There is some fantastic advice in this thread from many who are SUBSTANTIALLY more experienced and further ahead in our careers than the OP is, so if he chooses to ignore the information given here, that's his loss.
 
Airmann said:
I would like to hear the opinion of the CFII's about the use of the Flight Director only and not the auto pilot for students that are working on their instrument rating?
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IMHO, terrible idea for guys getting their instrument.

Pilots have the rest of their careers to become drool-cup addicted automation babies. Teach them to do it correctly the first time all by themselves and give them the skills that will be critical to saving their bacon in the future.
 
Hacker15e said:
IMHO, terrible idea for guys getting their instrument.

Pilots have the rest of their careers to become drool-cup addicted automation babies. Teach them to do it correctly the first time all by themselves and give them the skills that will be critical to saving their bacon in the future.
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Again, show up to the checkride not knowing how to use the equipment in the aircraft, and you should expect to fail.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
Again, show up to the checkride not knowing how to use the equipment in the aircraft, and you should expect to fail.
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To the best that I can tell, no one here is suggesting that he never learn how to use anything in the airplane. Rather, all of us are encouraging him not to rely on the FD as a crutch during initial IFR training.
 
Patrick said:
I can't imagine learning, and I would absolutely never teach primary IFR training with an FD. Heck, I firmly believe in doing it in a round dial airplane. As others have said, if you can't fly IFR without an FD, you should be only flying VFR.

There is some fantastic advice in this thread from many who are SUBSTANTIALLY more experienced and further ahead in our careers than the OP is, so if he chooses to ignore the information given here, that's his loss.
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I agree. Unfortunately where I work, our only instrument trainer is a G1000.
 
The Flight Director shouldn't be used in initial instrument training. Neither should glass IMO. Like others have said it's easy to go from six pack to glass, not the other way around. If a G1000 absolutely HAS to be used, students shouldn't be learning with a flight director. It makes instrument flying reaaaallly easy (if you know how to use it correctly) and doesn't do anything to build your scan.

To expound on the using the FD correctly, the FD is only as good as the person's understanding of the system and what modes do what. If you don't know how to use it, it actually becomes a hindrance to the safety of the flight because you could have all of the wrong modes selected and follow the thing straight into the ground.
 
I'm a little snacky.

Here's another analogy.

You leared to grill with gas.

But for your first BBQ, there's just a big old Weber, a bag of charcoal and 10 hungry friends.

Bad time to learn.
 
Ajax BU said:
I'm interested in some of the thoughts too. I don't teach in anything with an FD, however I do teach in a G1000.
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What are you flying that has a G1000 without a Flight Director?

On the main question, if that's the airplane that's being trained in, all of the available avionics should be learned. But, so too, equipment failures need to be part of that training and the failure of the autopilot or flight director in a G1000 are incredibly obvious ones, just as significant in their own way as the loss of the G1000 and the need to rely on the short set of round gauges that are not in the best place for an instrument scan.
 
If it's the airplane, teach them how to use it. I taught an instrument student in his late model A36 and it had a KLN90B, KFC150, FD, with ALT/VS preselect, complete with YD....

It would have been kind of stupid to tell him go learn in something more basic.... Any CFII who's worth a damn and competent with the avionics can teach the basics while introducing more complex equipment throughout the syllabus. It's still "the hard way" for the student. They still have develop the skill to stay far enough ahead of the airplane to be able to use a FD or AP correctly.
 
I'm not a fan of the G1000 for initial instrument training. I am also a believer that all available resources in the plane should be taught. As a CFII, if I taught in a plane with an AP/FD, the student wouldn't touch it until the XC phase at the very earliest. It would not be used again until just before the checkride.

Any CFI who allows a student to use a FD for training obviously doesn't understand the role of the FD, and needs to have his head examined.

To the OP: No aircraft system ever fails to automatic. Learn how to fly before messing with a FD.
 
MidlifeFlyer said:
For some reason I thought the G1000 had a flight director even with the KAP140. My mistake.
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The entire point of EFIS in my book is to have an autoflight director system, not a crappy rate based autopilot hooked up to an awesome glass panel - it's an easy mistake to make, since it was such a miserable installation.

#airlinepilotworldview
 
I don't think anything that is available to the student should be omitted.
Glass, no glass? Reflecting back on my CFI days, the career minded pilot should be taught and be capable with both.

or they end up like me, able to fly an antique airplane through the smoke and the oil and never turn on the F/D with out the AP because " gee, I don't know about that thing, never used one".
 
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