Pilot’s Guide to Airspace

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The purpose of the different airspace rules is safety. Some…

How to fly a rectangular course

Ground reference maneuvers integrate the fundamentals of flight and demonstrate that you have competence in manipulating the flight controls and applying control pressures to maintain a pre-determined aircraft course relative to objects on the ground. Applying this skill to the rectangular course is the basis for airport traffic patterns.

Keeping One Step Ahead of ATC when flying IFR

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Gone are the days of making an educated guess on a route, only to have ATC respond with a full route clearance with intersections and airways. It now takes only a moment in ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot or FltPlan.com to enter a departure and destination airport and then see recently issued clearances to other aircraft flying the same route.

How to prepare for checkride day

Communication is key to the examiner understanding your thought process and decision making. Checkrides have plenty of emotion and pressure that will hopefully allow you to excel. Don’t bring unnecessary pressure or emotion to the flight by overreaching or trying to do too much. Fly like you’ve trained and be the PIC.

Combining IFR and visual flight

If we didn’t have access to the variety of visual IFR procedures or the option for VFR flight, the system would quite simply be overwhelmed. Where the breakdowns and inefficiencies occur, can often be attributed to a lack of awareness on the part of pilots or failure to take advantage of our options for combining IFR and VFR flight.
Clearance

How to get an IFR clearance at a non-towered airport

Flying a light airplane offers access to thousands more airports than the airlines serve, which means you can land closer to your destination, avoid long taxi routes, and save time. For an instrument pilot, though, there is one key difference between a smaller, non-towered airport and a larger one with an air traffic control tower: obtaining an IFR clearance.

Fly a contact approach from Pilot Workshops

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A contact approach is probably the most versatile—and most underutilized—IFR tool. Like a visual approach, you’ll navigate to the airport visually and must remain clear of clouds with no minimum cloud distance. Unlike a visual approach, it only requires 1 SM visibility reported at the airport and you don’t need the airport in sight.

Round Out Your Pilot Skills with an Instrument Rating

Instrument flying certification and skills can be something that a pilot can use even on good VFR weather flying days. The process, and the skill set that comes with being an instrument pilot, and even a proficient one, can be a set of tools that makes any flight safer and more predictable.

Planning an IFR departure

Departure procedures are designed primarily to provide obstacle clearance and should be used when published.  These procedures come in two varieties:  Obstacle Departure Procedures (ODPs) and Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs).

Understanding and Executing IFR Holding Procedures

Maximum holding speeds in knots indicated airspeed (KIAS) have been designated for specific altitude ranges. Often pilots can avoid flying a holding pattern or reduce the length of time spent in the holding pattern, by slowing down on the way to the holding fix.