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Comment by simonswords82 | Hacker News Reader

I've been a private pilot for about 5 years and a couple of weeks ago I was out in crappy weather. I knew the weather would be awful and had the foresight to bring my instructor friend with me.

We ended up in cloud, I handed over control to my instructor and spent the next 10 minutes wondering what I would have done if he wasn't with me (hint: not good).

So I slept on it, text my instructor a couple of days later and told him I want to be able to do what he did. He told me I need an Instrument Rating (Restricted) rating, which allows me to fly in and above cloud.

So that's my learning for the next 10 weeks or so. I've got to take one written exam, one flying exam, and then I'm cleared for flying cloudy days.

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The FAA written plus the flying exam are just the bare minimum to make you legal, but not safe. Buying XPlane plus some yoke and throttle quadrant is the best investment you can make when it comes to IFR. Make sure you invest in it.

Yep, totally agree. XPlane is a fantastic idea I'll look in to it. Better than Microsoft Flight Sim?

Yes, it doesn’t look as nice but is much better for IFR. The G1000/GNS 530 are accurate enough that you can actually practice with them.

My father was a flight engineer in the Navy on P3s. While in-flight his job was to monitor the instruments. If you've never seen the cockpit of a P3, its basically wall to wall instruments.

Low visibility flight is frequently dangerous even when you have proper training. A lot of people that fly are surprised how easy it is to get disoriented in low visibility conditions.

Learning to use only instrumentation is a great and valuable skill, but don't forget that even if you know what you're doing the best option is to avoid bad weather if you can help it.

Totally agree, 100%. This is a "get out of jail free card" rating not a "let's fly in cloud because we can" rating.

Thanks for your input, I'll bet your father is a cool dude!

He's a great father and I couldn't imagine a better one. Its kind of funny though because as a member of flight crew he jumped out of airplanes on a semi-regular basis and I am terrified of heights. It doesn't bother me to ride in a plane with someone else flying it but I'd probably have to get someone to push me out of one if I needed to parachute.

And at night? Or is that another certification?

It seems like an IFR cert would be really good to have if you were up longer than intended and had to land at night.

The FAA doesn't require a separate night rating for the PPL. Which is kind of crazy, as it's too easy to fly into clouds at night.

Can't speak for FAA as I am in the UK and night flight is most certainly a separate rating. It's an additional 5 hours of training. Not much but essential given how many differences there are at night. It's night and day! #dadjoke.

Edit: More info about night rating: https://www.caa.co.uk/General-aviation/Pilot-licences/Applic...

You make it sound like you flew VFR into IMC with an instructor. Is that what really happened? If so, I would suggest a different instructor!

Not at all, he's an excellent instructor (and trust me I've met a few bad ones!)

The chain of events were we were circa 2000ft VFR. Instructor took control to climb in to cloud to get on top of it. Got in, instructor realised we were not going to be able to get on top of it and so IFR'd us back to the aerodrome with an ILS landing just for show.

Maybe it's a terminology issue. VFR means visual flight rules where you just remain clear of clouds (unless things are radically different where you are). Were you on an IFR flight plan the whole time but in VMC (visual meteorological conditions) until you entered the clouds?

Or the instructor requested IFR from the ATC when they encountered bad conditions (IMC).

But I'm not sure why you are downvoted, you are right, being IFR qualified does not mean you can switch at will between VFR/IFR. You need to file a flight plan with ATC first in any case.

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