Beginning May 12, 2016, the FAA will allow our advanced sims to train beginning instrument students for twenty (20) hours. What does this mean for the beginning student?
I have trained hundreds of instrument students in aircraft. For the first twenty (20) hours you are wasting approximately six (6) to eight (8) hours just maneuvering the plane. Instrument training is about procedure on the gauges and the radios and putting those procedures to work. It is not about flying the airplane. You already know how to fly. So what does this mean?
It means that you are wasting time and money beginning initial instrument training in an airplane. For one, it cost more per hour to train in the airplane. Second, as stated above, you waste time in the aircraft, again, you already know how to fly. Finally, at the end of twenty (20) hours in our sims you are so close to finishing the rating that all you need is plugging in the aircraft to your training. When you climb in the aircraft and the instructor tells you to fly a procedure turn to a final approach fix for an ILS in a non-radar environment, in the aircraft it is a non event.
Our sims are available anytime, even when the weather is bad. They don’t need inspections and you don’t have a problem with a sim when you have a fouled plug, bad mag, dead battery, faulty radios or any other problems you can have in the actual aircraft. The bottom line is, don’t waste time doing your initial instrument training in the aircraft. Do it in our high end sims. And by the way, partial panel is a non-even when you train with our instructors.
And finally, you can’t push the pause button in the aircraft when you need to take a break or discuss a problem with the instructor. In our sims, you can.