We got our CPL bars about a week ago.. and now finally used to having them on! After 13 months of intensive training, Course 68 are now Commercial Pilots. I eventually got around to taking a couple of photos with my new bars by the Seneca.. so here they are!
We’re all now working towards the instrument rating and the skills tests for our course will commence next week..! The IFR flights and simulator sessions have been challenging. There are 18 simulator sessions and 9 flights before the skills test. I found the first two sessions a little difficult to get into since we hadn’t done any instrument flying for a while, since the CPL is all VFR apart from the instrument air-work. So after a couple of sessions, things flowed a bit more smoothly. I find that IFR flying is much more about getting organised and prioritising tasks to free up capacity in the air so that the high workload during approaches can be handled well. In addition, I find that I’m having to do far more preparation than I ever had to do for any of my VFR flights! I fly the route in my head and try to think of things ATC may throw at me and how I could handle it. I find that this really lends me more capacity in the air, as a lot of the thinking has been done on the ground and I can set the aircraft up and its avionics effectively. IFR is certainly a challenge, but I am really enjoying it. The only misfortune is that I cannot enjoy the beautiful views as I would do when VFR!
I’ve been really busy since the past week… I hope all this hard work will pay off with a first time Instrument Rating pass!