I am a fairly low time pilot (110 hours) who hasn’t flown (with the exception of the demo ride when Cirrus was at RDU a couple of weekends ago) in almost 4 years! Now, I am spending lots of time dreaming of purchasing my own Cirrus in the next year and half (whild building some time to try to save some $$$ in insurance).
Obviously, I am going to do lots of recurrent training with an instructor as I get back into flying but am finding myself wanting to do some “arm chair” flying and training in the mean time. Gonna pick up MS FlightSim before too long to play with it, but wanted to get some recommendations on what I should start doing to work on my IFR ticket (which is something I am definitely going to do).
Am thinking about purchasing one of the DVD courses from King or Sporty’s but didn’t know (1) if the video training courses are any good or if one is better than the other and/or (2) I wasn’t sure if there was something better out there to use?
And another question, there aren’t any “rental Cirri” in the area here (RDU) (that I have found) but was thinking about possibly pursuing my IFR using a rental SR-20 or 22 (my job allows me to travel almost at will right now) so that I can (1) get my ticket and (2) build up time in type hoping to save some additional $$$ (and on top of that, the thought of just being around the beautiful machines makes me grin from ear to ear).
Any thoughts/comments are greatly appreciated…
A future cirrus owner, M(#) participant and CBA(#)er,
Brian
Brian,
I bought the King set before they were on DVD and I have to say that Joe and Martha are better than any sleeping pill I ever took. However, I did have good results on the written exam. I came home from the testing center bragging to my wife about my ninety something score. Unimpressed, she said “But what about the questions you missed!?” Geez, you know, with these non-pilots it’s like you gotta’ be perfect all the time.
Anyway, I think it’s challenging to make the material interesting. I did get the feeling (several times) that they were kinda teaching the test. They even made it a point of discussing specific questions that were confusing or tricky. One of them was on my exam, so maybe I shouldn’t complain.
If the Sporty’s IFR course is anything like their PVT course don’t bother with it. I had 100 hours and my Private ticket from 23 years ago when I decided to start over again and get into a Cirrus. I bought the Sporty’s PVT course and thought it was very poorly done.
I am now working on my IFR and I bought the King DVD’s and they do tend to “teach the test”. However, they are 100 times better than the Sporty’s course. Contrary to what a lot of others think I don’t find them snoozers. However, Martha’s constant hand and arm gestures do get quite tiring.
So that I didn’t just “learn the test” I also bought the Jeppesen Instrument/Commercial manual as well as Rod Machado’s IFR book. I’m reading them also. Rod’s is very entertaining and does a great job of making the complex understandable. The Jeppesen book is a very well organized, detail oriented tome with topics that cover almost everything. I’m glad I bought both.
I did my instrument rating earlier in the year and when I crammed for the exam, I not only watched the King DVDs, which were terrific in making sometimes arcane minutia both digestible and entertaining. I also supplemented the King course by going to Sporty’s web site and drilling questions with their “Study Buddy”. There are a couple of web sites that have practice questions; I reccomend you find them and use them. Regarding the Sporty’s DVDs, I too have heard they’re not too good.
I had about 200 hours in Cessna’s and Archer’s when I decided it was time to get my IFR ticket. Somehow, a friend of mine got me into his SR22 and I was convinced that if I was going to buy a plane, this would be it and here is where I would want to get my ticket.
I had the King Course for a little over a year but kept procrastinating the continuous study I needed. So… I bought the SR22 and “hunkered down” and studied like crazy.
I took possession of the plane in December 2003 and spent 4 days with “The Flight Academy” getting trained for VFR. I then spent the next 2 months getting used to the plane.
After that, I brought “The Flight Academy” back and spend 2 weeks doing IFR training. Nothing like doing practical work to cement the knowledge of the written information.
Took the test, written and practical, and passed with flying colors (no pun intended). I truly believe that doing the IFR in this plane is not only appropriate but essential if you are going to purchase it.
I HIGHLY recommend The Flight Academy for any of this training. www.theflightacademy.com. Luke Lysen(President)is a great guy and his instructors that I used (Kevin Darcy and Chris Baker) were phenomenal.
I am a fairly low time pilot (110 hours) who hasn’t flown (with the exception of the demo ride when Cirrus was at RDU a couple of weekends ago) in almost 4 years! Now, I am spending lots of time dreaming of purchasing my own Cirrus in the next year and half (whild building some time to try to save some $$$ in insurance).
Obviously, I am going to do lots of recurrent training with an instructor as I get back into flying but am finding myself wanting to do some “arm chair” flying and training in the mean time. Gonna pick up MS FlightSim before too long to play with it, but wanted to get some recommendations on what I should start doing to work on my IFR ticket (which is something I am definitely going to do).
Am thinking about purchasing one of the DVD courses from King or Sporty’s but didn’t know (1) if the video training courses are any good or if one is better than the other and/or (2) I wasn’t sure if there was something better out there to use?
And another question, there aren’t any “rental Cirri” in the area here (RDU) (that I have found) but was thinking about possibly pursuing my IFR using a rental SR-20 or 22 (my job allows me to travel almost at will right now) so that I can (1) get my ticket and (2) build up time in type hoping to save some additional $$$ (and on top of that, the thought of just being around the beautiful machines makes me grin from ear to ear).
Any thoughts/comments are greatly appreciated…
A future cirrus owner, M(#) participant and CBA(#)er,
Brian
Brian
As far as the flying part. I purhased the $199 instrument training software from ASA. The great think about this was you could pull out your approach plates and fly any approach in the US. Great if you know where you will be taking the practical test. Also, there is a map feature that you can check your ground track on holds and approaches. Great feed back.
The best $199 I have spent… Good luck on your training.
I am still working on my IR, so take my advice for what it’s worth:
Before getting under the hood, ace your written. I think this would save you an enormous amount of effort and time. I found the King Schools DVD course excellent to prepare for the written. Note, however, that this course’s sole purpose is to have you pass the test. It presents the bare facts in an as entertaining way as the material can possibly be presented, in my view. As I watched the course, I copied down the facts on cards for periodic review. I then did a few online simulated tests. This worked extremely well.
Another lesson for me was to not let too much time pass between the written and the start of flight training. The facts you just learned have an interesting quality to fade from memory…quickly, mine anyway.
I have used Sporty’s set of DVDs for both Private and IR. I like it because it covers the material very thoroughly and could be used for the oral portion of the practical very effectively. The downside is Sporty’s presentation style puts me to deep sleep within 5 minutes… Their weather presentation leaves much to be desired IMHO. On balance, I would still recommend it.
I cannot advocate one of those very intense flight training programs, like PIC, since I did not try it myself. I would, however, recommend VERY focused training whereby you fly every day or very often. In my opinion, this is the single most important success factor… other than an excellent, experienced and knowledgeable instructor who not only is a subject matter expert but who would also adjust to your individual learning style … for me, this was and is extremely important. In this regard, I have had an excellent experience with Scott Dennstaedt (www.chesavtraining.com).
PC sims. I would love to use my PC setup for some elements of training, but I am yet to find any software package that would be at least 50% close to representing SR22’s avionics. X-plane model I have flies well but the avionics is almost non-existent. You can do what many recommended on this board - use the Flight Sim 2004’s Mooney and buy an add-on Reality-XP to simulate GNS 530. May be there is something else out there, I am just not aware of it.
…and don’t do what I did - don’t interrupt your training when you are close… the weather and job delayed the final step for me and I am now paying …
As far as insurance goes - your IFR rating is worth it’s weight in gold! The insurance companies love that particular rating, no matter what aircraft you fly. It’ll certainly help you in your future endeavors with the insurance companies.
Good luck on your rating - and wear cool clothing! Summer and IFR training will shed a few pounds on you through sweat.
Yep, you want to make sure you search the archives before asking any questions around here or you’ll get chewed out, God forbid you ask a stale question!
Just kidding…really now, I have the Sporty’s DVD’s for IFR, not that good in my opinion, King might be better.
Yep, you want to make sure you search the archives before asking any questions around here or you’ll get chewed out, God forbid you ask a stale question!
Just kidding…really now, I have the Sporty’s DVD’s for IFR, not that good in my opinion, King might be better.
I agree, Sporty’s is OK, that is about it try the King.
Brian,
I bought the King set before they were on DVD and I have to say that Joe and Martha are better than any sleeping pill I ever took.
Did you buy the bootleg version with Joe King? or were you joking. Rod Machado (or is it Stu Machado?) should not be worried that the King’s(JOHN and Martha) are going to beat him out for the Aviation Entertainer of the year award but the King course did a great job of supplementing my study for the IFR written.
I cannot advocate one of those very intense flight training programs, like PIC, since I did not try it myself. I would, however, recommend VERY focused training whereby you fly every day or very often. In my opinion, this is the single most important success factor… other than an excellent, experienced and knowledgeable instructor who not only is a subject matter expert but who would also adjust to your individual learning style … for me, this was and is extremely important.
Ilya,
Could not agree more. When you came here to Baltimore In January we logged almost all of our training time as actual. Pretty amazing for January. I think experiencing the real thing helped tremendously. By the time you and I finished our training you were very comfortable with hand-flying any approach and did a beautiful job.
BTW, you also got a 100% on your instrument written, although I can’t take the blame for that!
That’s a good comment. My wife got her ticket from a guy who only took one student and flies mostly pilot services. I think it made a big difference. She was dealing with an instructor who was flying real missions on a weekly basis.
I agree. I did most of my primary training out of RDU and SAV becuase I wanted to feel completely comfortable operating in the airspace. In fact, I would feel more comfortable flying into CLT than into a non-towered airport. My initial interest is in learning for the knowledge and keeping myself safe (kind of like when I learned to drive stick - just incase I was at a party where people got drunk, I could drive) and eventually to leverage the additional travel opportunities it affords me!!
Thanks for the suggestion and it has been added to my list!! :>)