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Once you become a pilot, you have a lot of things you need to do to stay proficient and be able to exercise your pilot-in-command (PIC) privileges.

Take offs and landings, night landings, biennial flight reviews (BFR), and spins…OK, maybe not spins, but you get the point.

Unfortunately, these are not ”one-off” things. Flying takes practice and constant exposure to be safe.

One thing I always see slip is IFR proficiency. I’m not talking about currency, I’m talking about proficiency. 

Many pilots get their instrument rating and never use it. Others get their ratings but fly IFR so rarely that they scare themselves out of flying when they do go. Some pilots go to their flight school, shoot their approaches using a simulator (FAR 61.57) and call it good. Now they are current and at least it’s something but it’s not real IFR flying. You need more.

If you have an instrument rating, you need to use it.

Here are a few things you can do to maintain proficiency, even if you don’t have a CFI or safety pilot to fly with you.

File IFR Even If You Are VMC

Let’s say it is severe clear. Not a cloud in the sky. What could you do to stay IFR proficient?

1. Plan an IFR Flight and File IFR - If you haven’t done it in awhile, it may seem like a very long process. Remember, experience builds familiarity. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.
2. Talk to ATC in the IFR environment - Flying in the IFR systems is very different than flying in the VFR system. You are required to fly more precisely and stay sharp on your communications. ATC and other pilots have no patience for slow, sloppy communications. If you are going into a busy airport, you will be glad that you’ve practiced because clearances are rapid fire and ATC requires that you comply with the clearance (almost) immediately.
3. Practice with your GPS, FMS, and VOR- If you have a new GPS or work with a Flight Management System (FMS), when you are in IMC is not the time to learn how to use it. Practice during VMC while on an IFR flight plan will make you a better IFR pilot. But don’t rely exclusively on your GPS. Pull out your IFR enroute charts and back it up with old-fashion VOR flying. If you have a Garmin GNS 530/430, you will want to get this training first.

Just a reminder: When you are on an IFR flight plan but in VFR conditions, you are still required to see and avoid other aircraft and terrain, even if in you are in radar contact.

Fly IFR In the Clouds

Now is a good time to fly because we are in the transition from winter to spring, but the same could be true for all seasons. Like getting your house ready for the next season, you need to get your flying ready for the next season. Snow showers are turning into rain and freezing levels filled with ice are giving way to turbulence and thunderstorms.

If you haven’t been flying in awhile, now is the time to build your instrument proficiency and confidence slowly and surely. You have to have experience in all sorts of weather.

Let’s say one day you wake up and decide you want to fly. You check the weather. You check your favorite weather source, mine is the Aviation Weather Center, Aviation Digital Data Service, and discover that you have a base layer of 1,500 feet AGL, it’s stratus clouds, and that the tops are 3,000 feet AGL, clear above.

This is the perfect time to file IFR, climb on top, enjoy the sunshine while everyone else is getting wet and depressed because it is gloomy on the ground.

You get practice flying in the clouds, you get to log actual instruments and shot most of an approach knowing you are going to break out well above minimums.

If you are daring, and I hope you are, you will do a missed approach and get established in a hold above the airport or at some waypoint.

And chances are, since the weather is “bad,” no one else is going to flying and you will have ATC and the airspace you are flying in all to yourself. Practice your scan, radio procedures, and precision flying.

Incremental improvements and different weather experiences are what it is all about.

Know your boundaries but push your limits and comfort zone by flying in all sorts of  different weather. There may come a time that the practice will pay off when you are faced with some weather that is in your way. Because you have been practicing, you may be a little nervous about your situation but your experience will pull you through.

So get up there and fly IFR. Now is the time to do it.

To Your Flying Success,

Jeffrey

P.S. If you want more great tips, and really want to take your IFR flying to the next level, checkout PilotWorkshop’s IFR Proficiency Series.

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