One of my most recent discussions was with a local Chief Pilot in Edmonton. During my discussion, I asked what key areas are lacking in a newly minted IFR pilot when they leave the flight school, here are a few answers:
The company will provide all of the training, including company indoctrination, simulator training, line training and everything you will need as a new company pilot. What is expected from the newly hired pilot is that they know how to operate in busy IFR environments throughout Canada.
When I asked him how a new pilot should attain this experience, he said that when someone is building hours for their Commerical Licence, they should fly IFR wherever they go. They should fly IFR into busy places like Calgary’s airspace, shoot an approach at Springbank and fly home (substitute this for wherever you live, Saint John to Moncton, Abbotsford to Victoria, Ottawa to Montreal, etc). Essentially they should fly as much in the IFR environment as they possibly can before trying to obtain a job.
This is great advice from a great guy, when working as a Flight Instructor I was always a proponent of using your flying dollars to maximize your return in the end. For example, knowing you are going to need ATPL flying requirements in the future, get a night rating right off the bat and get your Night Cross Country PIC (pilot in command) hours.
You may need to look at when you are going to obtain your IFR rating? Should you get your Private Pilot Licence and then an IFR rating? You should talk to your flying school about how to get flying IFR as soon as possible and how to make this happen in your program.
Ok, this sounds great, but how much is this going to cost? Can you afford to rent a twin-engine plane and go flying around IFR? So how can you get experience operating in a busy IFR environment? Is there possibly another solution? I think there is…
Simulation has always been something I have been interested in. Yes, I am a Flight Sim geek, I have been involved with Microsoft Flight Simulator since 1993, back when FS5 came out. With FS5, the desktop simulation was very pixelated and not too realistic. But how things have changed.
Image from Wikipedia.
When I started my Multi-IFR lessons at the Edmonton Flying Club, everything began in a simulator. Not a desktop simulator, but a big huge room-filling simulator. The Club had just recently purchased a state of the art Precision Flight Controls Simulator, to replace a very old mechanical simulator (likely in a museum somewhere). It had huge comfy airliner-style seats and wrap around visual screens to assist in immersion. I was starting my IFR lessons just as GPS was gaining a foothold in aviation. At this time, however, Transport Canada Flight Tests were not utilizing GPS in any way. I was learning to fly IFR the old school way, using VORs, ILS, NDBs and hand flying. My flight test route was from the Edmonton City Centre Airport (CYXD) to the XD NDB beacon, A2 airway and then to the Edmonton VOR via the 332 degree Radial for a hold, after the hold into an ILS approach to a missed approach and then a NDB approach to a missed approach with an engine failure. Further preparations included VOR approaches, ILS/DME approaches, DME Arc approaches and many many windy NDB approaches in the simulator.
C-GIXD a Beechcraft Duchess at the Edmonton Flying Club (CYXD), a newly minted IFR pilot standing in front.
At the time I was working for Central Mountain Air as a Customer Service Agent, I was working early mornings and working hard to get onto the low time pilot pool that CMA was offering at the time. I had an idea to fly a CMA Beech 1900 style route as part of my IFR training. My IFR flight instructor Peter and I flew IFR from Edmonton City Center (CYXD) to the High Level Airport (CYOJ) via the VOR airways. This was an awesome experience for me in many ways (I will save that for another blog though, it was a bit of a hair-raiser trip). This trip was really expensive and worth every penny. Soon after I completed all of my required training, I did my IFR ride and awaited a job.
GIXD enroute to the High Level Airport via VOR airways
Thinking back to that time, I remember desktop simulators were not something a flight school would even suggest or talk about. I, however, knew that I needed the practice to keep up with all that I had learned during my recent IFR course. I decided I was going to use a desktop simulator to help me keep mentally in the IFR game (something you’re going to lose very quickly if you don’t practice). I set out to fly my IFR lessons in my home simulator, which was very rudimentary at the time. However, as rudimentary as it was, I soon learned that I could emulate almost every scenario on my desktop flight simulator. I was able to perform full IFR flights or just shoot an approach to any airport I chose. I was able to induce crosswinds to make those fun (tongue in cheek) NDB approaches tougher and it worked! I was sold on the ideas of desktop simulator so much I knew that I wanted to know more and more about this hobby. Over the years I have kept up with the desktop flight simulation, purchased various joysticks, yokes and rudder pedals to make my experience and immersion better and better.
Flash forward to today, I still use Flight Simulator on a fairly regular basis to keep up my IFR skills. If I have a trip planned to a foreign location (such as Toluca, Mexico), I have practiced beforehand in my simulator. Desktop flight simulators are very modern and very accurate to the aircraft they are trying to simulate. Simulation software such as X-Plane or Lockheed Martin Prepared (P3D) is cheap and will be very effective for your IFR skills practice, but it doesn’t end there. Whether you want to practice conventional ILS approaches, LPV, NDB, VOR, etc. you can do it in your desktop flight simulator.
X-Plane: http://www.x-plane.com/ (free demo available)
Lockheed Martin P3D: https://www.prepar3d.com/
Whether your practicing in a single-engine airplane or something larger, you will have a working autopilot or hand fly if you wish. Program a GPS approach in a Garmin, Honeywell, Univeral FMS, fly an approach (LNAV, LPV, etc), ILS or whatever approach you want, all day, for the cost of your sim and electricity.
The realistic worldwide scenery is very impressive, here is an example of a 737 flying over Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington
Weather immersion is also featured in modern sims, practice in low visibility, fog, rain, etc. Imagine flying a GPS LPV approach to minimums in realistic fog/weather to minimums or below minimums to simulate a go around and missed approach procedures.
At the beginning of this blog, you will remember the Chief Pilot talking about honing your IFR skills including good IFR radio work. How is this possible using a simulator at home?
Thanks to an amazing community of people in the Flight Simulator Community we have something called Virtual ATC in the form of VATSIM or other similar networks. The system is free, it will provide you with very realistic ATC for your desktop simulator flights. You interact using storebought headphones and microphone with simulated ATC (real people, trained to provide virtual ATC using real ATC procedures, phraseology, etc.). You will create a flight plan, pick up ATIS, call for clearance, set up the aircraft for IFR departure and fly the entire flight using real procedures in a virtual simulator. You will have a chance to depart using an RNAV SID, get the aircraft into cruise flight, set up for the descent into XYZ airport (worldwide) and perform an arrival (RNAV STAR) to an approach at the landing airport. Sounds realistic, doesn’t it!
What is VATSIM? (from the VATSIM site About Us section):
VATSIM (short for the Virtual Air Traffic Simulation Network) is a completely free online platform which allows virtual pilots, wherever they are in the world, to connect their flight simulators into one shared virtual world. VATSIM also simulates air traffic control in this virtual world, creating the ultimate as-real-as-it-gets experience for you, the virtual aviation enthusiast.
With over 76,000 active members in 2014, connecting your flight simulator to VATSIM allows you to join hundreds of other pilots in our virtual skies, flying all kinds of aircraft all over the world. As a VATSIM member, you can join our many communities across the world to enhance your flying skills and flight simulator experience in a shared virtual airspace. You can also become a virtual air traffic controller, adding that extra bit of realism for you and your fellow enthusiasts. The real beauty of VATSIM is that it caters people who are completely new to the hobby as well as to the seasoned flight simmer.
VATSIM: https://www.vatsim.net/
In order to participate using VATSIM you will need to do some preparation:
https://www.vatsim.net/pilots/getting-started
I currently fly a Challenger jet with Proline 21 Advanced FMS units, previous aircraft I have flown had the Honeywell FMS, Universal FMS installed, all of these FMS systems can be simulated in purchased simulator software add-ons. Learning to program an FMS is a process, it takes time to learn the intricacies of the FMS. What better way to learn and practice than in a simulated FMS in a simulated aircraft.
Honeywell FMS in the Eaglesoft Citation X
Universal FMS in the Majestic Software Flight Q400
Hopefully, I have encouraged you to try simulation, or at least to consider the requirements of an IFR pilot in a flight department. How are you going to get ready? That’s up to you, there are many options open to you, including simulation at a Flight School, flying the real plane in real IFR (obviously the best option). You will decide, if you need assistance, let me know.
Please remember you cannot replace a Flight Instructor or the experience of being in the real aircraft, talk to your flight school about how to get up on your IFR game.
Note: In conjunction with Cooking Lake Aviation Academy I will be hosting a “Get to know how to Sim” session really soon, stay tuned.