Feeling overwhelmed during instrument

[-]

Bravo-Buster@reddit

I thought learning instruments was harder than PPL. I definitely feel your pain, OP. I was horrible with DME arcs at first. It finally clocked after downloading some apps and playing with them to figure out instruments better while sitting on the couch at home. I highly recommend finding ones that work with your brain and have the features you need

[-]

MajinDawood@reddit (OP)

What apps would you recommend

[-]

Bravo-Buster@reddit

Check out the Pilot Institute. They have a free VOR simulator there. Ones like that are what I used; I don't remember the name, now

[-]

dat_empennage@reddit

Just wait until it’s your first time alone in the soup doing that while hand-flying and getting bumped around in a spam can. Makes your first PPL training solo seem like a walk in the park.

Set up a sim at home, ideally with similar controls laid out and a similar panel and aircraft model in the sim. X-Plane and a good graphics workstation might be the best couple hundred $$ you’ll spend on this rating. You can even hook up XPlane to your iPad and also program it to change weather, initial conditions and other stuff WAY more effectively than in a real airplane.

Practice every approach in your local area (or at least the 4-5 your CFII throws at you) until you’re starting to get ahead of the airplane in the sim, and back that up with 1x/week actual flying with your CFII.

[-]

allowableearth@reddit

Really? I was flying DME arcs to localizer back courses all while inverted on my second IFR flight

[-]

Gillplane@reddit

I got my instrument at a 3 day accelerated course. It will feel overwhelming at first. Then it will get easier and easier. Arcs are little weird (there’s not very many in real life and most people use an auto pilot if you have to fly them) so don’t worry to much about it. Also, after you start instrument flying regularly, hand flying arc ends up being super easy. Just remember everything is difficult till you get practice and get to the point of being able to do things without having to think about it.

[-]

flightsimcoach@reddit

If you have even a basic home simulator, you can systematically drill your instrument scan for hours. It gives you a clear way to practice "progressively" and debrief yourself along the way (like by checking the shape of your arc on the debrief map).

For example, you could practice your "turn 10, twist 10" with the autopilot on initially, talking yourself through each step and changing heading using the heading bug. Then progressively take on more manual control - if your autopilot allows it, you can deactivate just the lateral mode and work on heading control. Once confident with that, hand-fly the whole thing. Do it dozens of times and I think you'll see great progress.

The autopilot method is just one practice idea... you could do other progressive exercises with a similar concept. For example, you could do initial practice arcs focusing only on lateral control and only worry about maintaining the constant DME - don't worry about altitude at all (put a sticky note over your altimeter on your screen). Once that becomes easy, then begin introducing altitude control. And ideally, you can eventually practice some scenarios on PilotEdge for the full immersion experience.

[-]

ExpensiveCategory854@reddit

141 or 61 school?

[-]

NlCKSATAN@reddit

DME arcs are one of those things that make 0 fking sense until it clicks and you finally understand “yeah thats literally all there is to it.” Thats the only thing my PC flight sim ever actually helped with.

[-]

NevadaCFI@reddit

I tell my students that DNE arcs are just turns around a point…. And the point is 8 miles away. If they have a bearing pointer it’s easier.

[-]

eSUP80@reddit

DME Arcs are one of the toughest things you can do in instrument- In my humble opinion.

Here’s how my slow brain finally learned: Fly it first with GPS if that’s an option for you. Also- Fly with a moving map (ForeFlight) and Mark up your approach plates to help you visualize what’s happening. Once you can do it with “cheats”, then remove one of the tools like the gps, then turn the moving map off.

[-]

Britishse5a@reddit

Once you get it down good then at night your instructor will start shining a flashlight in your eyes.

[-]

key_lime_vulture@reddit

You're doing DME arcs really quickly after starting instrument if you've only done 10 hrs under the hood. I'd suggest simplify what you're doing each lesson and get yourself solid on bai flying before moving on to holds arcs and approaches. Don't be afraid to slow down a little bit

[-]

MajinDawood@reddit (OP)

Yea, that’s what I heard. my instructor for some reason likes to start off with arcs and holds. I just flew my first rnav approach and it seems much more simple with a lot more time to prepare.

[-]

bhalter80@reddit

Focus on the fundamentals, BAI and comms. Flying approaches is just putting that all together, so you can go fly TAPs around a VOR if that’s what it takes intercept a radial, track it outbound, fly an arc to another radial and track it in no need to go through the overhead of an approach to get those skills sorted out

[-]

TxAggieMike@reddit

Ever want to find CFII’s like the OP’s and give them a hard flick between the eyes for jumping too far into the program too early?

Let’s get crawling figured out before we introduce parkour.

[-]

bhalter80@reddit

I was thinking a business oriented conversation about how every instrument student I’ve met is in a hurry and so being efficient is good for business because they can get more students through and they won’t have to say no to sweet sweet advanced training because they’re backed up with students struggling

Plus they more they push through the easier it is to get to gold seal or a free RE renewal based on activity

[-]

TxAggieMike@reddit

I need to introduce you to a favorite Talking Heads film.

[-]

Consistent-Trick2987@reddit

What is BAI?

[-]

bhalter80@reddit

Basic attitude instrument flight ...

Constant airspeed climbs, standard rate turns, constant rate descents, throw intercepting and tracking into that

[-]

TxAggieMike@reddit

Learning scanning of the instruments should be similar to learning the 4 Fundamentals in Private Pilot.

Let’s learn to co tell the airplane before we learn to land.

Let’s learn to scan the instruments before we go anywhere near an approach.

My syllabus has lesson 1 determining pitch power performance details so a table can be created helping you to “fly by the numbers”.

Lessons 2 through 4 is getting you scanning the instruments starting with a simple box and racetrack patterns and then progressing to more complicated patterns that also include climbs and descents.

Here I am also introducing and requiring use of the Five T’s: Turn Time Twist Throttle Talk.

Coming up to a change of heading or altitude…

Which way do I turn?
Start timer. How much time to next fix?
Twist heading bug to new heading.
Throttle to change altitude or acknowledge no throttle change required.
Talk to ATC or CTAF if needed.

[-]

Tone-Powerful@reddit

How many hours do you have under the hood?

Practice will help a lot

[-]

MajinDawood@reddit (OP)

Just started so I have around 10

[-]

Tone-Powerful@reddit

Well you'll need at least 40 hours of instrument time (part 61) to be eligible for the test. As you get more practice you'll find it easier to juggle more tasks simultaneously. You got this!

[-]

Personal-Alarm-7394@reddit

Practice is the key to finding your own rhythm.

I'm working on my instrument now, and I feel Ike my flying is going okay, but I feel overwhelmed with the ground knowledge and technicalities of situations.

[-]

Sonny_The_Seal@reddit

Confidence. Just pretend you know what you’re doing and no one will know the difference. No one even knows what the fuck a dme arc is anymore.

[-]

EliteEthos@reddit

Do it more.

It takes practice.

[-]

rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

Hey guys, I recently started instrument training and I have had a hard time adjusting to it. I’ve been practicing my scans and I still can’t seem to get the hang of it. I just get the feeling of being overwhelmed. Right now we are working on dme arcs and I feel like there is so much stuff to focus on at one time from maintaining airspeed, altitude, heading, doing turn 10 twist 10 and talking to atc all at the same time while also trying to prepare for the next fix on the approach. I would appreciate any tips or advice to help me out.

Please downvote this comment until it collapses.

Questions about this comment? Please see this wiki post before contacting the mods.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. If you have any questions, please contact the mods of this subreddit.