The Foundation of Instrument Flight

How to Build a Performance Profile

Instrument pilots must have a solid understanding of their aircraft’s performance profile. Countless pilots have wasted valuable training hours—and struggle to this day—because their instructor skipped this first critical step. Here’s the step-by-step process for creating the essential performance profiles for each airplane you fly. It will help you fly IFR with more precision, and reduce your workload in every phase of flight.

Download the performance profile chart here. Use an instructor or safety pilot when creating these profiles.

This video is from our video training program, “IFR: The Missing Lessons”.

Meet The Instructor

Ryan Koch

CFII, PilotWorkshops Course Designer/Producer

Ryan works on the course development team at PilotWorkshops and is involved in the design and development of our online training programs. He is also an active flight instructor specializing in instrument flight and is a flight simulator expert. He currently instructs out of Wausau, WI and has experience doing remote flight instruction via simulators.

Ryan was the driving force behind the development of several PilotWorkshops online courses, including IFR: The Missing Lessons and Advanced IFR. Ryan is also a contributing expert for PilotWorkshops’ IFR Mastery series and is a regular participant in the Instructor’s Roundtable. He teaches ground schools, runs ATC communications courses for both IFR and VFR pilots, and has developed curriculum for a variety of IFR proficiency programs, and a simulator-centered high school aviation program.