Archives: IFR Mastery Scenarios

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177. Fortuna Fire Drill

Instructors
Dave Hirschman

The immediate emergency is over … or is it? There’s nothing to indicate the problem persists and it would be far more convenient—even arguably safer—to keep going. However, a recurrence of the fire later could be much worse than dealing with options than you have right now.

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176. Lee Landing Limbo

Instructors
Catherine Cavagnaro

Low clouds, small runway, slick airplane … this sounds like an NTSB report waiting to happen. Then again, you have the skill, the fuel, and the time to make a well-executed attempt with no pressure to make it work out. And you have several backup choices. Stick with the plan or bail out now?

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175. What a Headache

Instructors
Doug Stewart

You can have a perfectly functioning airplane in perfectly flyable conditions and still have a potential problem with the pilot. How much worry is a headache that could be attributable to the recent head-banging turbulence—or could be the first signs of something more consequential?

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174. A Panel Discussion

Instructors
Bruce Williams

Avionics decisions used to be simple. The options were few and the prices modest. New tech has brought great advances in safety and capability—but at the expense of, well, the expense. Decisions are even harder when the airplane is owned by a group with widely divergent priorities.

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173. Mammoth Winds West of Macon

Instructors
Catherine Cavagnaro

A last-minute switch to a slower airplane is unfortunate, but flight planning shows strong tailwinds will almost make up the difference. The time and range should still work—until you level off in cruise and see an ETA an hour further out than you anticipated. Surely that can’t be right. But what is right?

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172. Late Hold at Herlong

Instructors
Frank Bowlin

Pilots in the digital age will tell you that avionics proficiency can erode even faster than an instrument scan. How will you handle a canceled clearance with a last-minute hold when you know at least three different ways to accomplish the task? Can you make the magic box behave in time?

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171. Unknown Icing in Minnesota

Instructors
John Zimmerman

Winter IFR presents unique hazards with little margin for error. How much confirmation of benign conditions is enough for a well-equipped, high-performance single that’s not certified for flight into known icing? And is icing the most important risk factor to consider on this cold-weather flight?

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170. Colorado Clearance Confusion

Instructors
Kevin Plante

There’s nothing ambiguous about an approach clearance—or is there? Can a wily instructor you employed for an Instrument Proficiency Check trip you into self-doubt with one, well-timed question? Then again, maybe the CFII is just as unsure as you are—and both of you are flying blind.

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169. Checkride for Two

Instructors
John Krug

Confidence is a great thing; overconfidence not so much. Maybe it was a foolish plan to schedule an instrument checkride for two pilots knowing the weather might deteriorate enough that at least one had to pass. Presuming one did, though, the trip home should be easy. Right?

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168. Lateral Discrepancy at Laconia

Instructors
Bruce Williams

One of the pillars of instrument training is trusting your equipment while also verifying the data it presents. That’s fine when there’s a third datapoint to break the tie. But what do you do when your only two navigation sources show a slight discrepancy—but it’s at the end of an approach where every foot matters?

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167. Up in Smoke

Instructors
Catherine Cavagnaro

IFR is a terrific tool, but it comes with limitations that make it impractical (or impossible) to use in every situation where it might be handy. On a day and a flight where wildfire smoke and nearby mountains make visibility marginal, is VFR, IFR, or a combination of both the best solution for reaching the […]

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166. Overvoltage in IMC

Instructors
Tom Haines

Flight training should cover all essential emergencies you might encounter in the airplane. However, it can’t cover everything that might come up at an inconvenient time. You know your time in IMC is limited when you’ve got only a battery for electrical power, but what about when the system is pushing out too many volts?

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