Archives: IFR Mastery Scenarios

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194. No Easy Way North

Instructors
Elaine Kauh

Weather is closing in from the north, daylight is slipping away, and geography limits your options. Will you take a short, simple route with more risk exposure or try and negotiate something more to your liking, but that seriously extends your flight time if ATC won’t cooperate?

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193. The End is Niagara?

Instructors
Martin Pauly

The engine just threw a metaphorical wrench into your honeymoon plans while in hard IMC. It’s not dead, but it’s no longer healthy. The nearest airport has the worst consequences if its health declines. But the better ones require it hanging in until you get closer. Where will you go?

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192. An Airplane’s Most-Used Button

Instructors
John Krug

What is an airplane’s most-used button? It’s not direct-to or the frequency flip-flop. It’s so mundane you rarely give it a second thought—but you’ll absolutely wish it was working correctly if it fails in some of the busiest airspace in the U.S. How creative will you be in handling the situation?

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191. The Minimums at Meadville

Instructors
Doug Stewart

After a lumpy trip in IMC, you discover the destination weather is worse than predicted. Your planned approach is now an iffy choice, and the other options all have their drawbacks. Any of the approaches theoretically work on paper. The question is: Which will you try first in practice? 

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190. West Coast Direct

Instructors
Dave Hirschman

Sometimes terrain, weather, and winds conspire to make a three-dimensional puzzle with no clear solution. The best route for terrain might have the worst weather. The shortest route may have no airports for diversion. Flying higher for more options in an emergency may mean accepting brutal headwinds. How will you balance these factors today?

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189. Full Circle at Chatham

Instructors
Mark Kolber

In theory, it’s a binary decision: You complete the approach to a landing or you go missed. In practice, however, there are times when commencing the missed puts you in a position where you could just come around the pattern and land. But when is that smart, and when is that just asking for trouble?

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188. GPS Jamming Over Nebraska

Instructors
Bruce Williams

One of the funny things a pilot learns over years of GPS use is that there’s more than one way to accomplish the same task. There are also ways to complete a flight if the GPS is completely out of the picture. But what if the GPS is partially inoperative? Is there a clever solution?

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187. Get Me Out of Muhlenberg County

Instructors
Kevin Plante

A batch of convective rain blocks the next leg of your trip. Do you try to skirt around the front of it where the weather is best, the back of it where the terrain is lowest, or wait for it to pass hoping the sizable gaps don’t shrink into mere suckerholes?

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186. Gastonia Distress

Instructors
Martin Pauly

It’s been a simple IFR flight on a VMC morning. Now you’re approaching a destination that’s frustratingly hard to pick out given the suburban landscape and the just risen sun in your eyes. The distance is ticking down, ATC is getting impatient, and the nearby Class B limits your options to maneuver.

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185. Back Course to the Future

Instructors
Catherine Cavagnaro

Standardization and experience are cornerstones for professionalism on the flight deck. The potential dark side of those same traits can be complacency and expectation bias, not to mention overconfidence. Now you have seconds to figure out a situation that seems to make no sense—and there’s precious little room for error.

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184. Rime or Reason

Instructors
John Krug

You had a plan. You flew the plan … to within 15 minutes of your destination. Now it’s falling apart, but the resolution could be only a couple hundred feet below you or a few minutes ahead. Or, either choice could be a fool’s errand. Will you stick with the plan or go rogue?

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183. Overly Optimistic Ovation

Instructors
Kevin Plante

You’re a controller who has concerns about a Mooney pilot trying to end a long IFR flight after midnight. The pilot seems unconcerned—and even offers to fly faster for better flow with airliners you have stacked up on approach. Do you trust the pilot or your intuition that trouble is brewing?

Scenarios in the library are only available to Mastery members.
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