You are a Pilot now and the Instrument Rating is the next step
Whether you want to fly through a cloud layer, or just advance your piloting skills, then it is time to start your Instrument Rating. I can teach you how to do that!
Once you have your private pilot’s certificate and have flown around for a while and gotten some experience, you might consider getting your instrument rating as the next challenge of flight training.
All that heading and altitude holding and trim practice will finally payoff with the increased workload of flying on instruments.
The most useful benefit of the instrument rating might be that it allows you to take off when there is a layer of overcast near and around the airport, but conditions are VFR not too far away. This is called IFR to VFR on Top and is an IFR procedure using an IFR clearance.
The following are the requirements for your Instrument Rating according to part 61.65:
§ 61.65 Instrument rating requirements.
(d) Aeronautical experience for the instrument-airplane rating. A person who applies for an instrument-airplane rating must have logged:
(1) Except as provided in paragraph (g) of this section, 50 hours of cross-country flight time as pilot in command, of which 10 hours must have been in an airplane; and
(2) Forty hours of actual or simulated instrument time in the areas of operation listed in paragraph (c) of this section, of which 15 hours must have been received from an authorized instructor who holds an instrument-airplane rating, and the instrument time includes:
(i) Three hours of instrument flight training from an authorized instructor in an airplane that is appropriate to the instrument-airplane rating within 2 calendar months before the date of the practical test; and
(ii) Instrument flight training on cross country flight procedures, including one cross country flight in an airplane with an authorized instructor, that is performed under instrument flight rules, when a flight plan has been filed with an air traffic control facility, and that involves—
(A) A flight of 250 nautical miles along airways or by directed routing from an air traffic control facility;
(B) An instrument approach at each airport; and
(C) Three different kinds of approaches with the use of navigation systems.
The main focus of the flight training will be to develop an understanding and proficiency in your scan and operation while flying the airplane safely.
My flight school has one Advanced Aviation Training Devices (A-ATD). This simulator can be used for 20 hours towards your instrument rating.
I have over 700 hours flying a Cirrus aircraft with Technically Advanced Avionics (TAA). I am also highly proficient flying with the Garmin G1000 and Avidyne avionics suite. This knowledge comes from a complete re-code and reverse-engineering of the avionics for the flight simulators I built from my previous company, FlyThisSim.
Instrument training will take place in either your own aircraft or one of the IFR-capable aircraft I have access to through my partnerships at the San Luis Obispo Airport. My Cessna 150G is not IFR capable so this aircraft will be used for VFR flight training of the Private Pilot’s License.