CPL day 5

Friday dawned grey.
Prospects didn't look great and while I drove Rekha into work, the cloudbase was only 500 feet, though it was forecast to rise to ~3000 feet later in the day. However the winds were much lighter.

But Dick (who will likely be my main CPL instructor) said to come in anyway and I was going to suggest if it might be possible to do some of the required 5 hours of instrument flying since the weather wasn't suitable for the normal starting flight of general handling and stalls.

So I finally got to start my CPL by doing some instrument flying. In order to prevent the pilot from seeing any visual features and use them to judge his attitude (you wouldn't be able to see any features in cloud which is just like fog), simulated instrument flight uses slatted screens (or a in some aircraft a hood or "foggles", but I'll just be using screens) which block the pilots view of the outside, but still allowing the instructor to see outside for safety. So we put the screens up and took off.

Dick passed my headings and altitudes to fly to and we punched through the main cloud layer at about 3000 feet and into the sunlight above at about 4500 feet. We then did general instrument handling to get into the normal swing of instrument flying. Because I've already done IMC training I knew (in theory) how to do all this and how to maintain an instrument scan, but it was just a case of getting back into the swing of things since it had been a couple of years since I last flew on instruments.

An instrument scan is a pretty obvious thing to have to do - namely monitor all the instruments to check you're flying as desired (in this case, initially straight and level). In practice it's actually quite difficult to get to grips with because you can't fixate on any one instrument, say the altimeter because then you might gradually enter a slight turn (imperceptible to your body's senses) and lose your heading, or worse enter a spiral dive. So you have to constantly flick your eyes over each instrument in turn (usually in set patterns depending on what you're doing - straight & level, climbing/descending, turning etc.) only staying on one for about 2 seconds. So it's really quite mentally taxing until you get used to it, and it's easy for your scan to break down and you fixate too much on one instrument and your flying goes to shit.

So I was initially doing this and trying to maintain straight and level. I think the hardest part is getting the aircraft in trim. This is where you use a wheel to move a small control surface on your elevator (in all aircraft, but some also have rudder and aileron trim) that is independent of the main control column with the aim of reducing any push or pull pressure you might have to zero so you could take your hands off and the aircraft should remain flying straight and level. In instrument flights it only takes very small movement to start climbing/descending or turning, so having it in trim to prevent your slight control column pressure from putting you into a climb/descent is very important or you're fighting a losing battle.

Once I got the hang of it again we started doing rate 1 turns - 360 degrees first one way and then the other. In these you have to maintain your rate of turn whilst keeping your altitude constant. Then climbing and descent where you maintain your heading but monitor your airspeed to ensure the correct rate of climb/descent. The trick is not to devote too much of your scan to your altimeter when in a climb for example but just enough so that you know when you're approaching your desired altitude so you can then bring it into your scan and not overshoot your altitude. The same goes for the DI in a turn. Finally you do both at the same time.

Considering I'd not done and instrument flying for so long I picked it up again really pretty quickly and was not too bad by the end of the lesson. Flew back to the airport for a visual approach, but taking headings from Dick to position for right base for runway 32. And did a damn fine landing for my first time in a PA-28 for a long time!