VFR Landing Skills Can Become Rusty During IFR Training

Missed approaches often mean less practice for pilots.

Meg Godlewski

Tuesday, June 24, 2025 at 10:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Landing in New York aboard a Tailwind Air Cessna 208B. [AirlineGeeks/Katie Bailey]

Key Takeaways:

Pilots earning an instrument rating commonly experience a decline in landing proficiency, as instrument training emphasizes approaches and missed approaches over multiple landings.
Landings are identified as a highly perishable flying skill, requiring consistent practice to maintain precision.
Beyond landings, other VFR skills such as ground reference maneuvers, slow flight, stalls, and steep turns can also become rusty when focusing heavily on instrument flight.

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The private pilot was well into earning his instrument rating. Every training flight consists of multiple approaches that terminate in a missed approach, followed by the return to the home airport for a full-stop landing.

His flight planning skills were good, his scan was spot-on, and his radio skills were improving with each flight. Unfortunately, his landings had become a bit rough. Too fast. Not on centerline. They were passable, but not the level of precision on which he prided himself.