We all have our trepidations about instrument flying. My colleague, Flying contributing editor Tom Benenson once told me he’s most apprehensive when taking off into a low ceiling. It makes sense, with such a high workload — retracting gear and managing power, monitoring engine instruments, making radio calls, switching frequencies, turning to an assigned heading (or a new one assigned by ATC) — it’s a lot less demanding to perform these tasks without having to keep one eye bouncing around on your instrument scan, too.
Just flying in clouds can be unnerving for some, especially after years of avoiding them like the Black Death as a VFR pilot. With all the stuff to learn, procedures to follow and thousands of opportunities to screw up and look bad, it only makes sense that new instrument pilots (or those regaining currency after a long lapse) might feel overwhelmed.
