Each year, some number of pilots come to grief because they can’t handle the demands of instrument flight beyond straight-and-level. The AOPA Air Safety Institute’s 2011 Joseph T. Nall Report, which took a close look at general aviation accidents in 2009, found 22 accidents that year in which a non-commercial fixed-wing aircraft was involved in a weather-related accident with an instrument-rated pilot aboard. Of them, 16 involved fatalities. We can do better.
Ensuring we’re proficient in the airplane is one thing most of should be able to demonstrate on demand. But proficiency in the airplane while maneuvering solely by reference to instruments is something else that, perhaps, we’re not so good at. The reasons are both numerous and irrelevant: There’s no good reason an instrument-rated and -current pilot should be involved in such accidents unless he or she needs some additional work. With that in mind, let’s look at a simulator-based program designed to get and keep us proficient.
