Instrument Flying

Unusual attitudes are tough to fake, but if you dont try, spatial disorientation can be right around the corner

There are a number of ways to salvage a bad approach. The best is to prevent it from going bad in the first place

Operating IFR to and from non-towered airports can lead to busted clearances, terrain encounters and run-ins with VFR traffic

Some 14 months ago, 20 people died when a U.S. Marines Prowler cut a ski gondola cable in a valley near Cavalese, Italy. Captain Richard Ashby, the pilot, and Captain Joseph Schwitzer, the navigator, were facing trial on criminal charges as this issue went to press. Although the easy explanation is that the jet was flying too fast and too low through the valley, the scenario includes another twist.

Air crews rely on maps given to them by the United States to plan their mission, says Frank Spinner, a civilian lawyer hired to assist Ashbys military lawyers. When you have an uncharted obstruction that goes 500 feet above ground level smack in the middle of an approved low-altitude route,…

Avionics manufacturers have a GPS navigator for every purpose and budget. At this springs Aircraft Electronics Association show in Atlanta, yet more models were announced, overhanging the market with unprecedented choices for owners.

GPS sales are clearly hot, but only a small percentage of the GA fleet is equipped with certified GPS. Our best estimate is not greater than 10 percent have IFR navigators.

Many owners are fence sitters still skeptical about the value of spending six grand or more for an IFR navigator that seems to perform only a bit better than a 10-year-old loran. The reasons are many: the cost of admission, lack of utility, beefs about operating complexity and worries…

Most pilots know that one of the major causes of fatal accidents in light aircraft is continued VFR flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). But many are surprised that more than one quarter of those accidents involve instrument-rated pilots, according to the AOPA Air Safety Foundation. You might think that the idea of an instrument-rated pilot dying in a VFR into IMC accident is oxymoronic. Unfortunately, youd only be half right.

So why is it that pilots who are qualified and current to fly in the goo turn themselves into smoking holes trying to scud-run through less-than-marginal weather? There are several factors at work here, including attitude, lack of foresight,…