We’ve long maintained that one of the best ways for a pilot to enhance his or her aviation risk management is to earn and use the instrument rating. This is especially true if the pilot in question has plans to use their pilot certificate for transportation on anything resembling a schedule. That’s because the skills, knowledge and experience gained by earning the rating simply help make any flight beyond an airport’s immediate environs more predictable and less risky.
A distant cousin, twice-removed, of the instrument rating is the 180-degree course reversal using the flight instruments alone. Current FAA regulations require every private pilot to have three hours of simulated instrument time before certification, to include “straight and level flight, constant airspeed climbs and descents, turns to a heading, recovery from unusual flight attitudes” and navigation/communication skills. To us, that’s pretty much a bare minimum of instrument training if you plan to travel; it’s probably sufficient if you plan to use the certificate only in good VFR near the departure airport.
