UK Instrument Rated Private Pilot and Instrument Flight Instructor
An Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC) isn’t legally required for an FAA instrument rated pilot provided that currency is maintained – you need to fly 6 approaches every six months, extended by another 6 months if you use a simulator or safety pilot to catch up. Regular pilots can do this for years without ever needing to be retrained or tested. Only if currency lapses, would you need an IPC with
Continue reading
Deciding on a Daytrip With so much of my flying time now spent instructing, I was still keen to fly my group share TB20 G-CORB somewhere. The flight profile of an instructor can often be limited to 25 miles from base, although I have managed a couple of cross-channel day trips with PPL pilots. Some of those taking my formal cross-channel groundschool later ask me to join them on their
Continue reading
A second daytrip on the same weekend in my shared TB20, G-CORB from Gloucester, this time to Hawarden and back, with Russ, another Bristol Aero Club member. It may be some time before I can fly her again due to other commitments, so I wanted to make the most of the time available. Hawarden isn’t too far away (about 100 miles) and offers a free instrument approach when landing. The
Continue reading
Our shared TB20 is back at Gloucester after some months of downtime with technical issues. I was keen to get back in the saddle, not having flown much IFR at all through the summer. I’d promised a flight in it to Mark, one of the Bristol Aero Club pilots, who had qualified to IR(R) last year. He’s a wheelchair user, so that was quite unusual from a logistics viewpoint. On
Continue reading
Gloucester – Sleap – Mona – Welshpool – Gloucester The Bristol Aero Club monthly flyout in June flew to Mona (EGOQ) in Anglesey, North Wales. I had advertised my availability to come along in my role as instructor and two students were quite keen to fly a leg each. We made clear it wouldn’t count as part of their formal syllabus, but the hours did count towards the 45 minimum
Continue reading
Our last day, and we were keen to get home in good time. The forecast wasn’t brilliant, mainly some concerns about visibility than anything else. However we could all make use of our IR(R) ratings in the UK if we needed to. We’d also gain an hour by moving our clocks back when crossing back into the British timezone. After a leisurely breakfast, another Uber got us out to the
Continue reading
The weather had been good to us but was starting to look a little more unsettled, and we were aware that we had two long days of flying to get back home to Gloucester from Malmo in our club PA28. Today’s legs would be Malmo – Flensburg – Bremen – Rotterdam. VFR Flight plans required for first and last legs only because they crossed international boundaries. We reckoned that this
Continue reading
Guess the next country? If you fly north east from the top right hand corner of Germany, which country do you think you’d reach first? Finland, Russia, maybe Sweden? Well you’d be wrong. The fifth largest Danish island of Bornholm awaits you. It’s in the Baltic rather than much of Denmark in the North Sea, and combines a lot of tourism with a busy fishing industry. Transport is either by
Continue reading
Day 2 of our 5 day trip with Russ and John in the club PA28 also involved three legs, and we flew in the same order as the previous day. There was less time pressure, so after a fairly leisurely start we stopped for a quick coffee in the airport terrace. It took a few minutes to gain access to the GA office – I think they must have been
Continue reading
Last year, Russ, John and I had a great three days flying up to Scotland and landing on the beach at Barra. So this year, we agreed to set aside five days, and look to have an adventure somewhere in Europe. Various route options were identified, from Friedrichshafen in Germany to southern France and Ireland. In the end, it would depend on the weather. This would again be in the club
Continue reading