Here at Cotswold Flying School we have several highly experienced Instructors who can teach and examine at all levels of Instrument Training. Unlike many pilots nowadays who simply press buttons on the autopilot and watch the aircraft fly them to their destination no matter what the weather, Chris used to fly Twin Otters and other aircraft single crew (Not allowed now) and without an autopilot. This takes real practice and skill. He is very happy to pass these skills on to anyone who is willing to learn.

Here are a couple of pictues of a much younger Chris flying G-BWRB in IMC and doing a visual approach into Gatwick and he is flying manually. They were taken by a passenger in the right hand seat.

Here is a picture of the instrument panel of our Cessna 172 SP.

For example Chris Puddy our Chief Flying Instructor has over 2000 hours of genuine instrument flying, much of it in light aircraft flying single crew without an autopilot, so he knows how to fly on Instruments, and he can teach you how to do it as well.

With good instruction, anyone with any kind or co-ordination can learn to fly on instruments. Check this video below. Chris was flying back from Durham and had the sister of one of his students on board. He offered to let her fly and he realised immediately that she had natural talent. Shortly afterwards they were in cloud, and the turn co-ordinator was being temperamental and not quite getting up to speed which meant that the autopilot would not function. So rather than fly for an hour and a half, looking across at the instruments which is uncomfortable after a while, he taught Sophia to fly on instruments which only took about 15 minutes, and then he let her fly all the way back. She loved it. In this footage she is being steered by Birmingham Radar while they passed through Birmingham Zone in I M C.

Instrument flying is an art, and takes practice, but too often when people learn the IMC Rating, they do a minimal amount of Instrument flying, and then almost immediately start doing procedures. This makes it difficult for the student to fly the aircraft properly and be aware of his or her situation.

Chris prefers to spend the first 5 hours of the 15 hour course just learning to fly instruments so you can do anything without thinking, and mess around in the cockpit changing frequency, looking at charts and still fly accurately.

Then the next task is to learn to track the VOR and ADF. When a radial can be intercepted and flown accurately, and an awareness of the relative position to the VOR can be learnt, then it is time to learn ADF tracking using the really nice RMI in CC which makes it easier. An RMI has a compass that turns automatically as the aircraft turns and so bearings are much easier to calculate. CC also has a HSI which also makes VOR tracking much easier as well. These are both linked to a compass system in the wing so it is not necessary to keep setting the DI which can be a real pain especially when flying in cloud, and accurate flying is essential on the approach.

After you can fly instruments, track radio aids and perform any action in the cockpit, then, and only then it is time to start to learn to fly procedures. By now you are not having to concentrate so deeply on your instrument flying, and you can give more attention to your procedural approaches and learn how to read the charts and fly them accurately.

Click on this link to check out the Approach Plates for different airfields in the UK. Choose an airfield, click on the link and then you will be able to click on the link to an approach plate of your choice and download it to look at on your computer, or print out and look at it on paper.