IFR flight training. IFR rules CASA for kit build/ minimum instrument requirements.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Years ago, some naughty guys used to go into cloud in their gliders. They used a Bohli compass as an a/h, and they caused the Bohli to be banned from competitions.

They told me that it was quite easy to thermal up under the dome of a big cu, then fly through the cloud keeping things straight with the turn-and -bank gyro plus the asi and the compass. When all gyros were banned, they did the same thing with just the ( non-Bohli ) compass and asi. ( the gyro instruments might have been banned before the Bohli compasses, I don't remember which came first. )

The lesson I got from all this was that "clouds aint all the same" and there is a HUGE difference between a benign cu at 10,000 ft over flat land and a mean cu-nim which can suck you in and spit you out battered with hail. There is a story about a Canberra jet over Qld which entered a cu-nim at 20,000 ft and was spat out , all battered, at 50,000 ft.

There is a CASA video ( 180 seconds to live or similar ) which shows a foolish GA pilot flying low and getting caught out by rising terrain and narrowing valley, while trying to stay under the ( lowering) cloud. Again, this is quite different from the 10,000 ft medium cu.

Mind you, a whole flight under IFR would be beyond me for sure,  especially the landing, so good onyer Mike and Matt. Thanks for sharing the story.

[facthunter]

You don't do zero, zero landings manually.  With a published precision approach  you fly it with  a stipulated minimum approach to the runway of intended Landing and if you are not visual at minima then you go around.via another specified procedure. CASA should support the PIFR because they have been recommending it for ages.  A non precision procedure gets you  to a circuit height where you must be fully visual, to proceed. Day or Night the height figures vary. As well, Radio fail procedures apply at all stages.. Knowing what you are supposed to do and keeping in practice needs a fair bit of effort.  I would see a SIM as one way of being current  with the processes and keeping the cost down. It's a high workload doing single pilot IFR.  Nev

[Student Pilot]

Landed at Paris on Monday the cloud went onto fog, before I knew it we had landed. I complemented the Captain on the landing, he said he didn't do, it was computer. It was the smoothest landing I've felt, the wheels just stared turning.

[facthunter]

Normally Autolands are FAQ, rather than squeakers. If the runway was wet it explains it  Nev