Thursday, May 21, 2009

Instrument flying in a Cessna 172SP

Hello everyone! Long time no writing ^^

Today I flew in a Cessna 172SP and it was my first time flying the SP. It is great! No surprise why most pilots love it. The C-172SP is currently under manufacture by the Cessna Aircraft Company. It has a 180HP Lycoming IO-360-L2A engine, Maximum Takeoff Weight is 2,550 lb (1,157 kg) and has four seats.

It flies very good! It is stable, fast (not very fast, but comparing it to the 152 it is fast ^^) and responds very well. It was an instrument flight and I say the landing was the best one I've made in my life!! :o I greased it and was awesome!!

I 'began' Instrument Training. What is this all about? Flying solely by reference to instruments. When you encounter poor visibility and clouds, your reference to visual landmarks and horizon disappear. There are two kinds of flying rules: VFR and IFR.

Visual Flight Rules (VFR) are often used for sight-seeing flights, aerial photography, or lift services for parachute jumping. Pilots flying under VFR are not permitted to fly through clouds. Many non-commercial, private recreational aircraft also operate under VFR whenever the sky is clear. Under VFR, the pilot is primarily responsible for navigation, obstacle clearance and maintaining separation from other aircraft using the see-and-avoid concept.

Instrument flight rules (IFR) are regulations and procedures for flying aircraft by referring only to the aircraft instrument panel for navigation. Even if nothing can be seen outside the cockpit windows, an IFR-rated pilot can fly while looking only at the instrument panel. An IFR-rated pilot can also be authorized to fly through clouds, using Air Traffic Control procedures designed to maintain separation from other aircraft.

Thanks Wikipedia. If you want to learn more about IFR, press here.

There are too many things you have to learn and practice in the instrument training. Some things like:
VORs, NDBs, GPS, ILS
Holding patterns, DME-Arcs
Airways
Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) , A.K.A. DPs (Departure Procedures)
Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARs)
Instrument Approach Procedures
RNP
You name it. I could make the list longer hehe.

Oh, why 'began'? Because I don't consider it formal training. Just to make some flight hours and fly. I wish to rent an airplane, but it seems it's too difficult here in Mexico... no flying with friends :( I'd love to invite some friends.

Let's see what happens. Stay tuned!

1 comment:

  1. Hello,

    Nice Post..:-)
    Thanks for sharing your this post and keep posting such post here in future too. it would be nice if you can share some information related to boat instrument panel here in your future posts..

    Thanks,

    ReplyDelete