On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 00:47:02 -0500, T wrote:

Find a school or instructor who uses a simulator to train. A plane in
the air is a bad classroom.

That may have been true when I trained. Screaming over noise made it
impossible to student and instructor to communicate and an analysis
had to wait until you were on the ground. Now everyone uses an
intercom, creating a completely different training environment.

IFR training in actual is different from training under the hood, or
even worse, a simulator. The hood or simulator can substitute for
clouds when no clouds are available, and a simulator may be helpful to
the spatially impaired, but a student who hasn't been taken into
clouds at least once has missed some important lessons. Even better
would be going into clouds under difficult conditions. Pity the newb
who has to face thunderstorms or ice alone for the first time, though
I have to wonder how an instructor could legally and safely devise
such a lesson.

RK Henry