Need recommendation on accelerated IFR courses

Folks !

I am planing to get my IFR ticket. preferably in one of accelerated programs.
I have read about a few but I am still looking for one where they take you
on a cross-country ride to say west-coast or Alaska (I am in east) and you
don't shoot same approach twice. AT the end of the trip you take your
checkride. Do you know of such a course ? How do they compare to ones
that remain local ?

thank you,

-Sanjay Kumar

Sanjay,

but I am still looking for one where they take you
on a cross-country ride


Well, accelerated and cross country probably don't go together that
well. Flying IFR enroute isn't the hard thing to learn about the
rating, so you're bound to waste some time during the long portions of
the flights.

You can see that from the fact that the cross country courses have
advance training requirements.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

"Thomas Borchert" wrote

Well, accelerated and cross country probably don't go together that
well. Flying IFR enroute isn't the hard thing to learn about the
rating, so you're bound to waste some time during the long portions of
the flights.

I suppose someone could invent a cross country course that had you landing
at multitudes of airports, all close together, while going across the
country. A new record for numbers of landings while going across the
country? g
--
Jim in NC

Saw this one in an article I believe. Sorry, can't recall which publication.
http://www.dsflight.com/

Marco Leon

"Sanjay Kumar" wrote in message
...
Folks !

I am planing to get my IFR ticket. preferably in one of accelerated
programs.
I have read about a few but I am still looking for one where they take you
on a cross-country ride to say west-coast or Alaska (I am in east) and you
don't shoot same approach twice. AT the end of the trip you take your
checkride. Do you know of such a course ? How do they compare to ones
that remain local ?

thank you,

-Sanjay Kumar

I am planing to get my IFR ticket. preferably in one of accelerated
programs. I have read about a few but I am still looking for one where
they take you on a cross-country ride to say west-coast or Alaska
(I am in east) and you don't shoot same approach twice. AT the end
of the trip you take your checkride. Do you know of such a course ?

AFAIK no such course exists. The ones that teach IFR flying on long XC
flights generally require that you already have a significant amount of
instrument time (some require you to be rated). None are geared
towards the checkride.

There is a reason for this. The goal of the program is not to get you
ready for a checkride in minimum time. If that were the goal, the way
to go would be to go to some place with great weather, fly every day
(maybe twice a day) strictly under the hood (no actual), hit the local
approaches hard (and don't go further from home than the DE will be
willing to go), make only the one required XC flight, and take the
checkride immediately. If what you want is a piece of paper rather
than the ability to safely make flights you can't make VFR, this is the
way to go. Fast and cheap.

The purpose of a long range XC flight is very different - it exposes
you to a variety of conditions (different approaches, ATC facilities,
weather, geography) to maximize your preparation for actually using the
rating.

So what is your goal?

Michael

Sanjay,
Check this thread where I posted links to IFR accelerated training
reports

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...e=source&hl=en

Few months ago, I were considering several accelerated training
options with special considerations to DSFI's East Coast trip or
Morey's West Coast trip. We thought it would be a great thing to
combine IFR training with mountain flying and cross-country experience.

I did a Wings training course with Doug Stewart who ran the East
Coast trip and took an introductory IFR training flight with Bill
Zaleski. I was impressed with both instructors, but decided to sign up
with Bill for several reasons: First, as someone had pointed out in
this thread, while you do learn quite a bit in the enroute IFR phase,
the long travelling time does reduce your opportunities to shoot
approaches. Secondly, to go with Doug, we would either have to use his
plane (with a Stormscope) or to add in-flight weather information to
our plane. Either option will add to the cost of the training. Lastly,
Bill happened to have a slot for us right away vs waiting several
months for Doug. We may take short version of the EastCoast trip with
Doug next year as an IFR refresher and to get some mountain flying
time.

We were surprised that Bill thought we were ready after 5 days of
training. In the end, it took 7 days for the two of us. It is
expected that people are very skeptical of accelerated training course.
I would never have gone for one during primary training but instrument
training is a different story. Having seen the struggle my husband went
through with a 'traditional' IFR training, I am convinced that the
'cram' IFR course is a very effective way of learning.

If you read several threads on IFR training, you will see some
people advocate getting some VFR flying experience, doing a lot of long
cross country trips etc. prior to starting IFR training. Both my
husband and I each had over 100hrs x-country (50nm) time prior to
taking the course. We had also prepared for the course by taking the
written exam, reading many books, practicing on the simulator and
getting some hoodtime serving as each other's safety pilot. This
preparation compensated for the fact that we were not 'natural' flyers.
While we made some mistakes during our training and the checkrides, we
felt the course prepared us well for the real world of IFR flying. We
did a long IFR x-country trip (NY-MI-IL-NY) a month after passing the
checkrides and plan to embark on a longer one (NY-MI-MN-C0-NY) in few
weeks. With lots of preparation, we hope that the two of us will have
a fun but unevenful trip ;-)

Hai Longworth

I recently did one of those courses.

The best I can say about it is that I am now a genuine US government
certified instrument pilot. I can also say that the procedure cost
me less than others have spent to get the same rating.

The course cut a lot of corners. They sort of, arguably, did
meet the minimum legal standards for such training. To say the
course prepares one to fly IFR would be more than a stretch.
It would be absurd.


Sanjay Kumar wrote:
Folks !

I am planing to get my IFR ticket. preferably in one of accelerated programs.
I have read about a few but I am still looking for one where they take you
on a cross-country ride to say west-coast or Alaska (I am in east) and you
don't shoot same approach twice. AT the end of the trip you take your
checkride. Do you know of such a course ? How do they compare to ones
that remain local ?

thank you,

-Sanjay Kumar

Xxx,

well, since you're the first to really come down hard on these courses
from personal experience, I'd be very interested in WHICH you took.
Could you post this or at least e-mail me the information? Thanks!

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

In article ,
says...


Xxx,

well, since you're the first to really come down hard on these courses
from personal experience, I'd be very interested in WHICH you took.
Could you post this or at least e-mail me the information? Thanks!

--


Also - you took one of "what" - accelerated or X-country.
As Thomas Borchert points out above, the two are far from synonymous -
and perhaps contradictory. The most famous accelerated course
advertises that the instructor comes to you (some actually put him up in
their homes) and they make it sound like you almost don't leave your
living room!Yet most graduates of this course do seem to fel they got
adequate training.

G Faris

What I took was an intensive 10-day instrument rating course at
one of the schools that advertises in aviation publications.

I do not want to publicly name the school for a few reasons:

1. The owners and key personnel are really nice. I like them as
individuals. They work hard to accommodate students' schedules
and individual preferences.

2. I've no reason at all (quite the contrary) to think the other
ones are any different. Publicly steering students away from
this school and implicitly to another, which would be no better,
would be a petulant and foolish thing to do.

3. They are reasonably up-front about the syllabus and what they
don't do.

4. What they provide is a rating course. Again, they are open and
honest about this. A true instrument course takes a lot longer and
costs a lot more.

5. Their price is good, even considering how they cut corners.
Others seem to provide no more training but charge more for what
they do.


Greg Farris wrote:
In article ,
says...


Xxx,

well, since you're the first to really come down hard on these courses
from personal experience, I'd be very interested in WHICH you took.
Could you post this or at least e-mail me the information? Thanks!

--


Also - you took one of "what" - accelerated or X-country.
As Thomas Borchert points out above, the two are far from synonymous -
and perhaps contradictory. The most famous accelerated course
advertises that the instructor comes to you (some actually put him up in
their homes) and they make it sound like you almost don't leave your
living room!Yet most graduates of this course do seem to fel they got
adequate training.

G Faris