Good Instructors...

In article , Andrew Sarangan wrote:
I am an instructor, and I have flown long trips for personal business.
But I fail to see how those long trips are an essential experience for
instructing. It makes a good hangar story, and it may impress an
uninformed student. In my opinion, critical examination of the issues
(like the discussions taking place in this NG) to be far more valuable
for the experience and knowledge of an instructor. However, you have a
valid point about things that are not in the PTS. This is particularly
true for the IFR environment. There are many unwritten rules of IFR that
you only learn by flying in the system. But it is not difficult to
incorporate those elements into the standard IFR training. You don't
have to embark on a 1000NM trip. ATC works the same way whether it is
Cleveland Center or Albuquerque Center. Tracon works the same way
everywhere. FSS works the same way. FAR's are the same. Except for
weather and regional accents, what else is so different that is critical
to the experience of an IFR pilot? Please explain.


Leaving out weather? Weather's the biggest part of it. I was
sitting in the FBO at South Bend, IN this summer looking at the
radar, watching a line of thunderstorms develop outside my
destination at Iowa City, IA (Hi, Jay). Looked to me like I could
go South around it and then come back North. I asked a local pilot
who was sitting around updating his Jepp plates. He says, look at
the way it's curling, it's probably going to continue forming along
this curve. Why don't you go to Peoria and get an update there.

Did that. Landed short of the storms, with options to call it a
day or wait it out before continuing on. Looked at the radar.
It formed exactly the way he said it would.

Experiencing the different weather patterns gives you a chance to
improve your decision making. Do you rush to beat the weather?
Wait it out to see how things develop? Divert North? Divert South?
Backtrack? Fly over the highway, or across the mountains? Climb
above the clouds or run the scud? Fly direct or along the airways?


Aside from weather, there are other things you learn going beyond
hectobuck-burger range. Knowing to keep a roll of quarters in case
lunch is whatever you can get out of the vending machine; knowing to
keep enough cash on hand so you can pay the friendly mechanic who
saves your butt when the alternator fries itself. Knowing that an
unbusy midwest controller might forget about you and knowing what to
do when you've gone out of radio range. Knowing that this particular
IFR route takes you mostly over a highway but that one takes you over
hostile terrain, but the weather is better. Knowing when to land at
a smaller airport and when to land at a larger one. Knowing when to
call it a day and when to push it.

Besides, ATC is different around the country. Around here, they're
busy so you have to be crisp with your radio work, and don't even
hope for a pop-up clearance. Around the Midwest, they may be so
bored they forget to hand you off. In the Pacific Northwest during
icing season you have to know you can request "shuttle vectors" to
climb over the low terrain before proceeding on course over hostile
terrain.

I had my first inflight rerouting flying from ORF to HPN when I
bought the plane. I filed a route that took me over JFK. I was
cleared as filed. About halfway there, the controller gives a
bunch of fixes and airways that take me in a neat arc around
The City. Okay, you do your diversion exercise for the private,
but by the time you do it, you already know the area you're
flying in. It's just _different_ when you have to do it IRL.


Talking about these things is never going to be the same as
experiencing them. But talking with someone who has experienced
it is more valuable than talking with someone who only has book
knowledge.


Morris