A gaggle of questions about traning from an old geezer...

Hello everyone,

After gaining by ticket in 1993 at KOAK my logbook was moth-balled and
I haven't flown again until last month. After regaining currency I
would like to try and ascend through the tiers and maybe, one day,
hold a Commercial License with Instrument rating. I currently have 85
hours logged as PIC, of which 10 are solo x-country.

Now to my questions:

1) My motivation may be a little unrealistic, in an ideal world I
would like to switch careers and become a professional pilot, however,
at 40 I'm probably too old. The airlines probably wouldn't be
interested, but could I do something else?

2) I have a fulltime job and family, so a fast-track type school is
out of the question. My current plan is to enroll with a local flight
school and fly as much as possible, however, I'm confused about the
order in which I should do things. Does it make sense to do instrument
first? I've read about combined instrument/commercial training. Should
I even worry about multi-engine at this point?

3) Regarding the required 50 hours x-country time for the instrument
rating. I am confused about the circumstances in which 2 pilots can
both log PIC simultaneously. My understanding was that one
circumstance is when PIC#1 manipulates the controls under the hood and
PIC#2 acts as safety pilot. Is this the only case or can two private
pilots log x-country simultaneously on a regular trip (more than 50nm
etc.)?

4) During training (with the instructor), how much flying, if any, is
performed in actual IMC? I ask because I would like to fly early in
the morning, and on most days, OAK is 1000' overcast until after 9am.

Thanks in advance for your patience.

SimGuy

SimGuy wrote:

3) Regarding the required 50 hours x-country time for the instrument
rating. I am confused about the circumstances in which 2 pilots can
both log PIC simultaneously. My understanding was that one
circumstance is when PIC#1 manipulates the controls under the hood and
PIC#2 acts as safety pilot. Is this the only case or can two private
pilots log x-country simultaneously on a regular trip (more than 50nm
etc.)?

Read the regulations and interpret them literally.

What you get here will be opinions with no particular authority. If
that's what you want, here's my opinion:
If the two pilots agree beforehand that the safety pilot will act as
PIC, then the safety pilot can log PIC because he IS PIC, and the
pilot-flying can log PIC because he is the sole manipulator of the controls.

More opinion: this is an unnecessary complication. Just fly the hours
and don't try to be tricky.


4) During training (with the instructor), how much flying, if any, is
performed in actual IMC? I ask because I would like to fly early in
the morning, and on most days, OAK is 1000' overcast until after 9am.

That depends on your instructor, and how much confidence he has in you
keeping the shiny side up.

On 9/10/2007 9:27 AM, Dave Butler wrote the following:
SimGuy wrote:

4) During training (with the instructor), how much flying, if any, is
performed in actual IMC? I ask because I would like to fly early in
the morning, and on most days, OAK is 1000' overcast until after 9am.

That depends on your instructor, and how much confidence he has in you
keeping the shiny side up.

If your instructor won't train you in IMC, you need a different instructor. Not
initially, of course, because you don't need the pressure of talking to ATC.
But eventually. My goal was 10 hours of IMC before the ride and I had 10.2 IIRC.

Dave Butler wrote:
Read the regulations and interpret them literally.

What you get here will be opinions with no particular authority. If that's
what you want, here's my opinion:
If the two pilots agree beforehand that the safety pilot will act as PIC,
then the safety pilot can log PIC because he IS PIC,

Nope, being PIC is not sufficient for logging PIC time. However, you are
correct that the (PIC) safety pilot can log PIC - see 61.51(e)(iii).


and the pilot-flying can log PIC because he is the sole manipulator of the
controls.

....and is rated in that aircraft; e.g. I couldn't log PIC when doing my
multi-engine training.


More opinion: this is an unnecessary complication. Just fly the hours and
don't try to be tricky.

Not it's not. These hours can shave off lots of $$$ during training etc.
However, and this is a warning to all those reading, read the appropriate
insurance documentation to ensure that the safety pilot can be PIC and be in
the right seat (if that is where they would be sitting). For example, is
the safety pilot a member of the club? Is he/she current? Does he/she have
a medical? etc etc All these issue might void the coverage during that
flight so I would encourage all to do your homework on this point; i.e. get
a photocopy of the insurance doc, don't believe what the FBO folks tell you.


4) During training (with the instructor), how much flying, if any, is
performed in actual IMC? I ask because I would like to fly early in
the morning, and on most days, OAK is 1000' overcast until after 9am.

That depends on your instructor, and how much confidence he has in you
keeping the shiny side up.

I have to disagree with Bob here (see Bob's post in this thread). I believe
that training in IMC is vital. If the instructor wants to put all the IMC
right at the very end once the student is proficient, then fine, but I
believe it is a huge advantage to be in a cloud before passing the checkride
and doing this stuff without a CFI-I next to you. There is just no way that
being under the hood is anywhere as realistic as the real thing.

BTW: MRY often has some good IMC, you can even ask them to vector you around
and fly in that stuff all day. The approaches into MRY, SNS, and WVI are
often around 300-800 or so; I once went missed at SNS after descending VFR
and having the cloud bank below me.

Hilton

SimGuy wrote:
Hello everyone,

After gaining by ticket in 1993 at KOAK my logbook was moth-balled and
I haven't flown again until last month. After regaining currency I
would like to try and ascend through the tiers and maybe, one day,
hold a Commercial License with Instrument rating. I currently have 85
hours logged as PIC, of which 10 are solo x-country.

Now to my questions:

1) My motivation may be a little unrealistic, in an ideal world I
would like to switch careers and become a professional pilot, however,
at 40 I'm probably too old. The airlines probably wouldn't be
interested, but could I do something else?



There is an article in this month's AOPA flight training mag about a
career post 40.

KC