Instrument Rating Prior to Primary

[squeeze]

I see your anecdotes and raise you mine. I came to Primary with only 25 hrs of IFS time and did just fine. Enough to get my first choice.

Five large is better spent elsewhere for a young officer. Car, bike, toys, hookers and blow. Really, anything but paying for training you're about to get for free.

Ymmv

 

[TAMR]

I wouldn't reccomend getting your whole instrument rating. That's sort of a waste of money and time. The best thing you can do is familiarize yourself with by instrument flying by doing it on a sim with an instructor who will go through some basic instrument maneuvers and then show you how to read the IFR approach plates and shoot the approach on the sims. No need to go crazy and get the whole rating, but having a basic understanding of how to do VOR intercepts, dme arcing, and reading the approach plates will save you some time and grief down here. Think of it as the less you have to study the basics, the more time you can spend on the hard stuff and the more sleep you'll get.

This isn't a bad idea... a few hours in a FTD with an instructor would be much cheaper than time spent in the air doing it. I could always rent an aircraft and have someone act as my safety pilot and spend more time under the hood, but I think I'd probably learn more with an instructor.

 

[ryan1234]

Searched the subject and didn't find much information. From those of you who have gone through Naval Flight Training, do you think that obtaining an instrument rating prior to Primary would help much to get me ahead of the competition and excel?

I friend of mine who just finished Advanced recommended to me that I add that onto my Private Pilot's License prior to entering flight training as it will really help me excel coming in with that knowledge and experience.... Any thoughts?

Did you get picked up by the Navy yet? If not, then your question is a smaller part of the bigger picture. If you enjoy flying and your "back-up" plan is to fly for a living, the instrument rating is a must. If you're applying to the Air Force, or specifically Air National Guard, it may help you get selected over someone who does not have it. You just have to weigh what your goals and back up plans are. Most of the guys I know that had a lot of flight time prior to military flight school, had that time because they enjoyed flying and/or flew for a living prior to, not specifically for military flight school.

 

[MasterBates]

What is the cutoff for the "Accelerated" syllabus in primary (if it still exists)????? Will having the instrument rating force you into the more challenging syllabus?

I was accelerated, without an instrument ticket, or any significant airplane time. I had a metric butt-ton of helo time though.

 

[Python]

I would go for it only if I had the money to spend; otherwise flight-sim and other aids would be more efficient (the only things you wouldn't get are the real world comms and muscle memory of flying an airplane in the instrument environment). There has been a similar discussion before not that long ago that I remember participating in: http://www.airwarriors.com/forum/showthread.php/154703-IFS-Gouge/page3 . Start at the bottom post.

 

[Brunes]

I see your anecdotes and raise you mine. I came to Primary with only 25 hrs of IFS time and did just fine. Enough to get my first choice.

Five large is better spent elsewhere for a young officer. Car, bike, toys, hookers and blow. Really, anything but paying for training you're about to get for free.

Ymmv

This. I did better than some folks and worse than some folks...I can't tell you which ones had CFIIs and Instrument tickets and which ones were like me with IFS under their belts...but we all got thru the program. I think you can find something better to spend 5K on than skills that will be taught to you in time.

 

[TAMR]

It seems as if the general concensus around here is that unless I personally want my instrument rating now for my own enjoyment, there is no real benefit to obtaining it prior to entering flight training for most people.

I think I still will buy an instrument handbook and maybe even log a few sim hours with an instructor, but the majority is probably right; there are better things I could spend $5,000 on. I'm willing to do what it takes to achieve my goal of becoming a Naval Aviator, and its nice to know that an instrument rating wont immediatly make the difference between success and failure at flight training.

 

[MasterBates]

You are missing the most important things to do before/during primary.

TRAIN. YOUR. LIVER.
Chase women.

 

[KBayDog]

You are missing the most important things to do before/during primary.

TRAIN. YOUR. LIVER.
Chase women.

+1 for the women, -1 for the "beer" selection.

 

[MasterBates]

I could not find a picture of Stone Brewery Girls.

Sue me.

 

[KBayDog]

Stone doesn't need girls. Their hops beat you into submission.

 

[MasterBates]

Yes. I love Ruination.

 

[KCOTT]

If you have the money, go for it. Not needed, but wouldn't hurt. It will definitely be a head start in the first few weeks of RI's when people like me starting out didn't even know what an approach plate was or how to read it. Eventually everyone catches up, but I do know several guys with prior flight time and an instrument rating that killed the syllabus in Primary. On the other hand, I do know a guy where it didn't help so much. But that was one guy.

 

[KCOTT]

It seems as if the general concensus around here is that unless I personally want my instrument rating now for my own enjoyment, there is no real benefit to obtaining it prior to entering flight training for most people.

I think I still will buy an instrument handbook and maybe even log a few sim hours with an instructor, but the majority is probably right; there are better things I could spend $5,000 on. I'm willing to do what it takes to achieve my goal of becoming a Naval Aviator, and its nice to know that an instrument rating wont immediatly make the difference between success and failure at flight training.

This is also very true.

 

[revan1013]

It seems as if the general concensus around here is that unless I personally want my instrument rating now for my own enjoyment, there is no real benefit to obtaining it prior to entering flight training for most people.

I think I still will buy an instrument handbook and maybe even log a few sim hours with an instructor, but the majority is probably right; there are better things I could spend $5,000 on. I'm willing to do what it takes to achieve my goal of becoming a Naval Aviator, and its nice to know that an instrument rating wont immediately make the difference between success and failure at flight training.

Bingo. It's about two-three weeks of ass-pain learning the stuff, then hopefully it'll click. Don't stress not knowing the material in advance. You'll learn it, we all have. If you feel like getting ahead, go for it. Pubs are online and there are tons of gouge sites for every phase of training. But I wouldn't spend money getting ahead.

In fact, flight school is learning a brand-new topic from scratch, with little prep time, focused and compacted into a few weeks, being tested on it, graded on flying it, getting good at it, then starting something brand new all over again.

Rinse and repeat 500 times.

Edit- Let me add, while I had absolutely NO idea how much work, studying, and asspain it was going to be, I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.