Selection
I had come close to doing instrument training twice including completing a
ground school at my original FBO in California where I got my private.
After renting a car and driving home twice in a month, both times on days
that would have been an easy IFR departure (one of which would have been only 10
miles to CAVU) the wife was persuaded that it was time to spend the time and
money to get the instrument rating.
After looking at schedule, life and other things I became convinced that the
best option would be an intensive training option. I had been laid off
from my permanent job and was (am) contracting. This made sneaking in late
or out early a couple of times a week for lessons got difficult but arranging an
open week was fairly doable.
After looking around I ended up with a short list of options:
- Professional Instrument Courses "PIC" -
www.iflyifr.com - The original intensive instrument training targeted to
single pilot GA pilots. Their course price was the highest but they
were the only ones that "come to you". You train in your home, your
aircraft and from you home field and hangar. They offer a 10-day
course for someone starting from scratch and a 7-day "finish up" course.
- Single Pilot IFR - www.spifr.com
- These guys were also interesting and were very responsive to my inquiries.
They are based in Southeast Michigan. They have a pre-requisite for 15
hours of instrument time and offer a 7-10 day course.
- Glass Cockpit Aviation -
www.glasscockpitaviation.com - Based in Boise, ID with a number of
options and a fairly low training cost.
In looking at my choices I quickly settled on PIC, it really came down to
three main points:
- PIC's instructors come to you. The advantages of this are many and
this would become very clear during the 10-day training cycle. There's
also the simple reality that going somewhere else (especially with your
aircraft) to train burns two more days without adding to your training time.
- PIC's reputation and volume. PIC has trained thousands of students
and their average instructor trains 10-14 students a year (mine did more
like 20) - all instrument ratings or refreshers.
- PIC has no substantial prior instrument time requirements. Many of
the other courses wanted 10-15 hours of instrument time. Although I
recognized the effort of getting in almost 40+ hours in 10 days getting in
that 10-15 prior to training would be an effort and somewhat defeat the
purpose of the course.
What really cinched it was PIC had a course opening date of Friday July 21st
through Sunday July 30th. This lined up well in terms of needing to really
only burn one week off work (plus a Friday) and landing somewhat close to a
contract roll-off.
Preparation
Blah
Setup
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