AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2012 - 91

About that hold… Instructor Gary Smith of Frederick, Maryland, has an answer to the holding problem. He was the instructor who gave me the IPC. But before taking Smith’s IPC, I decided to take Geer’s advice and looked at a document for flight instructors conducting the IPC issued by the FAA five years ago called Instrument Proficiency Check Guidance. You’ll find it online (www.faa.gov/pilots/ training/media/IPC_guidance.pdf ). It lists what you might find on your next IPC. In that document, there is a suggestion to take an FAA preparation course, which I did, called, “Instrument Proficiency Check Review Guide” (www.faa safety.gov/gslac/ALC/ course_content. aspx?pf=1&preview=true&cID=38). Doing so gave me a head start on the IPC, and a way to butter up the instructor. Instructors appreciate customers who make an effort to prepare. I also had a list of acronyms from another instructor to help with my review. For example, an approach briefing might be recalled by A MICE ATM (ATIS, marker beacon, identify navigation aids, course set, entry type, altitudes, timing, missed approach). Now then, how are you going to remember holding entries? Smith suggests you do it by the process of elimination. You know which side of a hold is the protected side, right? That is the same side of the inbound course as the holding racetrack.

This works best when the holding pattern is published and appears on the chart. If you are approaching the hold from the protected side, then your only two choices are a direct entry or a parallel entry. Protected equals parallel (plus direct). If you are approaching from the nonprotected side, you have only two choices left— a direct or teardrop entry. IPC under glass Glass-cockpit systems can offer greater challenges for renters than they do for an owner who concentrates on the same system for every flight. Renters may need to keep proficient on both glass-cockpit and round-gauge systems. (Also, even in glass-cockpit aircraft, back-up instruments are normally round-gauge instruments.) Updates to glass-cockpit software usually go to the owner of the aircraft, and that may not be the flight school where you rent. It is up to the owner to make sure the avionics system software is current, as well as the database. You’ll need to check the software version to make sure. Also, the school may have glassc o c k p i t s y s t e m s f ro m d i f f e re n t manufacturers, meaning you need to learn different systems. Even if they are different models from the same manufacturer, renters may find themselves reviewing, for example, both a Garmin 530/430 and G1000 system, or maybe there is a Garmin G600 thrown into the mix. Then there is the matter of buttonology. Did you load the approach and later think you had activated it, only to discover it wasn’t active? (I did exactly that on my IPC.) Do you find your course deviation indicator to be in the wrong mode? How quickly can you reach the page on the multifunction display to check your second GPS? You’ll find tips from the experts on the G1000 in my article, “Technique: Quick Tips for the G1000,” February 2011 AOPA Pilot. Practice breeds familiarity and in this case, familiarity is a good thing. Practice as much as your budget allows and recoup your investment when the weather turns sour. Email the author at alton.marsh@aopa. org.

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in weather conditions less than the minimums prescribed for VFR until completing an instrument proficiency check. A pilot whose instrument currency has been lapsed for less than six months may continue to reestablish instrument currency by performing the tasks and maneuvers required in paragraph (c).” “AOPA has studied the recent amendment, has spoken with the FAA—and consulted with aviation attorneys for good measure—and verified that no change to the procedures for maintaining or reestablishing instrument currency has been made,” said Kristine Hartzell, AOPA manager of regulatory affairs. Despite concerns expressed by some pilots, the clarification did not change the long-standing procedures that instrument pilots must use to regain currency, she said.

AOPA PILOT • 91 • MARCH 2012

http://www.faa.gov/pilots/training/media/IPC_guidance.pdf http://www.faa.gov/pilots/training/media/IPC_guidance.pdf http://www.faasafety.gov/gslac/ALC/course_content.aspx?pf=1&preview=ture&cID=38 http://www.faasafety.gov/gslac/ALC/course_content.aspx?pf=1&preview=ture&cID=38 http://www.hiltonsoftware.com http://www.aopaadvertising.org

AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2012

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