Training & resources
Prepare remotely. Put it together in the airplane.
One pilot’s instrument-training story from my original website.
The starting point.
The pilot had completed the written test and could take no more than two weeks away from work. He wanted useful IFR skills, not a short course built only around the checkride.
The remote preparation.
We used a home simulator configured to resemble his airplane and panel, X-Plane, PilotEdge and ForeFlight. Video assignments and remote lessons gave him a way to practice between sessions. A mock checkride helped assess readiness for the aircraft phase.
The aircraft phase.
In the original account, we spent ten days connecting that preparation to cross-country flying, avionics, weather decisions and appropriately simulated failures and diversions.
The point is the sequence: learn, practice, evaluate, then apply it in your airplane. One pilot’s timeline is not a promise of your completion date.
What it means for your training.
Your starting experience, practice, aircraft, weather and examiner schedule all matter. We review those before building your plan.
View the Instrument Rating ProgramRead Toby’s original account
This is Toby’s account, not an independently verified outcome study. Flight-time totals and the examiner comment are reported in the original text and are not guarantees for another student.
Story Time
I had a client come to me and say, "I want my instrument rating, but I can't take off work for more than 2 weeks, and I won't do some 6 day "pass your checkride" course, because I want to know that when I put my family in that airplane, I will be so good that I will have to actively try to mess up."
"You're in Nashville. I'm in Atlanta.""How can we make this happen? Written test already done."
I told him to buy a home flight simulator with X-Plane 12, set it up to resemble his plane and panel, install PilotEdge ATC, and connect ForeFlight.
Watch these specific videos from a sim lesson and follow along in yours. Get on PilotEdge and do the in-house IFR training lessons, too.
We meet on Zoom 1-2 times per week for a lesson.
Once you complete the training, virtual mock check ride.
Fly to me, and in 10 days, you will have a check ride.
By day 2, this guy was meeting standards. By day 10, he had 30 hours in actual IMC, 40 hours of additional cross country PIC, and was handling simulated IMC emergencies, diversions, system failures, ATC... all without breaking a sweat.
DPE said it was the best check ride he'd ever given.
But the best part was that the next day, he put his wife and kid in the back and flew home, in the soup (we had crappy weather that week), and was totally confident, capable, and ready for the real world.
This is how I do instrument training. You buy a sim, train with me remotely while doing a self-study video series, then take a virtual check ride with a real DPE, then come to me already a master of IFR in the sim, then we let you put your skills to use in the airplane.
YOUR NEXT STEP
Start with your airplane. And your goals.
A few details first. A more useful conversation next.