Forget everything I've said...

and don't look out the window.

Those were the instructions as I started my instrument training to cover the required 5 hours of IFR flight necessary for my PPL. Having spent 40 something hours enjoying the view out the window and using the horizon as my reference point, it was quite disturbing to be robbed of all my visual queues, from 300' AGL.

Having said that, I think I did quite well for my first 0.2 hours of (simulated) instrument flying. Just some basic stuff like climbing and descending, and making "Rate One" turns (ie. 3 degrees per second, but i have been told by several people that these 5 hours of training are the ones that are most likely to save my life. Apparently, VFR-only pilots often get caught out in IFR conditions quite a lot and, without the visual references, get disoriented and crash and burn. Something similar to what many think happened to JFK Jr.

So after around 10 minutes my instructor let me look outside and I was amazed to see pretty much everything south of the bombay's and the hunua ranges (pretty much the entire Waikato region) blanketed in fog. This meant that we were unable to head down to the training area, so back to the airfield for some circuits and then shutdown.

On the plus side, as I got back early, I got to go for a joyride in a Cessna 182. Unfortunately, I was not flying (nor in the other front seat)... I was just along as a passenger so one of the other club members could classify his type-rating flight as a full load. The 182 is to the 152 as the Titanic is to a 10ft dinghy :) It was like sitting in the back of a Lincoln Towncar. So comfortable and with all the legroom a 6'3" guy could want... And I got a bit of a view of the V8 racing at Pukekohe :)

This flight: 0.9 Hours Dual (0.2 IFR)
Total Hours: 45.6 (41.8 Dual, 3.8 Solo, 0.2 IFR)