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Getting Instrument Rated in RV-14A

PandaCub

Active Member
I'm a 500-hour pilot (with 80 hours tailwheel) and would like to get my instrument ticket within the next six months.

My RV-14A is well equipped for the task: Garmin GTN 750, dual G3X screens, 307 autopilot, dual comms, etc. My question for the IFR folks here is threefold:

1). What IFR ground school video courses have worked for you? I understand there are several - Sporty's, King, Jeppeson, et al.

2). Is it tough to find a CFII who will instruct in an experimental? I'm fine with a good simulator, but I'd much prefer to do the "live hours" in my RV-14A vs some club C-172.

3). Any other thoughts or tips going forward?

Many thanks,


PandaCub
 
I got my IFR ticket in my RV-10. Finding an instructor is not hard - and they will give you the leads on the examiners that are RV friendly.

Get your ticket in the plane you will fly IFR. A 172 or such will just create unnecessarily pain.

Carl
 
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I did the King's ground school, it's good. They have recently updated a lot of the materials, well worth the $$$.

I went to an IFR bootcamp, that nose down constant-training-until-done works best for me and my schedule.

With the bootcamp I had the option of using my 14 or abuse .. I mean rent ... the school's DA-40 with G1000. I opted for the school plane and wow the G1000 is so much harder to deal with after flying the G3X Touch .. I kept trying to touch the screen to do things.

These bootcamps are no joke, I flew 10 hours on a Redbird Simulator and 25 in the DA-40 in 8 days. Day 9 was the oral prep. On day 10 I went to another airport to do the check ride with an examiner and nailed it. Everything was fresh.

It took me about a week to recover mentally ... :eek:
 
obviously doing it in your bird will be better and cheaper than renting. So much of IFR is rules based and sequence based. As long as you know what you need to be doing at what point, it doesn?t matter what plane you are in. That goes for a simulator or a school plane. Then next most important part is buttonoligy. You have to know how and when to switch from GPS to VLOC. Wether that is a 530 or a 750. The buttonoligy is just as important as the knowledge of when to do it.
 
I did very similar in my RV-9A/G3X/GTN/etc. Similar # of hours too. Did all the training in the RV, had no issues finding an instructor or examiner.

I used the Sporty's IFR course, great app, etc. King unfortunately puts me to sleep.
 
I did my IFR groundschool using King videos, Sporty's app, and lots of YouTube videos.

I equipped my RV-7 with Dynon and two-axis autopilot, Avidyne IFD 440 GPS/NAV/COMM, along with Dynon COMM2. Jeppeson data for the Avidyne, Seattle Avionics data for the glass charts.

I worked with three local CFIIs (two independent instructors, and one associated with an FBO). Found all three instructors via word-of-mouth recommendations from other instrument rated pilots in the area. Personality differences made me move on from the first. The second CFII had to take a sabbatical from instructing for medical reasons. My third CFII was 82 years old! Terrified me every time he got into/out of my RV-7!

When it was time for my checkride, I spoke with four different DPEs. All four of them were willing to do the checkride in my RV-7, and I passed my checkride on my first attempt! This was Dec 2017.
 
Usually finding a cfii isn?t the problem. But it is tough finding a cfii who is familiar with your particular avionics suite - since there?s no such thing as a standard panel in EAB. You need to be prepared to master them on your own, or educate your cfii.
 
Usually finding a cfii isn?t the problem. But it is tough finding a cfii who is familiar with your particular avionics suite - since there?s no such thing as a standard panel in EAB. You need to be prepared to master them on your own, or educate your cfii.

My CFIIs told me that all they wanted to see was the CDI (which is on the Dynon) centered. It was up to me to make the nav equipment talk to the CDI. Hence, lots of YouTube videos to see how the different equipment works.
 
Dauntless Aviation

I used 2 apps from Dauntless aviation. IFR Groundschool and Ride ready.
I passed my written at 96%. I also called around and found an examiner that was willing to do my checkride in my RV
 
For those that decide on a bootcamp .. I've got a few emails so I'll expand a little on my experience.

I used Craft in Charleston, SC - https://flycraftchs.com/ifr-training/

Small shop, great folks.

Days 1,2,3 were on the Redbird Simulator. 2-3 sessions, about 1-2 hours each.

On day 4 the flights in the airplane (DA-40 with G1000) started. 2-3 flights per day, about 1-2 hours per flight.

By day 5 I had zero confidence I was going to pass the checkride with just 3 days remaining.

On day 6 everything started to click.

By the end of day 7 I thought to myself "this is easy, why was I having such a hard time with it the first few days".

By the end of day 8 approaches and the radio calls started feeling repetitive and mundane and easy. A sure sign that the training was working.

I had to fly to another airport for the checkride with the examiner (who had no affiliation with the school). Interesting that the 30 mile flight was in marginal vfr and 2000 foot ceilings. I almost turned back to Charleston.

Nailed the checkride with confidence.

Another interesting story ... on the way back to Charleston, right after passing the checkride, the wx closed in on me with rains and surrounding storms. I almost filed in the air, on the way back from my checkride, it was getting bad, to say I was concerned would be an understatement. My options were going away fast. It was the heaviest rain I've ever flown in but ultimately Charleston just kind of automatically routed me through it without having to file. My fear of flying in rain ended that day and my confidence in ATC went up considerably.

I didn't read up on the KCHS before going, didn't realize it was a C130 base. All my fears of flying with big airplanes in class C were wiped away after a few days of my tiny, tiny, tiny airplane in the pattern with giant military aircraft.

It was well worth it and I recommend the experience. The intensity level keeps you focused. All in, including the DA-40 rental, was around $7500 plus hotel for 9 nights. If you do the math, you'll spend near that just tooling around with CFIIs in the local 172. If you spread it out, like most do, you'll spend considerably more due to forgetting everything in between sessions. I knocked it out in basically a week and a wakeup and came home confident with the ticket.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, it took me a few days to recover mentally. On day 10 I woke up just exhausted from the experience.

I had a hard time locking down CFIIs, they are very transient in our area and usually barely experienced. The actual schools seem to want you to enroll in a multi-month program designed for commercial pilots, very expensive.

Hope this helps!
 
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The FAA publications are also a good supplement to the training videos and books. I used the King videos (remember CDs) and Jeppensen book. The FAA publications (available in print and PDF) seemed like the original source for the other books and videos, but much more dense.

Instrument Flying Handbook
Instrument Procedures Handbook

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/

Good luck,
Rob.

Note those same publications are available from the documents section of Foreflight as well. I find it very handy to be able to reference them there.
 
The FAA publications are also a good supplement to the training videos and books. I used the King videos (remember CDs) and Jeppensen book. The FAA publications (available in print and PDF) seemed like the original source for the other books and videos, but much more dense.

Instrument Flying Handbook
Instrument Procedures Handbook

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/

Good luck,
Rob.
Doug has a bunch of free publications that he used for studying for the IFR checkride oral portion. here: http://www.vansairforce.net/articles/myIFRCheckride/my_ifr_checkride.htm
 
Sporty's

I used Sporty's online version and passed everything with no issues. My written score was around a 90. I like King as well. I learn from the King videos better than I do with Sporty's. The Kings do a better job reinforcing material. I also love Rob Reider's voice too much and listen to him speaking instead of the content being presented. LOL. :D
 
It was well worth it and I recommend the experience. The intensity level keeps you focused. All in, including the DA-40 rental, was around $7500 plus hotel for 9 nights. If you do the math, you'll spend near that just tooling around with CFIIs in the local 172. If you spread it out, like most do, you'll spend considerably more due to forgetting everything in between sessions. I knocked it out in basically a week and a wakeup and came home confident with the ticket.

For those with more limited funds, there are options. I did self-study and only paid about $300 for some used books, sheppard and the testing fee. I found a local, young CFII building hours for the majors. He was happy to log extra hours and charged me $30 per hour. We did only about 35 hours together. Took 2-3 months, as we did it in the winter with fewer good Wx options, as well as working around the CFII's work schedule and mine. I did about 5-10 hours of practice approaches with just a safety pilot to get the 40 hours. I did it in my 6, so only incremental cost was fuel. Then there was a $400 examiner fee.

It can be done for less, if necessary. However, you don't have the benefit of the concentrated exposure. This requires effort on the student to not lag from the inactivity, though doable. I did mine around the 40 hour minimum and felt very comfortable at the end.

There are benefits to doing it in your aircraft, not the lest of which is the lack of transition time. While the 14 is probably not as pitch sensitive as the 6, it is not a 172 that is inherently stable and much easier to hold altitude with. Training on a 6 pack will require a fair amount of time to transition to glass with a good comfort level.

Larry
 
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Many thanks to all who responded - great information and I appreciate it.

My plans for now are to see if Sporty's, King, etc are offering any Thanksgiving/Black Friday sales on their courses and perhaps take the plunge. It's good to hear that many CFIIs are fine with instructing in Vans aircraft.

My RV-14A has over 200 hours now and it still feels like I'm just scratching the surface of her capabilities - as if I have a Steinway grand piano in front of me and I'm still playing scales. That Garmin G3X/750/307 suite alone would make a 747 pilot green with envy, and I'm looking forward to safely and prudently expanding beyond VFR. Recent VFR cruise screenshot attached.

~PandaCub
---------------
2015 Carbon Cub
2017 RV-14A

N992-RB-175.jpg
 
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