IFR MASTERY SCENARIOS
This month's scenario Turkey Day Turbulence #195 | NOVEMBER 2026 A short IFR hop across Florida turns into a challenging IFR workout as the descent brings sharp wind shifts, turbulence. Do you try again where you just missed or divert somewhere less convenient, maybe even all the way back home to drive instead?Start scenario →
Foggy Thinking
A delightful night flight home turns into a surprise missed approach only seconds from landing. Now back above the unforecast—and widespread—fog, you’re fat on fuel but short on options with the clock already passing midnight. You’ll have to balance between longer time in the air and making the next landing attempt a sure thing.
Start Scenario
A Quick Hop to Birmingham
There’s no reasoning with a thunderstorm. It goes where it wants to and you go elsewhere to wait it out. This time the thunderstorm is right over your airport, so the question becomes: Where do you wait? Should you do as the airliners are doing for this airport or make your own plan?
Start Scenario
What’s Up in Watsonville
You did your homework for this IMC departure. Obstacle Departure Procedure? Check. Emergency return plan? Check. Glass panel configured and ready? Check. Unfortunately, your cleared route undoes all this work and ATC says their hands are tied. Will you go with the flow or negotiate a new plan that checks the right boxes?
Start Scenario
Changing Plans at Southern Pines
ATC’s vectors to final routinely make approaches simpler for the pilot and all controllers to move more airplanes from the sky to the runway in quick succession. The problem comes when a last-minute change requires reprogramming the avionics and another airplane closing in means there isn’t much time to get the right waypoints in the right places.
Start Scenario
Who Needs an Autopilot, Anyway?
Upgrades are expensive, so many of us make do with a mixed panel of old and new technology. That’s fine as long as you don’t lean too heavily on equipment that’s long in the tooth. This flight pushed that limit and put you in a pickle: Press on with a problem or make a high-stakes diversion?
Start Scenario
Palo Alto Procedure NA
Sometimes the published procedure notes make no logical sense. How can an approach be forbidden under IFR when you could fly the exact same path VFR safely? Will you follow the letter of the law or trust your eyes and a PAPI—or use some other combination of techniques—to reach your destination in the dark?
Start Scenario
Capital City Confusion
Loss of control on an approach is a terrifying thought—and you just recovered in a valley with limited visibility and no airport in sight. Is it better to climb to safety with a known issue or scud run a few hundred feet above the ground to find an airport and some terra firma?
Start Scenario
Snowfall in North Texas
You’re cruising in clear air above potentially icy clouds with a plan to descend amid scattered clouds at your destination. However, the destination weather isn’t clearing as fast as it should. Do you stick with the plan, stretch your range to better weather, or seize a potential sucker hole that just appeared below you?
Start Scenario
Vertical Guidance Give and Take
Common wisdom says that flying a constant-descent approach on a glidepath results in a safer, more stable approach than the old “dive-and-drive.” But what do you do when that technique is almost certain to result in a missed approach—while the old-school method will likely reveal a runway you can land on?
Start Scenario
Alarm Out of Albany
A new safety device surprises you when it alarms on the first flight. Is this a real emergency, an abnormal situation to watch, or actually normal behavior for your airplane? Is the sensor even working correctly? If this were simple VFR, you could make an easy return. But you’re in the clouds and climbing.
Start Scenario
Wanna Walla Walla
Weather and alternate airport options required calculating your fuel down to the minute. Now you’re airborne and your destination is a weak bet at best. If you swing and miss, you’ll have a choice between a legal option that’s no sure thing and a safe one that’s on the wrong side of the regs.
Start Scenario
Crystal Ball for the Windy City
Every pilot wishes there was a crystal ball revealing the exact weather three days into the future. It’s even more stressful when constraints like airline schedules and other pilots using an airplane reduce your flexibility. How will you use the tools at hand to predict flight conditions when your choice has repercussions for other people?
Start Scenario
No Second Chances
The best thing about personal minimums is that they remove subjectivity. This removes the temptation to “just take a look” or “try it once more.” But what happens when that absolute is challenged by something you never expected—and maybe shouldn’t even count? Is that a valid reason to make an exception?
Start Scenario
Stuck Selector in SoCal
The bad news: Your simple IFR flight in a capable airplane just became a crisis IFR descent in a terrible glider. The good news: You have choices within gliding range. The decision: Which airport and technique gets you to the pavement in one piece? Don’t dally. Altitude and options diminish with each passing minute.
Start Scenario
Deviate on Departure
Much of our IFR flying happens in the fuzzy world of instrument rules in visual conditions. What happens when a pressing situation puts your instincts at odds with your clearance, especially when ATC doesn’t seem the least bit concerned? Is it OK to act first and tell ATC later, or do you need permission to deviate?
Start Scenario
Trusting Your Training
The whole point of instrument proficiency training is keeping yourself ready for the days when you must actually fly in the clouds. However, months—or even years—can go by where circumstances prevent flight in actual IMC. How much can you rely on simulators, videos, and other training aids to ensure a flight in real clouds won’t end badly?
Start Scenario
Which Heading Out of Harvey?
Instrument training under sunny skies with a hood just isn’t the same as real IMC. You finally have a day that’s perfect for practice, but first you and your student must get into the system from a small, uncontrolled field. The ODP makes that connection—until your clearance throws the need for it in doubt.
Start Scenario
It’s Only Wausau To Wautoma
Actual IMC experience is essential to confidence in the clouds. That’s why any instrument instructor worth the ticket will do what they can to get actual IMC experience for their students. But when that experience includes an icing emergency, what’s the safest way to prevent an instructional flight from turning into a tragedy?
Start Scenario
Doubt About The Dalles
The motto for instrument approach design might be “safety through structure.” You’re now facing an approach where the most structured option is the least likely to succeed. Is that still the best choice, or is one of three less restrictive options the best for reaching the runway without hitting the rocks?
Start Scenario
Looking for a Bright Idea
Some failures seem so unlikely there’s no need to prepare for them. That’s fine ... until they do happen. Now you’ll have to choose between powering back in hopes of better weather, trusting your memory and knowledge of systems, or trusting a technique you haven’t practiced since instrument training—if you even practiced it at all.
Start Scenario