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 →
Which Approach At Frederick?
If you want a landing at your home airport tonight, you'll need to make a tough call. Will you fly an ILS that has an unusually high visibility requirement, a localizer approach that could leave you too high, a circle-to-land that's aligned with the wind, or simply land elsewhere? Perhaps synthetic vision will help.
Start Scenario
Between A Rock And A Hard Place
Surrounded by thunderstorms and running low on options, you've got a devil's bargain to contend with. Continuing with Plan A could complete a life-saving mission — or cost you a life you're quite attached to. Yet bailing out means beelining heavy weather, hard rocks, or military aircraft who aren't friendly to visitors.
Start Scenario
Lonely In Paradise
After a week enjoying the splendor of the Grand Canyon, you're one instrument approach away from a safe return home. Unfortunately, a system failure leaves you unable to talk with ATC and you'll arrive at your destination 45 minutes ahead of schedule. As the classic lyrics ask: Should you stay or should you go?
Start Scenario
Vectors Out of McMinnville
An economical bird means cheaper flight hours and a chance to enjoy the scenery. It also may require extra precautions when said scenery is hidden inside a cloud deck. That's not a problem when you plan ahead, but how will you handle a helpful controller who might, or might not, have all the information?
Start Scenario
Clear As New York Snow
Some routes for IFR flight are direct at any altitude you want, and others are down a tunnel ATC assigns without room for compromise. How will you negotiate a route across New York airspace when there's icing above, airline traffic below, a cold ocean to the left, and heavy snow approaching from the right?
Start Scenario
Paying The Water Bill
Every pilot has been there: A need to drain a certain personal sump and a choice between holding it or diverting for a pit stop. However, this diversion is in IMC and the best approach includes a requirement you can't meet, but certainly won't need. Will you go for it ... or just go later?
Start Scenario
Trimmed For The Approach
Your Piper Comanche might be five decades old, but choice modifications let it keep pace with factory-new aircraft costing five times as much. Some of the classic systems, however, have limitations. Now a jammed handle has you choosing between four challenging—but quite different—plans to deal with it.
Start Scenario
Thunderstorm On Final
This flight from the midwest to Texas has been an all-day game of dodge-storm. That was fine until now when the last leg has you caught between the thunderheads on one side and Class Bravo arrival paths on the other. How much will you push back when ATC points you somewhere you'd rather not go?
Start Scenario
Trapped Above The Ice
It seemed like a good idea at the time: Climb into the clear above potential icing and ride fantastic tailwinds all the way home. You'd arrive in time for a VFR descent and dinner. Now you're on top of a rising undercast with only oxygen-required altitudes above and known icing below. What's the best move?
Start Scenario
A Tiny Slice Of IFR
It's not everyday you get to haul half a ton of auto parts in your airplane, but your friend has parts for a Corvette project that needs getting, and you have the plane to get it. It's a great day until one small snag turns the road trip movie into an exercise in legal interpretations.
Start Scenario
NORDO Below The OROCA
Slogging along in wind and rain at the minimum altitude for the airway, you've been in and out of communication with ATC for the past hour. A shortcut clearance promised to lessen your misery but now presents you with a situation they never covered with the black-and-white rules from your IFR ground school.
Start Scenario
A Lack Of Integrity On Final
A quick day trip to a national monument throws you a curve when the GPS signal is lost. What will you do when your only navigation source takes the afternoon off?
Start Scenario
1000 Feet Over Ashe Country
The country boy made good, you're coming home for a family reunion. However, the weather may paint you a fool unless you can finesse a sketchy approach.
Start Scenario
Not A Warm Feeling
You can't ask for a better excuse to use your airplane for pleasure than a weekend trip to the island. Conditions are perfectly flyable IFR, but a potential mechanical issue puts the whole plan in jeopardy—or does it? What's the right level of response to a problem that's not an obvious show stopper?
Start Scenario
The Lights At Columbia County
It's a dark and stormy night as you approach your home airport at the end of a long day. The showers passing through the region mean there is no obvious choice for an approach to end the day. What will you request from ATC that best balances convenience, risk, and payoff?
Start Scenario
Blind Climb At Richwood
You've added quite a few handy tricks to your IFR bag, including departing VFR to get your clearance in the air. It's always worked without a hitch—until this time when ATC asks a question you never expected. Now your options are vanishing and you have only seconds to come up with an answer.
Start Scenario
Curve Ball At Palomar
Your hotrod airplane has the latest GPS navigator, but that opens the door to procedures you've never seen before. How will you handle an approach in IMC when it contains something you've never practiced? Think fast; at your current groundspeed, the decision will be made for you in 20 seconds.
Start Scenario
How Much Fuel Is Left?
You're cruising along in IMC when you discover three different methods of predicting your fuel on landing show three different amounts. If the largest number is right, you have enough to be safe. If the smallest one is correct, it's not even enough to be legal. How will you resolve this dilemma?
Start Scenario
Heat Of The Moment
A “hurry up and wait” day for practice approaches creates a trap. When it springs, you find yourself in hot water after only minutes in the air. Is this an emergency that warrants drastic action, or just an abnormal situation necessitating calm thinking and execution of a practiced procedure?
Start Scenario
Descend Via STAR
The upgrade to a turboprop has been everything you hoped for, but now you're moving fast in busy airspace with ATC repeatedly changing the plan. You have seconds to decide what a New York controller expects as you descend for one of the nation's most notorious airports.
Start Scenario