IFR MASTERY SCENARIOS
No Easy Way North
Weather is closing in from the north, daylight is slipping away, and geography limits your options. Will you take a short, simple route with more risk exposure or try and negotiate something more to your liking, but that seriously extends your flight time if ATC won’t cooperate?
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The End is Niagara?
The engine just threw a metaphorical wrench into your honeymoon plans while in hard IMC. It’s not dead, but it’s no longer healthy. The nearest airport has the worst consequences if its health declines. But the better ones require it hanging in until you get closer. Where will you go?
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An Airplane’s Most-Used Button
What is an airplane’s most-used button? It’s not direct-to or the frequency flip-flop. It’s so mundane you rarely give it a second thought—but you’ll absolutely wish it was working correctly if it fails in some of the busiest airspace in the U.S. How creative will you be in handling the situation?
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The Minimums at Meadville
After a lumpy trip in IMC, you discover the destination weather is worse than predicted. Your planned approach is now an iffy choice, and the other options all have their drawbacks. Any of the approaches theoretically work on paper. The question is: Which will you try first in practice?
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West Coast Direct
Sometimes terrain, weather, and winds conspire to make a three-dimensional puzzle with no clear solution. The best route for terrain might have the worst weather. The shortest route may have no airports for diversion. Flying higher for more options in an emergency may mean accepting brutal headwinds. How will you balance these factors today?
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Full Circle at Chatham
In theory, it’s a binary decision: You complete the approach to a landing or you go missed. In practice, however, there are times when commencing the missed puts you in a position where you could just come around the pattern and land. But when is that smart, and when is that just asking for trouble?
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GPS Jamming Over Nebraska
One of the funny things a pilot learns over years of GPS use is that there’s more than one way to accomplish the same task. There are also ways to complete a flight if the GPS is completely out of the picture. But what if the GPS is partially inoperative? Is there a clever solution?
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Get Me Out of Muhlenberg County
A batch of convective rain blocks the next leg of your trip. Do you try to skirt around the front of it where the weather is best, the back of it where the terrain is lowest, or wait for it to pass hoping the sizable gaps don’t shrink into mere suckerholes?
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Gastonia Distress
It’s been a simple IFR flight on a VMC morning. Now you’re approaching a destination that’s frustratingly hard to pick out given the suburban landscape and the just risen sun in your eyes. The distance is ticking down, ATC is getting impatient, and the nearby Class B limits your options to maneuver.
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Back Course to the Future
Standardization and experience are cornerstones for professionalism on the flight deck. The potential dark side of those same traits can be complacency and expectation bias, not to mention overconfidence. Now you have seconds to figure out a situation that seems to make no sense—and there’s precious little room for error.
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Rime or Reason
You had a plan. You flew the plan ... to within 15 minutes of your destination. Now it’s falling apart, but the resolution could be only a couple hundred feet below you or a few minutes ahead. Or, either choice could be a fool’s errand. Will you stick with the plan or go rogue?
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Overly Optimistic Ovation
You’re a controller who has concerns about a Mooney pilot trying to end a long IFR flight after midnight. The pilot seems unconcerned—and even offers to fly faster for better flow with airliners you have stacked up on approach. Do you trust the pilot or your intuition that trouble is brewing?
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Descend Via at Bellingham
Automation has changed the face of our flying—mostly for the better. The faster and higher you fly, the more this can pay off. However, avionics procedures that work flawlessly when everything goes as expected can turn the best of plans into a high-stakes juggling show. How will you keep all the balls in the air today?
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That Slow Sinking Sensation
Statistics say a partial power failure is three to five times more likely than a complete power failure. But that might mean three times as many options and a paralysis of indecision. How will you weigh your options to take the best prompt action without simply making a snap judgment?
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Straight to Nirvana
Departure procedures range from “fly runway heading” to convoluted turns amidst precipitous terrain. Yet even the most mundane departures can be misunderstood. Now you’re in the clouds and wondering: Is this departure more about keeping you clear from the terrain below or the traffic above?
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Block Island Bind
The conventional wisdom for many pilots flying ILS approaches was to simply convert to a localizer-only approach if the glideslope didn’t behave as expected. Is there an equivalent for an RNAV LPV? And if so, how much time is enough to change the plan on an approach in actual conditions?
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Mason City Mashup
Sometimes non-towered operations feel like the Wild West. That can be tough enough on a sunny day with the flexibility of VFR. When you’re departing IFR in visual conditions, it’s even tougher. The question is: How much flexibility do you have before you’re tucked safely into ATC’s warm embrace?
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Fortuna Fire Drill
The immediate emergency is over ... or is it? There’s nothing to indicate the problem persists and it would be far more convenient—even arguably safer—to keep going. However, a recurrence of the fire later could be much worse than dealing with options than you have right now.
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Lee Landing Limbo
Low clouds, small runway, slick airplane ... this sounds like an NTSB report waiting to happen. Then again, you have the skill, the fuel, and the time to make a well-executed attempt with no pressure to make it work out. And you have several backup choices. Stick with the plan or bail out now?
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What a Headache
You can have a perfectly functioning airplane in perfectly flyable conditions and still have a potential problem with the pilot. How much worry is a headache that could be attributable to the recent head-banging turbulence—or could be the first signs of something more consequential?
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