Revised Goals

Thanks to all of you for your comments on my previous post. After much debate and discussion with a few other pilots here locally, I have decided not to pursue my instrument rating. I would like to address a few of the points brought up by some of the comments:

Between school and a new job following, it will probably be at least five years before I am in a position to use an airplane as regular transportation. Until then it is recreational flying only. The most I would use an instrument rating for is to punch through the ceiling on a MVFR day when I should probably be home studying.

IFRPilot and FD: You are definitely correct about the IFR rating improving your flying skills. In this arena I do have one advantage over many other Private Pilots. Having learned to fly here in SOCAL, in and around a lot of Class B, C, D, TRSA, etc, and with a TRACON and ARTCC close at hand, I am very comfortable flying under ATC direction using instrument navigation for VFR flight. I had a Class B endorsement as a student and have flown many a mile in what I call "IFR-lite" routing, using airway navigation and flight following around and through controlled airspace and cross-country, even going so far as to use instrument charts and instrument approach guidance where possible to improve my navigation.

By the way, I did say TRSA. If you think those didn't exist anymore, fly to Palm Springs (KPSP).

I have also done some good follow-on hood training to supplement my VFR Private Pilot training, with one full IFR flight and some practice approaches (PAR, VOR, VOR/DME, and ILS) under my belt. As long as I continue to practice this, it will help me in the event of the dreaded VFR into IMC (which I go to great lengths to avoid).

At this point, and for a few more years, I'm flying just for fun. Rather than pay for the instrument rating twice (once now and again a few years from now to get really proficient again), I have decided to use my scarce flying dollars to achieve the following goals before I leave SOCAL:

1. 150 total hours
2. Tailwheel endorsement
3. High performance endorsement (in a T-34)

This will set me up to have a lot of fun in the next six months while giving me the endorsements to fly just about any plane I could possibly rent in the next few years.

Thanks again for all the great comments. Keep flying safe!