This full, immersive simulated flight will go through all the steps of planning and flying the long IFR cross country required in 61.65(d). Fly along with us in the videos below in your simulation; or fly the real thing if you're in the Pacific Northwest!
The weather is beautiful and winds are out of the north as we plan the long flight from our home airport at Renton (KRNT). We'll be making stops at Olympia (KOLM), and McMinnville (KMMV) on our way back to Renton. We'll apply all the skills we've learned in instrument training.
These skills are critical to becoming a solid IFR pilot and we cover them in detail in our IFR Ground School. This in-depth and engaging course contains hours of lectures that will have you ready to fly whatever the weather.
Here's our route for today, including our expected approaches. Have your weather set for winds out of the north at 5 to 10 knots.
Route: KRNT BELVU4 HOOME KOLM; ILS 17 Circle to Land 35
KOLM YELM5 OLM V165 UBG KMMV; VOR/DME-B Circle to Land 35
KMMV UBG V287 OLM KRNT; RNAV 34
Part 1: Planning
Watch as we use ForeFlight and SkyVector to choose a route and ensure we're meeting the requirements for this cross country
Part 2: Departure and Clearance
It's a short flight to Olympia, but stressful! We'll deal with a departure procedure, radar vectors right over the top of SeaTac, and an ILS approach going the opposite way into Olympia. Take a deep breath before taking off.
Part 3: ILS Approach and Circle to Land
Though an ILS is a precision approach, when circling to land like on this flight we won't be going down to low minimums, but we'll need to level off and break off the approach to circle to the opposite runway.
Part 4: Flight to McMinnville
The long leg down to McMinnville will end in a VOR approach, which we'll overlay the GPS on. We'll still need to monitor the VOR on our NAV2 as we do so.
Part 5: Flight back to Renton
Our "go home" leg will take us back into Renton. We'll deal with radar vectors again as we get worked from the west side to the east side of Seattle Approach's airspace. The flight ends with an RNAV to LNAV minimums.
How did your flight go? Let us know in the comments if this was helpful, and any routes you want to see us fly in a future sim session. Reach out to us directly at training@flight-insight.com
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