Stage III of the Instrument Rating course mainly focuses on cross-country flights and everything related to them, such as weather briefing, flight planning, reading and interpreting NOTAMs, fuel, weight and balance computation, and more. Therefore, this stage check is a one more cross-country flight with full preparation.
Unfortunately, the weather today is far from perfect, with wind gusts and high thermal activity. Our chief pilot summed up the weather after my first landing today, saying, “What the hell was that?” It is certainly not easy to land smoothly in such weather conditions.
The third stage of the Instrument Rating course is the most peaceful and calm one. The flight planning part is essential, and a pilot can take the time they need during this process. There is always an opportunity to postpone the flight if the conditions exceed the pilot’s personal limitations.
In other words, at the preparation stage there are fewer external pressures and much more time than when flying an actual airplane. The workload during the enroute part is also much less than during the approach since the course assumes that the student has already mastered approaches in the previous stages or is at least comfortable enough with them not to mess everything up.
So the course is almost complete. I now only need an end-of-course check and a checkride to obtain my first instrument rating ever.
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