Advanced Pilot Training: Instrument Flying Overview

REFERENCE: AAF Regulations 60-7, dated December 9. 1942, and AAF Regulation 60-4, dated September 3, 1943.

It is essential that every AAF pilot be able to fly on instruments. Almost every combat mission, transport, or domestic cross-country flight demands skill in instrument flying.

There is nothing mysterious or supernatural about the ability to fly on instruments. Any pilot can become skilled in flying instruments if he will follow the prescribed course of training, practice instrument procedure, and develop confidence in himself and in his instruments.

Know Your Instruments

Confidence in your instruments grows out of knowing not only what they can do, but also out of knowing what they cannot do. Learn their limitations, learn how to read them correctly against temperature and altitude, and how to check and cross-check them with each other.

Creating a Picture

You can develop confidence in yourself by learning to translate what your instruments tell you into a true picture of where you are. In other words, you must learn that the instruments themselves merely give you reference points (like points on a graph). You have to draw the picture in your own mind by connecting the reference points which the instruments establish.

The picture which your mind must learn to draw for you must show you and your plane in a definite relationship to (a) the ground, (b) the range station, (c) the landing field, (d) the points of the compass, and (e) a time relationship to all these.

As you become more skilled in the technique of instrument flying you will create this picture automatically; but at first it is difficult.

Here is a suggestion that may speed your instrument training: with someone else in your plane to watch traffic, fly an orientation problem under contact conditions. Do all your flying by instruments; but from time to time look out and check your position by sight. Create the picture by instruments first, then check it by visual reference. Repeat the process with several different orientation problems. You will discover that the picture you are creating by instruments alone is becoming clearer and more accurate.

Time and Practice

Time and practice are essential for any pilot to gain proficiency on instruments. It is not a skill that can be picked up in a hurry nor retained without constant practice. If you go for any extended period without actually flying instruments, or "brushing up" your technique on the Link or under the hood, you will get rusty.

The regulations provide that an instrument rating is good only for a year. But do not be satisfied with fulfilling merely the letter of the law. Take every opportunity to use the Link, to make hooded flights and to keep your hand in at flying on instruments.

Other Suggestions

1. Never make a steep bank on instruments.

2. Don't overcontrol-be light fingered; use steady, even pressure on controls.

3. When you get off the beam, don't turn too sharply getting back--ease back, a few degrees at a time (try it outside the hood to discover how small a turn you actually need).

4. When bracketing a beam learn to recognize a change of signal early (on the second or third signal). If you catch it at once and do something about it, you won't have to make sharp turns. And you won't lose the beam.

5. Remember that your gyro instruments must be watched for occasional correction.

6. Above all, don't work too hard. Give your eyes a rest. Look around the cockpit. Continual close attention is fatiguing. Tired eyes and a tired brain are likely to make mistakes.

7. Finally use the Link trainer every chance you get. Keep constantly at it.

Instrument pilot training is prescribed for all pilots in AAF Regulation 50-3, dated October 15, 1943.

General

A permanent Board of Officers (competent instrument pilots) will be established at each station, group, squadron or equivalent unit, to examine the instrument proficiency of all rated pilots and service pilots.

Instrument Pilot Certificates, AAF Form 8 (white) and AAF Form 8A (green) are used to indicate the instrument rating of pilots. These, when issued, will be signed by the examining board members and countersigned by the pilot's organization commander.

The certificates will be valid for one (1) year only, from date of issuance. Pilots and Service Pilots must requalify for their instrument ratings once a year or be removed from instrument status.

Pilots and Service Pilots as soon as practicable after assignment to duty involving the pilotage of army aircraft will pursue the "Instrument Course" prescribed below, or as much of the course as necessary to complete successfully the "Instrument Flight Test." (Exceptions: Pilots or Service Pilots who hold either a valid CAA Airline Pilot Certificate or a current Air Corps Instrument Card.)

Instrument Flight Course

This course will be completed within one (1) month of the date it is started, and qualification for a white card will be required within six (6) months after the course is started. Additional instrument training will be given if required for the successful completion of the instrument flight test. The instrument course will consist of the following:

1. At least six (6) hours' practice on basic maneuvers in a suitable airplane using all instruments. Basic maneuvers will include level flight, turns, glides, climbs, and stalls. During this practice, the student will be required to demonstrate his ability by using rate instruments only.

2. At least six (6) hours' practice in a suitable airplane on radio and radio range orientation emphasizing approach and letdown procedures. It will include instruction in the use of all standard radio aids to flying.

3. The completion of a written examination covering air traffic regulations, as prescribed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

Instrument Flight Test

The white card will be issued to those who have passed successfully the following Instrument Flight Test. (The test will be given by a designated instrument check pilot and must be given in a suitable airplane and not in a Link trainer or other such device):

Basic Maneuvers

Basic maneuvers will be accomplished by the use of all instruments, but at various times during these maneuvers the gyro instruments will be caged in order that the student will demonstrate his proficiency in the use of rate instruments. The allowable variations in basic maneuvers will be: air speed within plus or minus 10 miles per hour; altitude within plus or minus 200 feet; straight flight within plus or minus 5°; vertical speed within plus or minus 300 feet per minute; standard rate turns within plus or minus 5° per 90° of turn.

Requirements listed in instrument flights above. 2. On all hooded flights the pilot will be accompanied by a passenger who has, at all times, outside visual reference, who can readily communicate with the pilot, who is competent to act as instructor or to act as safety observer and warn the pilot of the proximity of aircraft or other danger, and who is capable of following on a map the course flown. The responsibilities of the above passenger may be assumed by the personnel of an accompanying airplane. In the latter case, both airplanes must be equipped with two-way radio to facilitate intercommunication and radio and visual contact with the hooded airplane will be maintained by the accompanying airplane at all times.

3. A rated airplane pilot will always accompany the pilot receiving hooded flying training, unless the pilot has been given the test described in PIF No. 1-9 and found qualified. Student instrument team missions, where neither student has yet been rated as prescribed by PIF No. 1-9, will be permitted at AAF flying schools when necessary for the completion of the regular instrument flying training.

4. Instructor pilots will be responsible for the observance of safety precautions during take-offs and landings, and when the pilot is enclosed by the hood. They will be responsible for compliance with military and CAA flying regulations.

5. The hood or enclosure for the pilot undergoing training will be of a type approved by the Commanding General of the Army Air Forces.

6. When service type airplanes are used, the hood will be installed in the cockpit normally occupied by the pilot. When training type airplanes are used, the hood installation may be in either cockpit.

7. In service type airplanes all take-offs and landings will be made by the individual occupying the pilot's cockpit. In training type airplanes, takeoffs and landings will be as determined by the instructor pilot.

8. Landings by the pilot when hooded are prohibited except in connection with special instrument landing training at stations where ground equipment, an instrument-landing airplane, and qualified personnel for instruction are available. This paragraph will not be interpreted as prohibiting the practicing of approaches to the landing field while hooded.

9. Take-offs may be practiced by the pilot when hooded, provided be is accompanied by an instructor pilot who has satisfied himself regarding the pilot's competency.

10. Airplanes will not be flown with the hood closed at altitudes lower than 3,000 feet when the passenger accompanying the airplane as a safety observer is not a rated pilot or when the responsibility of the safety observer is assumed by personnel of an accompanying airplane.

Hooded Flight Restrictions

The various phases of hood flying will be restricted to the following types of airplanes.

Air work may be performed in any type of airplane provided a safety observer is carried or an accompanying airplane with a safety observer is employed.

Take-offs or landings may be performed in:

1. Primary and basic trainers.

2. Basic combat types.

3. Corps and Division observation aircraft.

4. Bombardment and cargo airplanes with pilot and co-pilot in side-by-side seating arrangement.

The recently developed red and green hood has one outstanding advantage for daylight instrument flying training. While it limits the student's view to the inside of the cockpit, it allows the instructor to sit next to him and yet to have an unimpeded view outside as well as inside the cockpit.

The equipment consists of transparent green sheeting that is attached to the cockpit windows, and red goggles that are worn by the pilot. As the green sheeting and the red lenses in the goggles are complimentary, it is impossible to see through the combination. Wearing the goggles, the student can clearly see everything within the cockpit but nothing beyond it. While the student is flying on instruments, the instructor, without goggles, can see through the green sheeting and protect the plane from outside hazards.

REFERENCE: AAF Regulations 60-7, dated December 9. 1942, and AAF Regulation 60-4, dated September 3, 1943.