Flying on instruments alone

What to do when the horizon disappears: control the airplane by instruments, turn back out, and recover if the attitude has already gone wrong.

14 min read · Flight instruments

After this lesson you can

  • Explain why a private pilot is trained on instruments at all, and what 14 CFR 61.109(a)(3) requires.
  • Control pitch, bank, power and trim by reference to instruments alone, and name the instrument that leads each one.
  • Fly the 180-degree turn back out of cloud, and say why it is the first response and not the last.
  • Recognize a nose-high from a nose-low unusual attitude, and fly the correct recovery sequence for each.

A private pilot certificate is a visual certificate. You are not trained, equipped or authorized to fly in cloud, and nothing in this lesson changes that. But the FAA still requires three hours of flight training on control and maneuvering of an airplane solely by reference to instruments before the checkride, under 14 CFR 61.109(a)(3), and the reason is narrow and specific: continued visual flight into instrument conditions is one of the deadliest things a VFR pilot can do, and the skill that gets you out is the ability to hold the airplane steady on instruments for the minute or two it takes to turn around.

This lesson is that survival skill, not an instrument rating. It has three parts, in the order you would need them: how to control the airplane when the horizon is gone, how to turn back out, and what to do if the attitude has already gotten away from you before you noticed.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.Why the horizon matters more than you think
  2. 2.Pitch, bank, power, trim: what leads each one
  3. 3.The 180-degree turn: the response that matters most
  4. 4.Reading an unusual attitude: nose-high or nose-low
  5. 5.Nose-high recovery
  6. 6.Nose-low recovery
  7. 7.Three things that are easy to forget
  8. 8.What lets it happen in the first place
  9. 9.Distraction and traffic during the five hood maneuvers
  10. 10.The cross-check: three patterns, and the three ways it fails
  11. 11.Trim: the thing that makes the rest possible
  12. 12.Unusual attitudes: recognize, interpret, recover, and get back to VMC
  13. 13.Getting back out: the VFR pilot in IMC
  14. 14.Using the autopilot well, which is not the same as using it
  15. 15.The four basic maneuvers: what each looks like on the panel

These 15 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the PPL track. Paid once, yours for good.

See what the PPL track costsEvery module 1 is free to read, no account, no card.

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.