Graveyard Spiral Recovery
In the event of a failure that leads to a bank and the sound of increasing airspeed, first reduce power. Aircraft structural limits can be exceeded the insidious forces of the graveyard spiral entered due to instrument failure. Pulling back on the yoke will only continue the descent. Do not apply back elevator until the wings are level. Use any indicator you can to get wings level. Request no-gryo assistance if you are in radar contact.

Finding the Runway
Descent to minimums is only a part of the game. Now you must find the airport. There is considerable difference in breaking out at minimums as to whether you are in a single pilot or two pilot cockpit. With two pilots the problem is simplified as to when to look and where to look because the pilot flying stays on the gauges while the pilot not flying can know when to look and has time to plan where to look. The technique used varies as to whether the approach is precision or non-precision.

Any approach that breaks out at minimums is going to make finding the airport if it is on speed and on altitude. An un-stabilized approach makes the when and where choices more difficult. Day vs. night makes the transition skills even more daunting. Being familiar with the area and procedures improves all options. Consider keeping the flaps up to help reduce the go-around load.

At night all lights should be off during the approach. A crosswind will skew your ‘where to look' situation because your nose will not be pointing to where you are going. An HSI helps solve this problem by showing the wind correction angle. The normal tendency, during a crosswind, is to drift downwind. By holding your wind correction you will remain on the course even though the runway may appear off to one side.

On breaking out at minimums there are several illusions that you must watch for. Using the lights of an ASLF-2 for slope is apt to induce a dive for a shallow arrival. Fly the glide slope. Watch out for the color, gray-white to dark-gray, change your peripheral vision picks up just prior to breaking out. Peripheral vision can affect your ability to keep the plane level. At night seeing a single light can initiate vertigo.

Stay on the gauges. The angular difference between heading and runway can be duplicated by approaches that are not lined up with the runway. An LDA approach off-set only ten degrees like Concord's can create additional visual offset problems if a crosswind correction is applied.

On Staying IFR
One of the most difficult aspects of IFR is to remain focused on the instruments when you expect to breakout at any moment at minimums. One of the reasons this is difficult is because the pilot knows there will be a certain degree of disorientation on breakout and a very real possibility of misjudging the altitude and positioning with the runway.

Situation:
Departure over water with no lights in view
Cure:
--Stay on instruments
--Monitor altitude
--Resist urge to push nose down
--Reduction of power will make you want to raise nose

Situation;
--Arrival at airport with no visible lights in area at night

Situation:
Flight into deteriorating weather as non-IFR pilot
Cures:
Don't make flight

IFR Crosswind Landings
Airports are designed somewhat like golf courses. The terrain and winds help determine runway direction and layout. Prevailing winds are selected for primary runway directions but nature has a way of nullifying the best plans of man.

Instructors try to prepare students in the performance of all landings. Of all landings the crosswind landing presents the most variables. In a series of five or six crosswind landings the many forms of right begin to appear. I have done many hundreds of crosswind landings and have no recollection of any two being the same. Thanks to the Dutch roll I do, without thinking or planning, whatever it takes for keeping the nose straight, aligned with the runway, no side drift and nose wheel off the runway.

War story:
Had a pilot, last week while returning from two hours of rough actual IFR, come in to a 5000 foot runway with 20 degrees flap and a 17 knot 60-degree crosswind. Runway was wet but with good traction. The flare took us well past the 1000' markers. We touched down about mid-field. Light braking took us to the far end 1000' markers where the last taxiway turnoff was before the end. Pilot got on the binders and angled over to the right 1000' foot marker. We slid across that marker just as though it was ice, not a pleasant sensation.

The use of flaps must be adjusted to the wind velocity and angle. How much flap you can handle is a variable with each pilot. I would suggest that a pilot use about 10-degrees less than they think they can handle. Most pilots are optimistic in their judgment of their flying ability. I would suggest that full flaps be limited to winds less than ten knots. Twenty degrees of flap at 15 knots. 10-degrees at 20 knots. Over twenty, no flaps. The more flaps extended in the crosswind, the sooner they should be retracted on touchdown. Most landing accidents occurs in crosswinds after touchdown. Getting flaps off quickly will greatly reduce the weather vane effect on rollout.

The right crosswind landing is one that gets the plane on the ground without excessive side load on the gear, without excess speed, without using the nose wheel and without requiring excessive braking. This means that you do not 'fly' the plane on to the runway. You do try to walk the line between the slowest speed at touchdown that will still allow you to stop drift with the ailerons while holding the nose straight with the rudder.

IFR Accidents
An IFR rated pilot is more likely to have an IMC accident than a VFR pilot. VFR into IFR accidents have an 85% fatality rate. They usually result from flight into rising terrain. Not having a sectional showing terrain is a common part of accident evidence. Complete competency can be overcome by bad judgment.

Causes of IFR accidents include, pilot out of currency, over-confidence in equipment, effort to avoid ATC system and a pilot who is deficient in system malfunction training. An Unknown number of IFR accidents seem to be related to chart reading! Most pilots catch their interpretation errors before they become problems or accidents. Errors tend to be related to confusing typographical depiction, clutter, unclear notes, omissions, errors and differences between NOS and Jeppesen. Some approaches are not even published by NOS or Jeppesen but may be given to the pilot by approach as though they were. The ILS approach is five to seven times less likely to result in an accident as is a non-precision approach.

Unless you have a routine pattern for flying IFR you will have problems in dealing with an emergency. Your routine is the basis for the way you perform all IFR tasks. Any proficiency training is devoted to improving and fixing in place this routine. Part of this routine involves the way you prepare the radios, where you keep your alternate information, and the priority you give to flying the airplane and maintaining your scan. To what extent will a problem distract you from your routine. It will, but how much and how long? Your salvation lies in having consistent habits. Consistency in configuring the plane allows you to devote extra effort to the outside cockpit problems. This reduces anxiety and stress even though what is happening is not totally predictable. The highest level of learning is your ability to learn from the routines of others.

IFR Survival
1. File only if proficient, current is not enough.
2. Know and abide by your weather limits.
3. Know and abide by your aircraft weather limits.
4. Use your alternate at the first 'doubt'.
5. Never exceed personal limits.
6. Fuel should never be a concern.
7. The 180 is the best parachute for an airplane.

IFR Illusions
--A narrow runway will create an illusion of being high.
--A wide runway can cause you to flare high and long.
--A downslope approach and runway can cause the illusion that you are lower than you really are. This means you will overshoot the end of the runway.
--Featureless terrain will cause the illusion you are higher than you are. This means you may descend too soon.
--Haze gives the illusion that you are farther from the runway than you really are.
--Unexpected entrance into fog can cause the illusion that the aircraft has suddenly pitched up. This may cause the pilot to suddenly pitch down.
--Excessively bright runway lights can cause the illusion that the runway is much closer than it really is.
--Rain on the windshield can cause the illusion that you are higher and farther away.
--This may make you fly a less safe lower approach.
--An approach over unlighted terrain may cause you to make a lower than normal approach.
--This is especially true on long straight-in approaches.
--Under the hood, an abrupt transition from climb to level can give the illusion of falling backwards. the instinctive reaction to this of lowering the nose is known as the inversion illusion.
--The postural sense can be caused to interpret centrifugal force as a rising or falling.

IFR Departure
IFR departures will be the same whether VFR or IFR conditions exist. Local limits will determine the crosswind turn altitude as well as the direction in your clearance. In IFR you must comply with a DP if any. You should fly the visual departure profile to reach any turn point in minimum time. This means flying at Vy to a safe altitude before going to a cruise climb. An IFR standard departure is expected to maintain at least 200' per mile, be at 35' over the departure end of the runway and at 400' before turning.
--No departure is published if 200 feet-per-mile is adequate
--DPs may require more than these.
--ATC does not know of climb restrictions, it is PIC responsibility
--Read the fine print because the DP may be for noise abatement or for obstacles.
--Listen to procedure used by locals or ask ATC when in doubt.
--Most airports have at least one peculiarity, ask.

IFR Arrivals
The IFR arrival checklist should include :
--Before Landing items
--Gear down/go down
--Radios to frequencies

Missed procedure DH/MDA
--Speed
--Time
--VDP
--Go-around configuration

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