Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

2 Answers

Breakout Confusion

Asked by: 3091 views , ,
General Aviation, Instrument Rating, Private Pilot

Is it common to experience a kind of confusion during the transition from breaking out (or removing hood) to visual during instrument training?  Comments, techniques or tips would be appreciated.  

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

2 Answers



  1. Wes Beard on Jul 15, 2013

    Yes. Absolutely. Your eyes are focused on the panel 18-24 inches from you and then you look up and try to focus on the runway or something to identify the runway. It takes the eyes a small amount of time to make the transition.

    Professional pilots have the same difficulty. In Canada they have a PMA or pilot monitored approach. The second pilot flies the approach inside on the autopilot and the PIC keeps their eyea outside. With coordination, the PIC takes over and lands or the SIC performs a missed approach.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. RLewis on Jul 17, 2013

    Ray,

    This issue became apparent to me when first starting my CFI Instrument certificate – the reason being, when the instructor (acting as a student and under the hood) was flying approaches, I began to realize how small needle deflections were actually big deviations (visually). This is especially true with non-precision approaches slightly offset to the runway centerline.

    I have two suggestions – one of them is to try flying a few approaches with no hood, either on your own or with an instructor. Do a precision approach, but also make sure you do a non-precision approach with a noticeable offset between the approach and runway centerline. Fly the airplane to the VDP and to the missed approach point at minimums to see what it looks like. When under the hood and reviewing for an approach, try to create the mental imagery of the approach – note the difference between the runway and the angle at which you’re approaching.

    The second suggestion is to try watching a few youtube videos – there are several on there of actual approaches to minimums. Maybe this will give you a more realistic view.

    Randy

    +2 Votes Thumb up 2 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.