Blog: My IPC Journey Continues
Some of the rules of the game have shifted in my quest to regain instrument proficiency.
My ongoing road to recurrency has seen a few twists and potholes.
To recap my journey, I’m an instrument-rated private pilot and former owner of a 1954 V-tail Bonanza—and before that, a two-seat Grumman AA1-B. My flying has been spotty for the past decade or so, and I resolved around the end of last year to get back into the game. The immediate goal was to first get comfortable in the left seat again, then work toward an instrument proficiency check (IPC). The ultimate goal is feeling safe flying IFR trips—some short, some long—in reasonable weather.
To that end, Steve Parker, a third-generation co-owner/manager at my home airport (Somerset Airport—KSMQ) in New Jersey, introduced me to Gus Petrakis. Gus is a relatively new, but highly motivated, pilot who ambitiously bought himself a Piper PA-28-140 to build up his experience and work toward his instrument rating. To keep a long story shorter than the inches-thick maintenance logbook entries, Gus wound up almost totally revamping the Cherokee, including updating the avionics and zero-timing and installing a 160-hp engine. It was a good vehicle for my needs, and Gus and I were able to work out an arrangement where I could fly the Cherokee for my recurrent training and then on personal trips when he wasn’t using it.
But my cardiologist had other plans. I wound up having open heart surgery on April 11 (my 25th wedding anniversary) to repair a mitral valve. Recovery has been going well, and as I work toward reinstating my 3rd Class Medical Certificate, my ambition has been to use the meantime for dual instruction toward the IPC. Somerset instructor Karl Bearnarth, who “moonlights” as an airline pilot, drew the short straw. He’s perfect for my needs. Karl and Gus have both been patient as my plans have moved along in fits and starts, some health-related, some just plain “life-related.”
Right when I finally got confident enough that I wasn’t overly concerned with bending Gus’s pride and joy, he began to feel tempted into an upgrade (more speed, range, and cabin capacity) and put his Cherokee on the market for “a ridiculous price.” He was slightly shocked when someone actually … bought it. Not the type to let the good autumn flying weather go to waste, Gus has been quick to seek out his next airplane, and in the middle of writing this today, I checked FlightAware to see that the Piper Arrow II he was eyeing was airborne on its way to KSMQ for a prebuy inspection.
I hustled down to the airport to catch its first Somerset landing on video, with Parker in the left seat and Gus in the right. Steve was a little cramped by the breadth of Gus’s grin as they taxied to the front of the shop. Gus had scribbled down a list of mostly minor squawks, but he was thrilled with the true airspeed readouts he saw on the hour-plus hop to SMQ. He has a cabin in the Pennsylvania woods with an airport nearby and an “airport car,” parked there, and he’s been stretching his cross-country legs as he continues to work on his instrument rating. He told me, if the purchase goes through, he hopes to be able to notch his complex-aircraft signoff in time for a trip to Boston with his son this weekend.
As for me, I’m excited to move up to an airplane with performance similar to my old V-tail, with much more modern avionics. The Bonanza did not have an IFR-legal GPS, nor an autopilot, so my instrument flying was limited to what I have heard referred to as “Gentleman’s IFR.” My challenge now is to learn enough to satisfy the IPC requirements and work with the avionics to develop a personal IFR-flying process (including assessing realistic personal weather minimums) that enables me to fly the trips I hope to fly with confidence.
And, since he will probably read this, I’m resolved to keeping the inside of Gus’s new pride and joy clean and tidy.
