Instrument Ground School – Class 1 of 10

I started Instrument Ground School tonight. It’s a 10-week class every Monday night for 3 hours. Taught by the same instructor that taught the Private Ground School I attended last year, I expect it to be just as fun and informative.

Hunter is taking the same class, so we’ll have even more to talk about on our flights. Of the approximately 25 people in the class, about half are club members, and most of those only recently received their private pilot certificate.

I haven’t yet decided when to start my instrument flight training, but this class is only offered once a year, so I decided to go ahead and take it since I expect I’ll want to start training sometime this year.

The first class was mostly administrative and introduction. We covered what to expect from the class, safety (as we will in most every class), and started discussing instrument navigation (VOR, NDB/ADF, GPS, etc.), most of which was review of material I’ve already learned, but we will be getting into much more detail as the class progresses.

As with the private ground school class, there’s a thick textbook and an FAA test prep guide that we’ll be using. In the end, we should be prepared to take the FAA instrument rating knowledge test, which I believe is valid for 24 months. I sure hope it doesn’t take two years to get my instrument rating.