For the last months I’ve been a low time pilot (read about the reasons here), and this will continue at least until summer 2008. The strategy I defined is working fine – I renewed my IFR rating last week. I will move to my new place by the end of march, and I will publish an update about being a low time pilot after a couple of months.

Renewing my instrument rating was an important step before changing homebase. What it takes to renew and IFR rating is a simple proficiency check flight… but with no recent experience, it’s not that easy.

My last instrument flight was last summer when I flew from Cannes to Bastia, with a DA40 TDI. My last flight with a PA32 Saratoga was in November was also my last flight, so my recent experience was low. Even if this meant more flight time and money, I decided to make a preparation flight with my instructor. Certainly a good idea…

The departure and en-route part of the flight were a non-issue. I had a good review of the procedures and checklists before, and the SID was an extremely simple “climb in the axis” one. Weather was fine, despite a medium wind from the north.

I slightly overshot the axis of the holding because I corrected too much for the wind, which was lower at holding altitude than at cruising altitude. The ensuing ILS approach was fine. I certainly had to concentrate much more to keep the needles centered than when I was flying more IFR, but applying the good practices (attitude indicator first) worked fine.

The second departure and en-route segment were also fine – apparently one never forgets about IFR. Weather was still fine, no single cloud to fly through, making the things easier. The second approach was VOR-DME which I had to fly at high-speed (160 kts). Ok, jet guys will say this is slow, but flying it single pilot is not so easy.

My descent management was not exactly good, and I did reach the minimum altitude with an excessive descent rate, so I undershot the altitude by a few dozen feet. Same thing on the check day would make it a failure…ooops.

My instructor pointed a couple of factors during the debriefing, helping me to identify the problems. One week later, I took my check-ride. Thanks to the previous training – and good conditions again – it was succesful. I made a couple of minor mistakes, but nothing problematic.

According to my strategy, my IFR rating is now valid for one more year. It is clear to me that my recent experience is not sufficient to manage an hard-IMC flight in adverse weather. Once again, it is not because something is legal that it is safe.

Before re-flying IFR solo, I will go through a refresher course, to remain on the safe side, but also continue to enjoy it…