IMC Club

The IMC Club meets on the first Thursday of every month from 6-8 PM at ACI Jet.

The first meeting covered the instrument scan. Participants discussed the use of the autopilot and how to react when the autopilot disengages because of turbulence. Participants were asked what topics would be good for future meetings and ForeFlight and Weather were suggested.

Noelle suggested a video series by Brian Schiff that goes into detail about the features of ForeFlight.

I’m making a playlist of my favorite ForeFlight videos and Wings Courses. These two will be at the top of my list.

This video is one of the best on the ForeFlight weather features you may not know about.

ForeFlight has a new feature, Dynamic Approach Plates, that make using approach plates much better.

We touched on the fact that Pitch plus Power equals Performance. This is an example of the chart that should be in every IMC pilot’s checklist.

For the second meeting we watched a video of a flight plan that had the pilot fly to an airport with an ILS and then ask for Special VFR to get to an airport 11 miles away. The weather had deteriorated to less than VFR at the destination airport. The discussion centered on the airspace cloud clearances required, what that actually looks like in the air, and the fact that they could have easily landed at the first airport and taken an Uber to the destination. It was also pointed out that Special VFR has been around forever and at one point, when instrument approaches required expensive ground equipment, it was useful but with a GPS approach at every airport using it as part of the flight plan is not a wise move.

Many of the pilots have used Special VFR to get into or out of KSBP since the fog often rolls in making the field IFR but the approach end of the runway is still clear. There are also other times when the field is still IFR but it’s clear a few miles away.