toeman9

I am workin on a paper for school and wanted some input from you all.

What are reasonable personal minimums for an instrument rated private pilot with only 250 total hours?
What are your personal minimums given your flight experience?

Crosswind
VFR Ceiling
-Day
-Night
Visibility
- Day
- Night
IFR Precision Approach
- Ceiling
- Visibility
Non-Precision Approach
- Ceiling
- Visibility
Missed Approach Attempts
Takeoff Minimums
- Ceiling
- Visibility

shurb

whatever is legal

planecrazyjenn

That, and what you feel comfortable with. If you only have a minimal amount of IFR experience, and only fly IFR every few months...your not staying as proficient as you could, and your personal mins should be a bit higher. Never allow yourself to put yourself in a position that takes you down to minimimums that you are not comfortable with. If you aren't flying as much there's nothing wrong with starting out with say 500ft and 1vis. As time and experience progresses, slowly start lowing your minimums down.

When you do set your minimums, stick with them! Don't develop that super pilot ego, when your in solid clouds in nasty conditions...no one cares if you make the approach on the first try if your endangering the lives of yourself and your passengers.

Crosswinds, do what you and your plane are comfortable with. Some people were fortunate to have a lot of training in windy conditions, and are more comfortable with crosswinds. Others weren't so lucky and had calm conditions, or never flew in them much post checkride.

To sum up all the areas you were asking about, your personal minimums should be just that - personal. What one pilot is comfortable with, another may be absolutely afraid of. You'll know what's reasonable based on your feelings and training. And never EVER be afraid of calling up a CFI/I and getting some training. Things become rusty, and it has never hurt anyone to have another pilot watch you fly and offer some advice. A good pilot is always willing to learn new things.

rickair7777

X-Wind: Totally depends on how you feel with X-winds. This is usually a matter of experience...once you've done enough of them, it's like riding a bycycle.

VFR Ceiling: Has NOTHING to do with the pilot...a 5000 hour airline pilot who flies a 152 into a low layer without a clearance will hit the same mountain as the private pilot. This has everything to do with Wx forcasts and your knowledge of the local area and Wx patterns.

Visability: A function of your knowledge of the local area and Wx. If it's 3SM and haze in SOCAL I can feel my way around in the vicinity of the home patch, even at night. I wouldn't dream of doing it anywhere else though.

Precision Approach: somewhere between 200 and 1000 AGL, depending on your instrument proficiency. If you do a lot of IMC, 200' should be fine. If not, add some buffer. You can always give yourself extra credit at the home field, because you probably know the approach and freqs by memory, which reduces workload.

Non-precision: These are inherently more dangerous than precision approaches, cuz people screw up the step-down descents. I would say 500' above mins unless you get a lot of IMC practice. Home-field advanatge applies here too.

Missed Approach: This one is easy...the statistics are well documented on this. Your odds get VERY, VERY bad on the third and subsequent attempts. Try it once, and if the Wx is reporting close to or above mins you can try again. But after that, get the heck out of dodge.


T/O Mins: Again, has little to do with experience. Two issues for me...
a) If the engine quits at 400' AGL, will I be able to break out in time to pick a spot to land? If there's nothing downrange but a pasture, a lower ceiling would work. If it's a built up industrial area, you will need more time (and ceiling).
b) If I need to return shortly after T/O can I legally get back in (or legally get into a nearby airport)? For this reason 200 AGL and 1/2 SM is about it for me.

planecrazyjenn

Sure it does, just because it's VFR legal doesn't mean every pilot should be out there flying in it. 1 mile vis isn't a lot if your not used to flying in it. But your right, your still pushing limits if your flying in an unfamiliar area with not so great wx.