Some decisions don’t allow the luxury of contemplation. Every instrument pilot knows at least one of these decisions in the depths of his or her cloud-flying bones: the missed approach. Making a decision while still descending and a mere 200 feet above the ground (lower for Cat II+) only works because the decision is binary. You see the expected environment and continue—or you don’t and you climb away.
Pre-loaded decisions are a fantastic safety tool, but we so rarely need them that we end up unprepared to effectively use them. This applies to far more than a missed approach, but let’s start there.
Real-world instrument training under the hood leaves pilots woefully unprepared for a real approach with low visibility. This is possibly the best reason to get some real IMC time in training. One-half mile of visibility at 200 AGL on a typical three-degree glide path means you can see the approach lights peeking through the murk, the threshold, and some puddles on the pavement. Scratch the bit about the pavement if it’s night.
To immediately measure visibility the moment you break out, you must know what you expect to see. That’s your yardstick. Is this an ALSF-2 lighting system? Just a MALSR? Maybe this is a non-precision approach with an ODALS? (They’re out there. We have one just down the road from my home base here in Portland, Maine.)
Each of these systems are a different shape and different length from the threshold. You should know how far those lights extend from the threshold and how far you will be from the beginning of those lights. You should see enough of that lighting system, and maybe a specific number of runway lights, to prove that you have the visibility required for continuing below DA/MDA. The point is you must know beforehand how much lighting you expect to see.
You should also know where to look. Crabbing down the localizer in crosswinds, pilots often forget that a ten-degree correction nose-right means those lights will be 10-degrees to the left. Anticipating that removes the moment of confusion when the lights pop-out off center. Or if the lights appear in a different place—or at a weird roll angle—you know something is wrong and a missed approach is the safest action.
The concept becomes more powerful if you expand its use. Take a non-precision approach with a published VDP. The VDP is the last point along the approach where you’ll likely be able to land straight-in without channeling your inner anvil. So know where that point is and watch it by distance on your GPS or by time. A breakout before that point is a pre-loaded straight-in. After that point, it’s a pre-loaded circle-to-land with a pre-chosen runway using a pre-planned path. Or, if you don’t dance circles, it’s a missed at the VDP. This is a decision gate: You have only two choices, and passing the gate only one remains.
This tool can be applied even more broadly. You’re on a base-leg vector to the localizer with a tailwind. At what point will you query ATC about a turn if one isn’t forthcoming? What would you do if the frequency was busy? Use the ident function on your transponder? If you were about to pass through, would you turn inbound or just keep going?
That last one is complicated and has been discussed in IFR Focus #1. But the point is that we can often predict moments where a decision must be made well before we get there. That means we can make an A-B plan, criteria for which option we’ll choose, and a point at which we’ll decide without hesitation.
There are so many places in regular flying where this happens: approaching weather and needing a deviation, requesting a new altitude before entering icy cloudtops, short final when struggling to stabilize the approach, floating on touchdown … it just goes on.
The takeaway on all of these is that a pre-loaded decision before you reach that moment of truth reveals actions that might make a snap decision unnecessary, as well as empowering you to make the right call without hesitation if you must.
Watch this Video
Thunderstorms and Mountain Passes
I learned to fly just south of Boulder, Colorado, and we routinely took 160-hp and 180-hp airplanes up into the mountains for destinations like Crested Butte, Telluride, and even Leadville. Nursing a flight-school Warrior over an 11,000-foot mountain pass is an exercise in patience that culminates with a decision gate.
You approach the pass riding the ridge for extra lift and at an angle to the pass. At the last moment, you decide if you have enough clearance to turn over the ridge, dive down for speed, and cross into the probably-descending air on the other side—or you peel away back around for another attempt.
Later in instrument flying, I found it useful to approach gaps in thunderstorms the same way, at least mentally. Space to turn around isn’t so critical, so approaching head-on is fine. But mentally there’s a distance to the towers on either side I want, and a certain visibility or clearance on the other side I require. That might be visible to the naked eye, or with the right on-board equipment. There’s a spring-loaded course reversal ready until I see what I need to commit on passing through the gap … or not seeing it and turning around to try another plan.
https://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/09140443/decision-time.png10001250Jeff Van Westhttps://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/14115136/IFR-Focus-Logo_White_Blue_Web-01.pngJeff Van West2026-02-17 08:55:532026-02-20 10:17:32Practical IFR: Decision Time
If weather or an ATC delay requires you to fly a holding pattern, you can use ForeFlight’s Hold Advisor feature to add the details of the hold to the flight plan. If you receive a clearance to hold at a waypoint currently entered in your flight plan, tap that waypoint ID in the Route Editor and select the Hold function. You can then enter the details of the holding clearance, including the inbound or outbound course, either a time or distance, left or right turns, altitude, speeds restrictions, and an expected further clearance time.
https://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/06103712/hold-advisor-video-tip.png10001250IFR Focus Teamhttps://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/14115136/IFR-Focus-Logo_White_Blue_Web-01.pngIFR Focus Team2026-02-10 08:55:322026-02-06 10:37:59Video Tip: Entering a Hold with ForeFlight Hold Advisor
Throughout the month of February, Sporty’s is celebrating IFR Month, a month-long focus on the challenges and rewards of instrument flying. In addition to special savings on pilot gear, Sporty’s will offer webinars, articles, instrument flying videos, and and expert IFR guidance. The goal is to encourage pilots to earn their instrument rating, get current, and enjoy more utility from their pilot certificate.
Limited time IFR Month specials will be available on a variety of products, including Sporty’s Instrument Rating Course. This comprehensive course, newly updated for 2026 with aviation intelligence, is available on virtually all mobile platforms and includes engaging IFR training, free lifetime updates, dedicated test preparation modules, and an extensive IFR reference library.
Sporty’s IFR Month runs through February 28. For more information, and a complete list of content, events and specials, visit Sportys.com/IFR.
https://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/25105635/approach-to-minimums.png10001250IFR Focus Teamhttps://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/14115136/IFR-Focus-Logo_White_Blue_Web-01.pngIFR Focus Team2026-02-06 08:54:102026-02-04 19:36:24February is IFR month at Sporty’s
A simulator is the perfect place to practice judgment, timing, and managing workload when the pressure is on. Our Sim Challenges make it easy to get a good workout—at home—using Microsoft Flight Simulator or X-Plane. Along the way, you’ll answer thought-provoking questions and learn from an expert’s real-world insights.
In this month’s challenge, a short winter flight in Vermont from Rutland (KRUT) to Burlington (KBTV) packs in an IFR procedures workout. It’s also a first-hand look at what cold temperatures can do to your altimeter (and what to do about it).
Welcome to the latest edition of the Instrument Maneuver Spotlight series. In each installment, we focus on a specific maneuver you’ll practice during instrument training—and one you’ll be expected to demonstrate confidently on your checkride.
Few IFR skills are used as often—or taken as much for granted—as intercepting and tracking a GPS course. Whether you’re joining an airway, flying a feeder route, or correcting for wind en route to the next fix, this maneuver sits at the heart of modern IFR flying. In this spotlight, we’ll break down how to properly set up the GPS, select and intercept the desired course, manage intercept angles, and smoothly transition from interception to accurate course tracking—while staying well within standards.
Each maneuver is part of Sporty’s Instrument Rating Course and includes a narrated video animation, along with step-by-step instructions that include performance standards and common errors. Study them while on the ground or print them for quick reference in the airplane.
IFR currency seems simple on paper—six approaches every six months.
IFR currency seems simple on paper—six approaches every six months—but in real flying, what seems black and white can turn gray in a hurry. Do approaches in mostly visual conditions count? What about simulators, vectors to final, or breaking out early?
IFR currency isn’t hard to maintain, but it is easy to misunderstand. The biggest mistakes usually come from assuming that filing IFR or flying an approach automatically makes it loggable. In reality, how you fly the approach matters more than when.
To act as PIC under IFR, an instrument-rated pilot must have logged, within the previous 6 calendar months:
Six instrument approaches
Holding procedures and tasks
Intercepting and tracking courses
That’s the easy part. The nuance is in what actually qualifies.
An instrument approach may be logged toward currency if it’s flown under any of these conditions:
Actual IMC in an aircraft
Simulated IMC in an aircraft (using a view-limiting device and a safety pilot)
FAA-approved simulators or training devices (FFS, FTD, or ATD with a valid LOA)
A combination of the above
The common thread? You must be flying solely by reference to instruments. For an approach to count, it must meet all of these criteria (based on FAA guidance and legal interpretations):
Flown solely by reference to instruments
No outside visual cues—actual or simulated IMC must be real.
Properly established on the approach
Fly the required segments (initial, intermediate, and final), unless ATC vectors allow you to join later.
Flown to MDA or DA
You don’t need to land. If you break out before or at DA/MDA after flying part of the final segment (beyond the FAF) in IMC, it still counts.
Instrument time is logged
You can’t log an approach without logging actual or simulated instrument time alongside it.
What about missed approaches and holds?
The missed approach is not required for logging the approach (but skipping them regularly is not a good idea)
Holds may be flown in the aircraft, simulator or flight training device—published, assigned or simulated are all acceptable
If you ever find yourself debating whether an approach counted, that’s usually your answer. Log approaches honestly, understand the conditions that matter, and treat currency as a minimum standard—not a proficiency goal. You can be perfectly legal and still unprepared or unsafe if you haven’t flown IMC recently, haven’t hand-flown in instrument conditions or haven’t executed a missed approach in months.
https://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/21115627/Ask-an-IFR-Expert-What-actually-counts-towards-IFR-currency.png10001250Eric Radtkehttps://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/14115136/IFR-Focus-Logo_White_Blue_Web-01.pngEric Radtke2026-01-27 08:55:352026-01-21 11:57:32Ask an IFR Expert: What actually counts towards IFR currency?
Practical IFR: Decision Time
/by Jeff Van WestSome decisions don’t allow the luxury of contemplation. Every instrument pilot knows at least one of these decisions in the depths of his or her cloud-flying bones: the missed approach. Making a decision while still descending and a mere 200 feet above the ground (lower for Cat II+) only works because the decision is binary. You see the expected environment and continue—or you don’t and you climb away.
Pre-loaded decisions are a fantastic safety tool, but we so rarely need them that we end up unprepared to effectively use them. This applies to far more than a missed approach, but let’s start there.
Real-world instrument training under the hood leaves pilots woefully unprepared for a real approach with low visibility. This is possibly the best reason to get some real IMC time in training. One-half mile of visibility at 200 AGL on a typical three-degree glide path means you can see the approach lights peeking through the murk, the threshold, and some puddles on the pavement. Scratch the bit about the pavement if it’s night.
To immediately measure visibility the moment you break out, you must know what you expect to see. That’s your yardstick. Is this an ALSF-2 lighting system? Just a MALSR? Maybe this is a non-precision approach with an ODALS? (They’re out there. We have one just down the road from my home base here in Portland, Maine.)
Each of these systems are a different shape and different length from the threshold. You should know how far those lights extend from the threshold and how far you will be from the beginning of those lights. You should see enough of that lighting system, and maybe a specific number of runway lights, to prove that you have the visibility required for continuing below DA/MDA. The point is you must know beforehand how much lighting you expect to see.
You should also know where to look. Crabbing down the localizer in crosswinds, pilots often forget that a ten-degree correction nose-right means those lights will be 10-degrees to the left. Anticipating that removes the moment of confusion when the lights pop-out off center. Or if the lights appear in a different place—or at a weird roll angle—you know something is wrong and a missed approach is the safest action.
The concept becomes more powerful if you expand its use. Take a non-precision approach with a published VDP. The VDP is the last point along the approach where you’ll likely be able to land straight-in without channeling your inner anvil. So know where that point is and watch it by distance on your GPS or by time. A breakout before that point is a pre-loaded straight-in. After that point, it’s a pre-loaded circle-to-land with a pre-chosen runway using a pre-planned path. Or, if you don’t dance circles, it’s a missed at the VDP. This is a decision gate: You have only two choices, and passing the gate only one remains.
This tool can be applied even more broadly. You’re on a base-leg vector to the localizer with a tailwind. At what point will you query ATC about a turn if one isn’t forthcoming? What would you do if the frequency was busy? Use the ident function on your transponder? If you were about to pass through, would you turn inbound or just keep going?
That last one is complicated and has been discussed in IFR Focus #1. But the point is that we can often predict moments where a decision must be made well before we get there. That means we can make an A-B plan, criteria for which option we’ll choose, and a point at which we’ll decide without hesitation.
There are so many places in regular flying where this happens: approaching weather and needing a deviation, requesting a new altitude before entering icy cloudtops, short final when struggling to stabilize the approach, floating on touchdown … it just goes on.
The takeaway on all of these is that a pre-loaded decision before you reach that moment of truth reveals actions that might make a snap decision unnecessary, as well as empowering you to make the right call without hesitation if you must.
Watch this Video
Thunderstorms and Mountain Passes
I learned to fly just south of Boulder, Colorado, and we routinely took 160-hp and 180-hp airplanes up into the mountains for destinations like Crested Butte, Telluride, and even Leadville. Nursing a flight-school Warrior over an 11,000-foot mountain pass is an exercise in patience that culminates with a decision gate.
You approach the pass riding the ridge for extra lift and at an angle to the pass. At the last moment, you decide if you have enough clearance to turn over the ridge, dive down for speed, and cross into the probably-descending air on the other side—or you peel away back around for another attempt.
Later in instrument flying, I found it useful to approach gaps in thunderstorms the same way, at least mentally. Space to turn around isn’t so critical, so approaching head-on is fine. But mentally there’s a distance to the towers on either side I want, and a certain visibility or clearance on the other side I require. That might be visible to the naked eye, or with the right on-board equipment. There’s a spring-loaded course reversal ready until I see what I need to commit on passing through the gap … or not seeing it and turning around to try another plan.
Video Tip: Entering a Hold with ForeFlight Hold Advisor
/by IFR Focus TeamIf weather or an ATC delay requires you to fly a holding pattern, you can use ForeFlight’s Hold Advisor feature to add the details of the hold to the flight plan. If you receive a clearance to hold at a waypoint currently entered in your flight plan, tap that waypoint ID in the Route Editor and select the Hold function. You can then enter the details of the holding clearance, including the inbound or outbound course, either a time or distance, left or right turns, altitude, speeds restrictions, and an expected further clearance time.
This video tip appears in Sporty’s Flying with ForeFlight training course, which features more than three hours of in-depth training on how to use aviation’s most widely used EFB app.
February is IFR month at Sporty’s
/by IFR Focus TeamIFR Month will be celebrated across Sporty’s Media Network including here on IFR Focus. IFR content will include articles, videos, and quizzes on instrument flying topics. Webinar topics include Using a Home Simulator for IFR Training & Proficiency and the Instrument Approach Challenge from PilotWorkshops.
Limited time IFR Month specials will be available on a variety of products, including Sporty’s Instrument Rating Course. This comprehensive course, newly updated for 2026 with aviation intelligence, is available on virtually all mobile platforms and includes engaging IFR training, free lifetime updates, dedicated test preparation modules, and an extensive IFR reference library.
Sporty’s IFR Month runs through February 28. For more information, and a complete list of content, events and specials, visit Sportys.com/IFR.
Sim Challenge: The Lowdown (IFR)
/by Lee SmithSim Challenge: The Lowdown (IFR)
A simulator is the perfect place to practice judgment, timing, and managing workload when the pressure is on. Our Sim Challenges make it easy to get a good workout—at home—using Microsoft Flight Simulator or X-Plane. Along the way, you’ll answer thought-provoking questions and learn from an expert’s real-world insights.
In this month’s challenge, a short winter flight in Vermont from Rutland (KRUT) to Burlington (KBTV) packs in an IFR procedures workout. It’s also a first-hand look at what cold temperatures can do to your altimeter (and what to do about it).
Take the Challenge!
Instrument Maneuver Spotlight: Intercepting and Tracking GPS Courses
/by IFR Focus TeamWelcome to the latest edition of the Instrument Maneuver Spotlight series. In each installment, we focus on a specific maneuver you’ll practice during instrument training—and one you’ll be expected to demonstrate confidently on your checkride.
Few IFR skills are used as often—or taken as much for granted—as intercepting and tracking a GPS course. Whether you’re joining an airway, flying a feeder route, or correcting for wind en route to the next fix, this maneuver sits at the heart of modern IFR flying. In this spotlight, we’ll break down how to properly set up the GPS, select and intercept the desired course, manage intercept angles, and smoothly transition from interception to accurate course tracking—while staying well within standards.
Each maneuver is part of Sporty’s Instrument Rating Course and includes a narrated video animation, along with step-by-step instructions that include performance standards and common errors. Study them while on the ground or print them for quick reference in the airplane.
Ask an IFR Expert: What actually counts towards IFR currency?
/by Eric RadtkeIFR currency seems simple on paper—six approaches every six months.
IFR currency seems simple on paper—six approaches every six months—but in real flying, what seems black and white can turn gray in a hurry. Do approaches in mostly visual conditions count? What about simulators, vectors to final, or breaking out early?
IFR currency isn’t hard to maintain, but it is easy to misunderstand. The biggest mistakes usually come from assuming that filing IFR or flying an approach automatically makes it loggable. In reality, how you fly the approach matters more than when.
The baseline currency requirement (§ 61.57 Recent flight experience: Pilot in command)
To act as PIC under IFR, an instrument-rated pilot must have logged, within the previous 6 calendar months:
That’s the easy part. The nuance is in what actually qualifies.
An instrument approach may be logged toward currency if it’s flown under any of these conditions:
The common thread? You must be flying solely by reference to instruments. For an approach to count, it must meet all of these criteria (based on FAA guidance and legal interpretations):
No outside visual cues—actual or simulated IMC must be real.
Fly the required segments (initial, intermediate, and final), unless ATC vectors allow you to join later.
You don’t need to land. If you break out before or at DA/MDA after flying part of the final segment (beyond the FAF) in IMC, it still counts.
You can’t log an approach without logging actual or simulated instrument time alongside it.
What about missed approaches and holds?
If you ever find yourself debating whether an approach counted, that’s usually your answer. Log approaches honestly, understand the conditions that matter, and treat currency as a minimum standard—not a proficiency goal. You can be perfectly legal and still unprepared or unsafe if you haven’t flown IMC recently, haven’t hand-flown in instrument conditions or haven’t executed a missed approach in months.