Welcome to IFR Focus: Sharpen Your Skills, Master the System

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IFR Focus is a new destination dedicated entirely to the art and science of flying in the system. Whether you’re an experienced IFR pilot looking to stay sharp or a student climbing toward that checkride, you’ll find practical content here to help you fly safer, smoother, and smarter.

Practical IFR: “Cleared to Intercept?” A Common IFR Dilemma

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You haven’t been cleared for the approach, but the needle is alive and time is short. Learn how to handle this tricky IFR moment without risking a violation—or a missed approach.

8 IFR SOPs That Could Save Your Life

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Do you fly with SOPs? Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are commonly used in the corporate and airline flying world as a way of formalizing the do's and don'ts of a flight department and making sure every pilot follows the same procedures. I'm generally suspicious of SOPs in life, because they limit your ability to be flexible and react creatively to life's inevitable changes (we all like our freedom). But when it comes to IFR flying, I believe SOPs are a critical safety tool.
Clearance

How to get an IFR clearance at a non-towered airport

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Flying a light airplane offers access to thousands more airports than the airlines serve, which means you can land closer to your destination, avoid long taxi routes, and save time. For an instrument pilot, though, there is one key difference between a smaller, non-towered airport and a larger one with an air traffic control tower: obtaining an IFR clearance.

How to prepare for instrument checkride day

Communication is key to the examiner understanding your thought process and decision making. Checkrides have plenty of emotion and pressure that will hopefully allow you to excel. Don’t bring unnecessary pressure or emotion to the flight by overreaching or trying to do too much. Fly like you’ve trained and be the PIC.

IFR Holding Procedures Explained: A Pilot’s Guide to Holding Patterns

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Maximum holding speeds in knots indicated airspeed (KIAS) have been designated for specific altitude ranges. Often pilots can avoid flying a holding pattern or reduce the length of time spent in the holding pattern, by slowing down on the way to the holding fix.

Keeping One Step Ahead of ATC when flying IFR

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Gone are the days of making an educated guess on a route, only to have ATC respond with a full route clearance with intersections and airways. It now takes only a moment in ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot or FltPlan.com to enter a departure and destination airport and then see recently issued clearances to other aircraft flying the same route.