10-Day IFR Course Review

I just passed my instrument check ride after 10 awesome days of instruction with Thomas at South Valley Regional in Utah. I had a wonderful experience, and would highly recommend anyone to go through Tom and AFIT.

Pros:

– The same instructor and the same plane every day! The consistency was so helpful and it made a huge difference in being able to successfully pass my check ride first try in only 10 days.

– Tom is so experienced and knowledgeable about flying, especially instrument flying. I appreciated all of his stories and examples of why different things were important.

– Getting the check ride scheduled for me made it less stressful trying to find a DPE (especially since I was coming from a different state). The DPE Tom had me schedule with was perfect. He held me to the standard but he wasn’t trying to make me fail like it sometimes feels with other DPEs. I also don’t know how far in advance most people schedule, but I’m really glad I scheduled out far in advance to make the dpe schedule work.

– Tom worked around my schedule and preferences, ie flying early and since we had 12 days from when we started to my check ride taking two days off to rest.

One suggestion I have is building in one or two days break into the course, especially since we had to fly so early because of the 100+ degree temperatures in Utah for these two weeks. It was so nice to have a short break and refresh, otherwise I feel like I would have shown up at my check ide drained.

I also didn’t fully know what to expect going into the course, it ended up being less intense and strict than I was imagining (perhaps due to my previous military life lol). I’m not sure if others felt that way but I was pleasantly suprised with how nice Tom is and how great his instruction skills are, at least for my learning style.

I have no criticisms of the course. I successfully passed my check ride first try and feel I have a solid understanding of instrument flying. I had a great experience!

Jillian Combs

Colorado Springs, Colorado

• Jillian Combs - Colorado Springs, Colorado