IFR training

I didn't write about this at the time, but at the end of May last year I was struggling so much with the weather trying to fly in the Western Province that I had to ask for a break from flying in that area. The wet season, which begins around April and continues through to August (plus or minus a month depending on El Nino / La Nina) produces extensive cloud, and especially in the afternoons it can be difficult or impossible to get back to Hagen flying under VFR (visual flight rules).

To their credit, MAF PNG management took my plea seriously, bringing in the crew training manager, flight operations manager, member care etc. (I think they were worried I was going to quit!) Plans were put in place to spread the load of which pilots were being rostered to fly in the Western Province (I had been flying more than twice as often as the next pilot), have me fly in the Hagen area (this had the additional benefit of allowing me to consolidate my D-strip landings following AAT), set up some mentoring/counselling sessions with member care, and recommend that I be nominated as one of the next pilots to go through the IFR training course.

Flying under IFR (instrument flight rules) allows you to fly through weather where you can't see, i.e. clouds, poor visibility. MAF PNG was authorised to conduct single-engine IFR operations in Nov 2022, and pilots were subsequently trained two at a time, starting with those who had in-country IFR experience, and then moving down the list in order of seniority.

IFR is based on being able to maintain terrain clearance at all times. MAF PNG has set up an IFR route structure, which covers most of our operations around the country. These routes go between fixed points and have minimum altitudes we need to fly at.

IFR has some advantages over VFR:

- If the weather at your point of departure and your destination are ok, you can almost always get through.
- Since you can almost always get through, you don't need to carry as much contingency fuel. For example, when flying VFR from Balimo to Hagen, I would plan to land in Hagen with about 800 lb - just in case I got to the last ridge and had to turn around and fly all the way back. Under IFR, the fuel requirements is to land in Hagen with 2 hrs of fuel, or 660 lb. This means I can carry an extra 140 lb of payload on that route.
- In a similar vein, the flight time is more predictable as you can fly in a straight line through the clouds instead of zig-zagging around them. Overall, it's more efficient.
- Similarly, because the flight routing is more predictable, it's less stressful for the pilot (me!)

There are some disadvantages:

- In the highlands, some of the minimum route altitudes are ridiculously high (since the terrain can be over 13,000 ft and for IFR we need to be 2000 ft above the highest point).
- In the Western Province, it's common during the wet season for the cloud base to not get above 1000 ft all day. Under our IFR procedures, although you could take off and fly through the cloud, unless the airstrip has an instrument approach (i.e. Kiunga, Daru, Kikori) with a relatively low minimum descent altitude, the minimum altitude we can go to is higher than 1000 ft so you might not be able to land.
- When carrying passengers, we are generally limited to the MAF routes (since they have been approved by CASA) and can only deviate up to 2.5 nautical miles either side of track. If you have a big CB sitting on your track, you may not be able to fly around it (unless there are other routes you can use instead).

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I was told in August that I would be on one of the IFR courses in early 2024. The schedule was:

- 2 weeks refresher in Mareeba (mid Jan / mid Feb)
- 2 weeks MAF IFR standardisation in Hagen (early Feb / early Mar)
- 3 weeks MAF IFR LOFT (mid Feb-early Mar / mid Mar-early Apr)
- 2-4 weeks MAF IFR supervised experience (mid Mar-early Apr / mid Apr-early May)

We would also have to complete the PNG IR Air Law exam and an online PBN (performance based navigation) course. Since the exams are only offered in Hagen every 2 months, and the same company administers exams in NZ, I made enquiries and was able to sit the exam in NZ during my home assignment.

The other pilot who was scheduled to do the training with me had to pull out due to a medical issue, so I went through it on my own. It worked out pretty well as it gave the trainer extra time to attend to other things that he was working on.

 

Mareeba refresher training

The two weeks of refresher training in Mareeba went well although there were some frustrations with aircraft availability. I had six simulator sessions and three flights, including the flight test. It was also good to catch up with people I knew at MAF and at Tablelands Presbyterian.

Training flight 'under the hood' so I can only see the instrument panel

MAF IFR standardisation

I was the guinea pig, being the first MAF PNG pilot to do the refresher training in Mareeba prior to standardisation - pilots on the two previous standardisation courses, who hadn't flown IFR for several years, found it pretty tough going. However, since the first part of standardisation is refresher, six sessions were removed from my training schedule! I felt like the learning/recall path in Mareeba was pretty steep, and then I realised that even though I had passed the flight test, it wasn't going to let up. I steeled myself for the challenge and took every opportunity to prepare and learn, and it paid off. At the end of the course, I could look back and say, I truly enjoyed it. MAF uses 'scenario based training' and it was satisfying to work out the problems that presented themselves in each scenario. I received really good feedback on my performance too.

IFR standardisation flight - Volkher takes time to
admire the view while I am busy!

IFR LOFT (line-oriented flight training)

This stage of training was done with the crew training manager, Markus. Since the IFR standardisation training is not PNG-specific, during this phase the flights were focused on the MAF PNG routes and procedures. We flew in several different parts of the country - Hagen, Balimo, Kiunga, Tari, Wewak, Telefomin, Vanimo. By the end of it I had managed to get my head around what I could do when I had passengers on board, and the extra flexibility I have when I am only flying cargo or an empty plane.

I also passed 2000 flight hours during our Telefomin tour!

With Markus at Telefomin during IFR LOFT

This kind of weather is great for IFR training, and
incredibly stressful for flying VFR!

IFR supervised experience

The last stage is consolidation of LOFT, although I did continue to learn new things. CASA regulations specify certain minimum instrument flight time experience to fly IFR as pilot-in-command, so for some of the pilots (who did their instrument rating training in flight school and haven't touched it since) their LOFT and supervised experience was a bit longer so that they could build up the necessary hours. Since I had actually used my instrument rating in NZ for a year after gaining it, I already met the minimum requirements, so it was simply a matter of demonstrating proficiency. It also meant that I didn't have to fly under the hood the whole time!

Aircraft instrumentation showing a 54 kt crosswind approaching 9000 ft on climb!