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instrument to visual transition

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Inept:
For all you instrument rated folks, how do you switch from instrument flight to visual flight?   For the instructors, how do you teach that transition?

   I find that when I'm flying instruments, whether actual or hoodwork, I keep flying on the instruments, even when I'm in the clear and am supposed to be flying visually.   am I the only one who has trouble with this, and does anyone know any good ways to fix this so that I don;t try another instrument Chandelle... :-[

Turbomallard:
I started on my COM not long after my instrument ticket and was still programmed into looking at the panel. At one point a CFI I flew with doing COM manuevers, after getting fed up with telling me to look outside, grabbed my sectional, unfolded it, covered the entire panel, and made me fly COM maneuvers that way. Astonishingly, I flew BETTER on those maneuvers that way. It took a while, but I got de-programmed from staring at the panel. Hope this helps.

TM

C310RCaptian:
Turbo that’s exactly what I had to do. I would put sticky note over the instruments. Another thing I would do is screw up the altimeter, DG and attitude indicator so they ere nowhere near right. I also practiced landings without an airspeed indicator. Works wonders….and makes you a better pilot. Another option(if available) rent an airplane that has very few instruments. Just VFR only panel. That works too. To this day I still find myself looking at the gauges more than I really should but then again I am rarely not on an IFR flight plan.  ;D

fireflyr:
Yep, what Turbo says works wonders,  on more than one occasion I've taken a sectional, covered the entire panel and made the student learn the feel, sights,and sounds of all phases of flight and when they are comfortable with that, the transition back and forth becomes easy.  Go out and practice everything including takeoff and landing with your references completely outside the cockpit.
 
Now if you're talking about the transition at DH, the ONLY instrument you might want to cross check would be the airspeed indicator and since you've been in a stable approach all the way down the ILS AND if you've become comfortable with the above procedure, you won't feel compelled to look inside for anything other than an A/S check, if that!

Of course if you're doing a circling approach, you'll have to expand your scan to include the altimeter but that too will be easier if you're comfortable flying with your eyes outside.

Turbomallard:
The other side of this, for me, was getting back on track with IFR skills. I never used the rating more than a handfull of times after I got it, and though I always kept current on paper so I could file in a pinch while aloft if I got into unexpected conditions, I was more than rusty. Then last fall I decided to go for my CFII and had to relearn everything. What a pain in the tail feathers! I spent over 20 hours getting back in the saddle. I've given 10-15 hours of dual for instrument work, and filed once for a simple flight in actual, but that's been it in the last two months since I got the rating. Next week I'm taking my Arrow on a trip from Illinois to Florida (assuming they get the damned annual done), and am quite intimidated about filing, should I have to... especially flying the last leg down the Florida coast to PMP. (Though to be realistic, that probably won't happen... if it's IFR weather, it will be due to storms, which will be a no-go anyway).

TM

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