How much study time for the IFR written exam?

Having just gone through this minefield I thought I would pass on how much time is involved. First the basics, I am 57 years old and have not written an exam of this difficulty in 35 years. My brain showed a remarkable capacity to not willingly accept information that it considered useless. Thus study time is much higher then it would have been for me many years ago. I used an online course, Canadian Content, http://www.pilottraining.ca/site/ and the workbook from another source, http://www.aerocourse.com/. I also had all the applicable printed material suggested by Transport Canada.
I did not attend the three day cram course but would have if I had not passed the first written attempt. My thought process was that if I was able to actually understand and learn this stuff on my own I might better retain the information. I made a few key notes that I will be able to review on a regular basis.
How much study time was involved? I worked on it part time Sept. through November and pretty much full time in December and the first 9 days of this month until I wrote the exam on Jan 10th. In the exact same time last year I completely installed, start to finish, the cabin top, doors, windows of an RV10, to paint ready status. The cabin interior was painted and the rear tail glass parts finished and installed. Thats how much time it took me to study for and pass this exam.
How did I do? 86%, and I am pretty happy with my old brain.

Flight test to follow shortly

Good Luck Tom

Not that you will need it but it may be a good idea to do the flight test in a nice slow production airplane that you have familiarity with the systems therein. I would guess the EVO Rocket would add an unnecessary work load. I went the three day accelerated weekend school way for the written and it worked well. The flight training was long and not well enjoyed but I had a good instructor so it was time well spent. When I went for the face to face exam in a room with an examiner before the test flight, that went well because the Instrument Flight Rules make sense to me. It was a conversational one-on-one environment and I just answered what was asked. For the flight test I sweated it a lot because there are so many difficult complications that can be thrown at you and you are dealing with a fluid situation involving your imagination, the inputs and responses with the examiner and the inputs and responses with the air traffic controllers and flying the airplane on instruments. When I went to the airport I found that my airplane could not fly and I had to go in an airplane that I had never been in before with strange (to me) radios. I could have backed out but there is no way I wanted to go back into the training environment waiting for my instructor to decide when it is time to try again. Fortunately I passed because the demands were pretty straight forward. Real goal oriented IFR operations in mild conditions are easier than the IFR flight tests can be but less forgiving.

Good Luck

Bob Axsom

IFR

I didn't want to go through what you did plus running my business I just didn't have the time. I did the American Flyers 3 day written followed by the intense 10 day course 10years ago, I remember being very very brain dead after the course but it was worth it saving time and money.

Take as much time as you need. The instrument rating and written contain a ton of new information that you have previously not had any use for. The good news about the instrument rating is that the commercial rating will be much more enjoyable by comparison.

Tom Martin said:

My brain showed a remarkable capacity to not willingly accept information that it considered useless.

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My wife tells me my brain has the same "remarkable capacity".

snowbird said:

My wife tells me my brain has the same "remarkable capacity".

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Mine too! Took the IFR written a couple of weeks ago. I used Sportys study buddy supplemented by ASA droid app. Now on to cramming for the oral. Good luck everyone!

Tony

Tom Martin said:

How did I do? 86%, and I am pretty happy with my old brain.

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Way to go, Tom. I plan to do the same in the next couple years. Same age as you, wonder how much my brain will atrophy in the next two years .

I'm two months behind you

Started studying for my (US) IFR written in November. John & Martha King, Jeppesen, and the FAA handbooks... when my old brain won't hold any more, I surf VAF to remind me why.

After studying pneumatic system theory, potential failure points, and partial panel ops, tonight's revelation is I don't want to build a vacuum-powered IFR RV.