The Art of Instrument Flying

What's quite helpful are the presentations on enroute and approach planning and flying. When I was paging through this book, that was what I was interested in anyway. Williams does a nice job in giving you the lowdown from someone whose done these tasks thousands of times. If you've been up in the cockpit with an approach chart, you know that being able to look at the chart and just "know" what to do is what counts...and this book will help you get to that point.

A great book on instrument flying. I'd also check out a guide written by Ralph Butcher called "Instrument Pilot Flight Training Manual", which Amazon sells. More excellent practical real-world instrument flying information.

Safe flying!

Tom


Good, but needs Update   November 18, 2000
I originally bought this book some years ago. The 3rd Edition is now out dated. JR Williams does an excellent job of teaching an old instrument pilot how things should be done...the airline way! I'd highly recommend this text if it were current. I don't know if old JR is still with us, but if he is, he should definitely update the text and issue 4th Edition.


Dated, but provides good analysis on charts and navigation   August 27, 2000
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

The first third of "The Art of Instrument Flying" is a primer on attitude instrument flying and is very similar to the FAA Instrument handbook, but more readable. In my opinion, it didn't add much insight, however.

The second third competently explains topics in IFR navigation and chart reading, with chapters covering en-route and approach segments for both NOS and Jeppesen charts. Charts and navigation are the strength of the book.

The last part includes information on different kinds of navigation. While this is interesting reading, some of these (LORAN, Omega navigation) are obsolete while others (Flight Director) would not be available in any of the medium or low-end aircraft.

Overall, "Art of Instrument Flying" ranks somewhere in the middle of the pack. I personally prefer the Rob Machado and William Kershner IFR books.

As far as texts go, there are better choices for learning the IFR system


Great Intro to IFR   July 7, 1999
 7 out of 8 found this review helpful

I bought this to help me with Microsoft Flight Simulator. In that respect it deserves 5 stars, helping you to interpret the maps and diagrams better than the miserable help file in FS. For real "hardware" flying, it may be a bit sparse in some areas. Easy read for a neophyte.


Starts out with good basics but geared to ATP types   April 3, 1999
 2 out of 4 found this review helpful

I really liked how he started this book but found that as it went on I was wanting for more detail as it relates to privte pilots and not air traffic types Generaly a good book for first time instrument types