Help for IMC!
Intercepting a track to an ADF is going to drive me crazy, I swear it. There’s only so much brain power available for mid-air arithmetic.

Working out the drift and intercept angle, while steering the aeroplane on instruments and listening on the radio, seems out of reach for my poor tired grey cells. But I’ll persevere because it’s just about the last in a whole series of complicated and, at first, mind-boggling mental calculations left to conquer on the way to an IMC Rating.

It’s been made a lot less difficult with the help of the latest release from OATmedia, ‘The IMC Rating & Instrument Flying’. Despite the help of this CD covering both the ground and flight training for the rating, it’s definitely still not easy but it does at least appear possible.

The CD covers all of the ground school required for the UK IMC Rating, which includes a thorough refresher of physiological factors, meteorology, airspace and flight planning. It covers the flight instruments and how to use them when flying on instruments, and coping with various failures. The hard part is using navaids and building up a mental picture of where you are in relation to whichever navaid you’re using, and which procedure. Here, the multimedia used in the CD is excellent, explaining the functions and processes using graphics, small amounts of text and a voiceover. Eventually it sinks in. Then you add drift and it all goes pear-shaped again...

The CD explains clearly the differences in types of ATC, tracking and holding procedures, instrument approaches, and also has a Morse Code tutorial for recognising beacons. Oh, joy of joys.

Books covering the IMC Rating are plentiful but this is the first multimedia CD on the subject and well worthwhile if you’re planning to do the rating, or even if you just want to refresh the subject. Just don’t let the ADF into your dreams.

OAT Media IMC Rating CD
Price: £89.99
Available from Transair Pilot Shop
 01273 466000
 www.transair.co.uk