by Bruce Chien

You can often complete an instrument flight successfully if something goes wrong with the airplane, the weather isn’t what you expect or you make some mistakes in flying the approach. Sometimes, however, the wrong combination of circumstances or a poorly prepared pilot generate an accident report that blames “improper IFR.”

Simply put, improper IFR is a bureaucrat’s catchall condemnation that you didn’t do it right. It can mean the procedure turn was on the wrong side (meaning improper side of the fix) into unprotected space. It can mean the airplane descended below minimums with consequences. It can mean going more than 10 nm out on the procedure turn into…