By Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

One of the few drawbacks to getting and using the Instrument rating is the regulatory and practical need to maintain currency. If you fly a lot and in all kinds of weather, you may be lucky enough to accumulate the required experience in the alloted time. Most of us, however, either don’t fly that much or, when we do fly, the weather isn’t bad enough to count. Even if it is, the visual or contact approaches are much more common—and more convenient for operators and for ATC—than doing the full procedure. …