For pilots, why is flying on IFR (“Instrument Flight Rating”) so difficult? Can’t a pilot just focus on their instruments and stay oriented and on course?

Question

(Edit: “Rules,” not “Rating.” Sorry.)

Obviously I don’t know beans about flying, but I see many stories about inexperienced pilots who get disoriented flying through clouds, sometimes even to the point of flying upside-down. Aren’t there instruments on your control panel which tell you your speed, altitude, and orientation? How can you be plummeting towards the ground and not notice?

I hope this question isn’t so ignorant as to be insulting. I know flying is difficult and complicated and it’s easy to criticize from here on the ground. I wish I was skilled enough to know how to fly a plane. I just see many stories about accidents where inexperienced pilots seem to be making apparently ridiculous mistakes.

In: Other

Answer 1

basically, you first learn how to fly visual. and like driving, you don’t really realize how much becomes intuitive or subconscious.

When you start learning Instrument flying, you basically have to “unlearn” a lot of that instinct and trust the instruments. It can be incredibly disorienting, especially when training in actual IFR conditions. when you lose your peripheral vision and landmarks you brain plays a lot of tricks on you. everything is telling you the plane is drifting left, so you automatically correct and start banking to the right. It takes a lot of practice and discipline to efficiently scan your instruments and trust your eyes (ironically) instead of every other sensory organ in your body.