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

With modern technology on a jumbo jet, planes can basically fly themselves on instruments. But that’s not usually the case with basic propeller planes. Flying IFR the old fashioned way is like playing a giant game of marco polo using radio signals. You can tell the direction of the beacons, but you still need to use a map and other information from the instruments to navigate. Then when it’s time to land, you add a third dimension and need to rely on radio signals and instruments to tell where the plane is relative to the ground and runway. It’s a lot of quick math and angles, along with correctly entering all the waypoints by hand, all in addition to flying the plane.