It turns out that there is no legal requirement for the instructor to be familiar with the avionics being presented for the IPC. Beyond flight time in the make and model of aircraft flown, it’s entirely up to you, the pilot, to be able to manipulate the panel to accomplish the tasks required to complete the flight(s).
We are all a product of our upbringing, and aviation is no exception. Your lens on learning is created by your CFI from the first time you sit in the airplane. On that day, they set the tone for the transmission of information.
Retention makes the difference between success and failure in the classroom. Retention is driven mainly by emotional and psychological engagement. Your brain must be perfectly and correctly stimulated for you to learn something. Information delivered at a trickling garden hose pace will have you falling asleep at your desk.
I clearly couldn’t hear what she was trying to say to me, so she had the wisdom to leave her ego at the door that day and line up another instructor who she thought could take the same concept and say it in a way that would somehow get through to me. In essence, she brought in another stone mason.
First, we could see the top of the plane and the top tip of the tail through the gaps in the tops of the trees. Then the windshield, then the wings, and then over the whine of the engine there was a ‘CRACK’ and the plane shuttered. The nose rose sharply then sank. ‘CRACK’ ‘CRACK’ ‘CRACK’ it began to shear out the tops of the trees as the nose pitched further and further down.
Would it be VFR by the time I got there? Maybe… maybe not. Sure I’m instrument current, but is that good enough? Maybe… maybe not. It’s legal, but legal isn’t always smart. So, with full tanks I taxied back to the hangar and, after some light ribbing from my flip-flop-wearing buddy who questioned my judgment on such a perfect day, we heaved her back into the hangar.