AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2024 - 47

It was almost 95 years ago when a pilot first used
instruments to fly an airplane without outside visual
reference.
Most of the names involved in instrument flight
development in the late 1920s are familiar to modern
aviators: Harry and Daniel Guggenheim, Jimmy Doolittle,
Elmer Sperry Jr., Paul Kollsman, and Ben Kelsey were
the original team that made instrument flying, or " blind
flying " as it was called at the time, possible.
The Guggenheim Foundation provided financial
support for the development of aviation in the amount
of $2.6 million, and one of the programs funded was
instrument flight. Paul Kollsman developed the sensitive
altimeter and Elmer Sperry perfected gyroscopic
flight instruments. Instrumentation and equipment
continually improved, and, in the latter half of 1929,
flight test experiments were being designed.
The airplane selected as the flight test bed was a
Navy NY-2 because of its power to handle the weight
of the added equipment and its excellent handling
characteristics. A larger generator was fitted on the
airplane. Eleven instruments were installed in addition
to the engine instruments. These were a magnetic
compass, Earth induction compass (directional reference
from lines of magnetic flux of the Earth), a turn-bank
indicator, a directional gyro, an artificial horizon, an
airspeed indicator, a Kollsman window altimeter, a rate of
climb indicator, an outside air temperature thermometer,
a vibrating reed homing range indicator, and a vibrating
reed marker beacon indicator.
On September 24, 1929, at about 10 in the morning
at Mitchell Field, Long Island, New York, Jimmy
Doolittle climbed into the rear cockpit of the NY-2.
A canvas canopy covered the cockpit. Doolittle was
completely blind to the outside world. In the front
seat of the NY-2 was Kelsey, the first safety pilot in
instrument flying history. Doolittle took off, climbed to
altitude, and flew a rectangular pattern. He navigated
around the pattern using magnetic heading and a
stopwatch. On the final leg of the pattern, he aligned
himself with the runway using a short-range radio
beacon that presented him with an audible tone
for deviations from the course centerline. During
the flight Kelsey in the front cockpit held his hands
outstretched so observers could see he was not flying
the airplane. The flight lasted about 15 minutes and
proved instrument flying was possible.
Another aviation pioneer, William Ocker, was
involved with the early experiments with instrument
flying and wrote the first pilot training manual for
instrument flight. The book was Blind Flight in Theory
and Practice and was first published in 1930, with the
final printing in 1932 (I looked into buying a copy of
the book and found one available for $300). Today our
modern instrument flying books that we use include
the FAA Instrument Flying Handbook, FAA Instrument
Procedures Handbook, Rod Machado's Instrument Pilots
Handbook, and other modern references.
Following the 1959 fatal accident of rock and roll
performers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P.
Richardson with a non-instrument-rated commercial
pilot, an FAA instrument rating has been required for
commercial pilots on most flights. An instrument rating
will make you a better pilot in control of the airplane
and in communication with air traffic control. For
personal-use airplanes the rating reduces your aircraft
insurance rates.
For someone who flies regularly, the instrument
rating can be earned in about 42 hours, including
the checkride. Twenty
of those hours can be
logged in an approved
airplane flight simulator.
The simulator serves as a
better learning device for
initial and currency skills
than the airplane because
you can " freeze the
simulator " and discuss
what is happening with
the simulated flight. The
typical hourly cost of a
simulator is less than half the cost of an airplane.
I was an instructor on a flight a few years ago on a
quiet Sunday morning out of Phoenix, Arizona. Our plan
was to intercept the CACTO Intersection east of Phoenix.
I was discussing our navigation with the student. Then a
voice at air traffic control came up on the radio and said
we were 2 miles east of CACTO. I informed the controller,
" My student and I were just talking about that. " It being
a slow Sunday morning, the controller responded with,
" Let me know when you find CACTO Intersection. " In
a simulator, we could have frozen the simulation and
discussed the prevailing situation rather than flying off
course at 120 miles per hour.
If you are not instrument-rated, talk to your local
flight school about training options that will fit your
schedule and resources. An instrument rating is a good
investment in yourself and your career, whether it is in
aviation or some other activity. An instrument rating
demonstrates that you can accomplish a complicated
and demanding task that looks good on any resume.
Ed Helmick is an 80-year-old active flight instructor with
11,000 hours. He lives in Utah.
AOPA PILOT / January 2024
47
An instrument rating
will make you a better pilot
in control of the airplane
and in communication
with air traffic control.
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2024

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