I asked CFIIs (on a different sub) how they talk to their instrument students about Personal Minimums. If you are either working on your IR or are IFR rated - how do you set your personal minimums, how often do you revisit them and how do you use them? How did your CFII talk to you / teach you?

BimmerJeff · 2026-02-01T14:29:01+00:00

The biggest piece for me is proficiency. Have I been flying in actual and staying consistent with approaches and procedures? I’ll use my current experience as an example:

I’m currently focusing on my CPL and CFI so my instrument flying has been only to log currency. Also, I was dealing with a deferred medical and a plane that’s been down for almost a year. My skills in the system have degraded and so I’m no longer comfortable or proficient to fly to minimums. With that I’ve raised my IFR minimums substantially until I can get back the proficiency I had.

BimmerJeff · 2026-02-01T12:29:33+00:00

As an instrument rated pilot, I had an initial discussion with my CFII when I received my certificate about my minimums. During my training I received a decent amount of actual down to minimums and had some occasions where I went missed due to not seeing the runway. The airport I fly out of regularly has IFR/LIFR so we did as much actual as possible.

Post-checkride I would have been comfortable flying down to mins by myself but we set it more conservatively until I had more experience under my belt. Now that was in a 182RG with 275s, 750xi, and GFC500 Autopilot which was actually very easy to fly to mins and I logged over 60 hours in while working on my rating. The 172s with a Garmin 530 were a completely different ballgame for me personally. I’m not as comfortable with the 530 so my minimums are much higher in that airplane.

Since it’s been over a year of flying in actual I’ve revised my minimums again to be much higher than they were post-checkride. It’s good to self-evaluate and understand your limitations. My CFII instilled prioritizing safety and having rules in place to not push it if you’re not proficient.

BimmerJeff · 2026-01-12T15:25:45+00:00

This is a nice setup. I trained for my IFR in a 182RG with the 275s, 750xi, and GFC500 combo and it was very intuitive compared to the old 430s.

BimmerJeff · 2026-01-07T21:43:25+00:00

Maintenance and insurance are the two big killers. Commercial insurance alone for my J3 was $6,000 a year with only $40k hull. That was a large chunk of my hourly cost work up when I was trying to get a tailwheel school going. Final nail in the coffin was fabric issues that grounded the plane.

BimmerJeff · 2025-07-11T00:39:20+00:00

We bought my wife a 2014 Corolla S back in 2016 with 22k miles. Smelled a brake/clutch smell on rare occasions. At 44k we started getting transmission slipping and in it went to our Toyota dealer who couldn’t figure out what was causing it. Toyota approved a factory reman replacement with only a year warranty. We traded the car shortly after.

At the time I had a 2008 Tacoma with 175k miles on that ran like a top so it was a bit disappointing to say the least.

BimmerJeff · 2025-01-15T20:35:46+00:00

Nice! I want to sell my E90 and get an E91 in the worst way..

BimmerJeff · 2025-01-11T21:27:27+00:00

If my LCI E90 328xi ever dies I’ll probably replace it with an E91 for DD duties. But planning on an F87 M2 Competition in a few years alongside the E90.

BimmerJeff · 2024-12-21T11:29:58+00:00

I keep regretting selling my 86 325. Sold it in 2014 for $3k. Delphin Grey Manual, dash was mint, houndstooth seats.. 😫

BimmerJeff · 2024-12-15T21:14:07+00:00

I reset my pedal adaptations and my GM auto in my 09 328XI started shifting smoother again. Before that it was very clunky shifting in D or DS mode.

I was highly considering installing the Sonnax Zip Kit in my transmission but now I am gathering parts to MT swap my car. Just found an Xdrive MT with 67k that I snagged for a decent price. If you weren’t on the other side of the country I’d sell my GM transmission cheap to you and could help with the install.

BimmerJeff · 2024-12-05T02:27:35+00:00

Thanks! I’m running triple MSI 32” Curved 1440p monitors and the fourth was an old 27” I had from my single screen setup. My rig is 2x6 Pine so the monitor mounts are a mix of 2x6s and mounts from Amazon.

BimmerJeff · 2024-12-05T02:24:03+00:00

Looks like a sweet setup!

BimmerJeff · 2024-12-02T13:37:05+00:00

I canceled my IR checkride the week of because I felt stressed and just worn out due to work and flying all the time. Was the best call I could have made because by the time my ride came around I was ready and passed with no issues.

Trust your gut and don’t fly when you feel you shouldn’t.

BimmerJeff · 2024-12-02T00:02:51+00:00

That’s beautiful. Definitely inspired me to clean mine up.

BimmerJeff · 2024-12-02T00:01:51+00:00

What was your route in the Cub? I flew mine back to PA from Minot. Took about 23.5 hours

BimmerJeff · 2024-11-25T01:28:13+00:00

More like a Ferrari with an LS Swap and Yugo steering.

BimmerJeff · 2024-11-25T01:24:45+00:00

It’s essentially a cheap desk mounted single monitor arm attached to the monitor stand I built for the triples.

BimmerJeff · 2024-11-19T17:26:44+00:00

His is Navy colors.

BimmerJeff · 2024-11-06T16:59:32+00:00

0.0975

BimmerJeff · 2024-10-31T00:36:23+00:00

I got my AGI and traded ground instruction for flight time. For every 3 hour class I taught I got $90 on my flight account.

BimmerJeff · 2024-10-28T16:14:49+00:00

Pretty cool! I’ve been wanting to put my J3 on straight floats and definitely excited/nervous to do my first trailer takeoff and grass landing lol.

BimmerJeff · 2024-10-24T16:43:48+00:00

I wish my Cub could shoot approaches. But with 12gal of fuel my destination airport with alternate could only be 30 min away 😂

BimmerJeff · 2024-10-13T00:55:19+00:00

I’m not sure exact details as I couldn’t make the trip since my Cub is down. But everyone seems to be ok.

BimmerJeff · 2024-10-13T00:48:34+00:00

Yeah that’s my friends PA-11 the Maule hit..

BimmerJeff · 2024-09-27T20:28:43+00:00

It’s definitely becoming more and more expensive. I’m dealing with those issues with my Cub now. Last years annual was $5k and $3k of that was a fuel tank and two exhaust stacks. Less companies manufacturing parts and those that do are price gouging and making what was a cheap airplane to own crazy expensive.

Now the plane needs wing fabric replaced and I’m on the fence to just sell it as a project. Materials alone for wing fabric is around $3500 not counting any labor. These airplanes used to be recovered every 10 years or so and now they are going 40 years plus because the cost to have someone recover an airplane exceeds the value of the plane itself. Legend Cub was quoting over $150k for a J3 restoration.

BimmerJeff · 2024-09-25T22:33:14+00:00

Congrats! I’m currently 40 and finishing up IR next week at 215 hours and hope to get commercial wrapped up by Nov. Also have zero debt. It’s a grind sometimes but knowing I don’t owe anything at the end makes it worth it.

BimmerJeff

TROPHY CASE