One of the biggest perks of having an instrument rating is being able to fly “in the system”.

That means playing by the rules of the big boys — and not having to worry about things like airspace or clouds. Flying here, in the airspace alphabet soup of the Washington D.C. area, that’s a huge benefit for longer cross country flights (especially those that cross the SFRA).

But flying in the system can also be intimidating, especially if you don’t get a chance to do it often. I recently posted a few videos for IFR students, including one that shows flying IFR real IMC conditions. One I didn’t include was a video that I took while “hunting” for some IMC to fly in — this flight didn’t get more than a quick blip of actual conditions, but I edited it down anyway to include all of the ATC radio communications involved in a typical IFR cross country flight.

It was also a chance to test a new two-camera setup for recording flights going forward…

Enjoy:

IFR to LNS from Checkride or Bust on Vimeo.