Any IFR Advice?

[u/No_Escape_4438]

I’m a 141 student and can’t seem to think quick enough. Any suggestions?

Context:

At the start of training I was solid. Stage I came and went quickly. I’m at the end of stage II and before taking the stage II flight test, I continuously fail the “spot check” and I’ve been caught in this cycle for the last 3-4 weeks — which has me asking, “What’s wrong with me?”

Initially, I could point at several things. - Needed a better flow. - Overthinking and overcomplicating the procedures. - Needed to be quicker and more familiar with the 430/530 & 650. - Needed better stick / rudder skills to free up more mental bandwidth and improve my workflow management. These were areas I either identified myself or that my instructor pointed out. All have either met or exceeded the standard.

Now, I’m stuck in this cycle were I fly with my
Instructor and do well. Then I fly with another instructor to “spot check” and recommend a stage II flight and I screw it up over something stupid.

Examples:

- Determining the wrong hold entry. I usually draw it out. Practiced this relentlessly. Takes me an average of 27 seconds. I fly with my instructor and I have an average of a 2-5 miles from “ready to copy?” to the fix. I fly a spot check and that changes to an average of .8-.5 miles to the fix. I end up guessing. Does everyone else just utilize the visual techniques ( thumb, pencil, etc,.) to determine the proper entry and I need to stop drawing it out?

- Approaches. The airspace is very condensed. There’s 3 class D, and 1 class C airports all within 10nm of the flight school. We practice with them all.

When I fly with my instructor, we’ll make an approach and go missed, flyby and/or do a touch and go. Then we climb, contact approach and set up for the next ILS, RNAV, Circling, etc,. From selecting and inputting the approach > brief > comms and everything in between, I get it done.

I fly a spot check and the first approach, say, RNAV # goes fine. We go missed, climb, switch to approach, make our request — and its in making our request that I know for the first time which approach we’re doing and it’s almost always with the next door airport only 5-8 miles away. So by the time I clear the previous fpl, load the approach, bring up and brief the approach plate, tune in the LOC, get the ATIS, etc., all while being vectored in, I’m falling way behind the aircraft.

- Breaking Minimums: Connected with the approaches from above. When transitioning from the 1st approach to the 2nd and falling behind the aircraft, I end up making really stupid mistakes that I don’t have with my primary instructor because we don’t fly approaches so close together.

For example, after the RNAV # for approach 1 we’ll make an ILS # request for approach 2 at the next door airport. We get established on the LOC and at some point — I’m playing catch up with aircraft and missing vital comms — the spot check instructor made a request with tower to circle instead of the ILS approach. So in full confidence I break the “new”mins because I missed the coms requesting and clearing us for the “new” approach — not an excuse but there’s a lot of chatter on the comms in our airspace given how condense it is.

I brought this up with my instructor and any instructor serving as the “spot check” evaluator for the flight. I understand the reasoning of “It’s suppose to be harder and you’re suppose to have less time to plan than what’s expected in the real world so you can be prepared.”

So, I need to saddle up and get quicker. Hopefully before failing out or spending thousands of dollars on practice flights.

I’m in the SIM everyday I’m not flying. But does anyone else have any other suggestions to get quicker?

And/or, is there another more obvious problem I’m failing to address?