Instrument Scan Trainer
Six-pack environment: maintain awareness and identify changing indications in timed and scenario exercises with feedback.
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Explore first. Pick a phase of flight and the panel rings the instruments the Instrument Flying Handbook makes primary (cyan) and supporting (purple) for pitch, bank and power: in straight-and-level flight the altimeter is primary for pitch, the heading indicator for bank and the airspeed indicator for power; in a constant-airspeed climb the airspeed indicator becomes primary for pitch; in a constant-rate climb or descent the vertical speed indicator is primary for pitch and the airspeed indicator for power; in an established standard-rate turn the turn coordinator is primary for bank. The attitude indicator supports almost everything and is where every correction is made. Control and performance shows the other way to learn it: set attitude and power on the control instruments, read the result on the performance instruments.
Scan pattern draws the three cross-checks the handbook describes - selected radial (out from the attitude indicator and back), inverted-V and rectangular - with the eye moving along the path. Watch a change plays any exercise on the panel: a 2° pitch drift, a wing dropping, the power falling, or a failure that gives no flag - a vacuum failure (the attitude and heading indicators wander while the turn coordinator, altimeter and VSI disagree with them), a blocked pitot tube or static port, or the electric turn coordinator stopping in a turn. The instruments that change are ringed as their change becomes visible.
Scan practice runs six timed exercises. The airplane flies a phase; at a moment you do not know, something changes. Tap the first instrument that shows it - on the panel or with the instrument buttons - then answer what it means, which instrument is primary for that axis in this phase, and what to do. Detection is worth up to 40 points: the full 40 within 2 seconds of the first visible change, falling in a straight line to 10 points at 12 seconds, and 10 points for any later detection up to the 25-second limit, after which the exercise counts as missed (0 for detection). The answers are worth 60. An early tap costs 5 points. The point values are platform conventions, not FAA figures.
Assumption and limits: the airplane is a Cessna 172S model built from its Information Manual (POH/AFM Rev. 5) data - 2550 lb, flaps up, standard atmosphere, no wind, coordinated flight - see Pitch-Power-Performance for the model. The power gauge is a generic percent-of-rated-power instrument standing for the airplane's power instrument (in the C172S the tachometer). Failures follow the IFR Trainer's Instrument Failures model (PHAK chapter 8): no warning flags, a vacuum failure shown ten times faster than it may develop. Drifts are applied slowly to the pilot's controls. What counts as a visible change, the 25-second limit and the scoring are platform conventions. For training only: the handbook says no specific cross-check method is recommended - use the instruments that give the best information for the maneuver.
Primary and supporting instruments are those of the FAA Instrument Flying Handbook, FAA-H-8083-15B, chapter 6 (pp. 6-4 to 6-10: pitch, bank, power and trim instruments; "Altimeter--supplies the most pertinent altitude information and is primary for pitch", the heading indicator primary for bank, the airspeed indicator primary for power in level flight) and chapter 7 Section I (Figures 7-22 straight-and-level, 7-26 constant-airspeed climb, 7-27 constant-rate climb, 7-29 level-off, 7-33 standard-rate turn, with their text on pp. 7-10 to 7-20). Figure 7-30, captioned a constant-airspeed descent, labels the vertical speed indicator primary for pitch and the airspeed indicator primary for power - the assignment the text on p. 7-17 gives for a constant-rate descent; the trainer follows the text and names no primary power instrument for the constant-airspeed descent, which the text does not give. Control and performance: chapter 6 p. 6-2. Cross-check patterns and common errors (fixation, omission, emphasis): pp. 6-11 to 6-13. The pitch correction of at most one-half bar width: p. 6-5; "the attitude indicator, if available, should be used to make the adjustment": p. 6-7.
The airplane is the platform's Cessna 172S point-mass model (drag polar, full-throttle thrust and power lapse fitted to the POH cruise and climb tables; lift, stall and lags stated as model values), trimmed at each phase's targets: 105 KIAS level at 5,000 ft, a full-throttle climb at 74 KIAS (POH best rate of climb), 500 fpm climbs and descents at 90 KIAS, a 700 fpm descent at 90 KIAS, and a standard-rate level turn (17° of bank at 105 KIAS). Drifts change the pilot's pitch by 2°, bank by 6° (8° in a turn) or power by 12 points; the instruments then show what the model flies, the VSI with its lag (PHAK p. 8-7). Failures use the IFR Trainer's Instrument Failures model unchanged - pitot blocked with the drain open (airspeed to zero), pitot and drain blocked (the airspeed acts like an altimeter), static port blocked (altimeter frozen, VSI zero, airspeed high in a descent), vacuum (attitude and heading indicators wander), electric turn coordinator (needle to zero, the ball still working) - after PHAK FAA-H-8083-25C pp. 8-10, 8-11, 8-15 and 8-21; the actions follow the PHAK, the IFH partial-panel text (p. 7-36) and the C172S POH (p. 3-16 vacuum failure: rely on the turn coordinator; p. 3-18 static source blocked: pull the alternate static source ON).
- FAA Instrument Flying Handbook, FAA-H-8083-15B (2012, with the Errata of 10 October 2014, Addendum A April 2015 and Addendum B November 2019; current on faa.gov, read 17 October 2026), chapter 6 Section I pp. 6-2 to 6-13 (control and performance method; primary and supporting method: pitch, bank, power and trim instruments; "Altimeter--supplies the most pertinent altitude information and is primary for pitch", heading indicator primary for bank, airspeed indicator primary for power; pitch corrections of at most one-half bar width; instrument cross-check: selected radial, inverted-V and rectangular patterns; fixation, omission and emphasis)
- FAA Instrument Flying Handbook, FAA-H-8083-15B, chapter 7 Section I pp. 7-10 to 7-20 and Figures 7-22, 7-26, 7-27, 7-29, 7-30, 7-33 (primary and supporting instruments in straight-and-level flight, airspeed changes, constant-airspeed and constant-rate climbs and descents, level-offs and standard-rate turns) and p. 7-36 (partial panel flight)
- FAA Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, FAA-H-8083-25C (2023), chapter 8 pp. 8-7 (VSI trend and rate, the 6-9 second lag), 8-10, 8-11 (blocked pitot and static systems), 8-15, 8-21 (vacuum-driven attitude and heading indicators, the electric turn coordinator)
- Cessna Model 172S Information Manual 172SIM incorporating the Pilot’s Operating Handbook and FAA Approved Airplane Flight Manual, Revision 5 (19 July 2004), P/N 172SPHUS05: Figure 2-2 airspeed indicator markings (p. 2-5), p. 3-16 Emergency Operation in Clouds (total vacuum system failure), p. 3-18 Static Source Blocked, and the Section 5 performance data behind the airplane model - aircraft data, Model 172S only
- Instrument Rating Airman Certification Standards FAA-S-ACS-8C (November 2023) IR.IV.A (instrument flight: cross-check and interpretation; normal and abnormal instrument indications)
- Model choices of this tool (stated on the page): the C172S point-mass model and its trimmed phases, the drift sizes, the generic power gauge, the IFR Trainer failure model with the vacuum failure time-compressed ten times, what counts as a visible change, the 25-second limit and the scoring