There are a lot of elements in most everything we do with our airplanes. And an instrument approach when the weather is bad might be the flying event with the most elements to consider, if we are to stay ahead of things and earn that right to see the runway and land. General aviation pilots flying piston airplanes haven't been doing too well in the arrival phase of IFR flights, and it is easy to see why. In training and proficiency flying, instrument approaches are often isolated. They are done over and over and are not hooked to the end of a flight. Also, in practice we tend to do the same approaches over and over. As a result, many of the problems in IFR flying come as a pilot is trying to transition from en route into and through the approach at an airport other than home base.
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