Originally Posted by
jonnyjetprop
While crusing around the country side is a fun way to build time, I used the following scheme to build my time. It's called the check as many squares as you can per flight hour program.
Fly at night
Fly under the hood
Fly instrument approaches
Fly to various airports
I did this with another CFI in simple IFR planes, complex planes and twins. We split the cost and flew after our last students. Even though you're not a CFI, you can still split the time with another pilot.
I echo the flying at night part. I loved to fly at night (even now) and I probably had a disproportionate amount of night time to total time back when I started than the usual bear.
I probably jumped headlong into the actual instrument flying right after earning my rating a little quick looking back at it with a more experienced eye now; but since I did make it through unscathed I can call it good experience now. The cross countries in actual conditions to unfamiliar airports was a confidence builder. Even on my VFR corss countries I used Flight Following early on and it paid off later in my training when I had instructors comment on my rapport with ATC. Learning to fly out of controlled fields helped too obviously with my comfort level.
USMCFLYR