PackFlier

Disclaimer: Maneuvers discussed in this post are for training purposes only!  Do not attempt without the assistance of an experienced and qualified instrument instructor.

I have been focusing on my cross country time building lately. Time to get back in the cockpit with my instructor. As the title says, Das radio kaputt!!  Today’s lessons were about emergencies.

I had a feeling something was up when my instructor texted me that I need to plan a flight to Siler City (KSCR) and that I needed to plan an alternate because the weather at TTA was zero zero.  The translation here is that the airfield is completely weathered in, ceilings of zero ft and visibility of zero ft.  Think of thick fog.  I am sitting next to a window, staring at the clear blue sky thinking my instructor has cracked.  Not really, I figured it was a *hint* *hint*.

I remember us discussing early in my training, one day I would perform a take-off with foggles on and also do a zero/zero landing with foggles on.

This is not something that you want to ever have to do. The idea is to prove that if you are ever faced with dire circumstances, this is a tool in your bag that could potentially save your life.

It wasn’t all peachy, as I said before, today was about emergencies.  I am also getting to the phase in my training where I should be tightening things up.  Today proved I still have a little ways to go.

During the run-up, I was trying to get back in the groove, setting the radios, testing the autopilot, etc.  During the autopilot disconnect testing, I got two of the disconnect methods:

• Turn off the autopilot from the autopilot itself
• Disconnect button on the yoke

I missed the other two methods:

• Trim switch will disengage
• AutoPilot circuit breaker

I didn’t take this too hard, I have never really used the autopilot and the last time I fully tested it was my first lesson.  However today we were going to use it, so it must be tested.

Before take-off, I finished setting up the radios, flight plan KTTA-KSCR (More on this), run-up, etc.

I wrote C-R-A-F-T on my kneeboard in anticipation of getting my mock clearance and then I muttered something like, “Well, I guess I can taxi to 21 before getting the clearance in case it is an immediate departure clearance”. Teachable moment coming.

Once I taxi’d to Runway 21, I then confidently announced.  ” ********* approach, 72675 would like to pick up my clearance”.  “uh, 72675, where are you?”  Doh, I needed to say that I was TTA and positioned to take of runway 21.  After this reminder I completed the query. “Ok, 72675, stand-by”  Teachable moment coming!

My instructor then says “Well, they put you on hold for a bit, as they do, and now about 10 airplanes lined up behind us waiting to take off”  I should have gotten my clearance on the ramp and not wait until I was ready to depart.  These are all good nuggets and will become more engrained as I fly in the system more often.

“72675, cleared to LIB VOR, Altitude 3000, stay on ***** approach frequency, squawk 1200, current time 1645, Clearance void by 1647, call me back if not off by 1649”

I read back the clearance and then made a mistake because I was a little crunched on time to get lined up on the runway for a foggles on, zero/zero take-off. I imagine my instructor did this on purpose as well.  Previously, I configured the GPS for KTTA-KSCR not KTTA to LIB VOR.  Once I departed runway 21, I then realized, I have no idea what my course is and quickly started fumbling with the gps. In a turn no less.  I overshot the course by about 45 degrees.  I hear my instructor, “Uh 72675, where are you headed?”  What I should have done is turned to a point North westerly then configured the gps course.  Trying to do it in a turn was too much load on my brain.

Once on course, I hear my instructor doing his best garbled transmission play acting.  It took 2 or 3 times before I responded and then we walked through what to do.  I was able to slowly work through possible solutions:

• Try my other radio, nothing but static
• Key the mic and see if others can hear me to relay, nothing but static
• Switch to another approach frequency, nothing but static
• change to guard channel 121.5, nothing but static

Now this is where we follow lost comms procedures. At this point I feel a little bit like this guy:

We were only cleared to LIB VOR.  So we have to hold there until our expected arrival time.  We take our departure time and then add our enroute time to the destination and that will be the time in which we can leave the hold once we reach LIB VOR.  As we neared, it was apparent that we would arrive to the VOR after this expected time, so we can perform the procedure turn and then begin inbound to land at KSCR.

As I neared the Circle to land minimums, I goofed by trying to fly the missed too early.  Another good lesson, fly the minimums until you reach the airfield, because the clouds could clear up right when you arrive.  Anyway, back on the missed I turned toward the LIB VOR and we discussed the sector minimum altitude since I am not on an airway. I blew this at first as well because I wasn’t paying attention to which side of the airfield I was located.  Another good lesson.

We discussed, well, what next?  We filed alternate at RDU but it looks socked in and TTA is improving, so we load up the RNAV 21 approach with OZOPE IAF and I turn back toward TTA.  At this point, I ask questions about being predictable to ATC.  They already know we are lost comms since we are squawking 7600.  They are busy clearing airspace around us as we move so it is important to be predictable.

Amazingly, the radios come back and I get a lesson on how the autopilot works. We set up for a coupled RNAV 21 approach.  Honestly, I spent the whole time trying to second guess the autopilot, but it was nice to have free hands and a little head room to focus on getting the approach ready.

Once we are pointed at our final approach fix, my instructor says, “Hmmm, no LPV,  LNAV only, that’s odd”.  With no glideslope, I would need to perform the stepdowns using the autopilots altitude control.  No riding down the glideslope for free.  This was good practice on how to get stepped down and still using the autopilot to help out.

At about 2 miles out, I disconnected the autopilot, flew to minimums and then performed a touch and go.

Once back in the air, I was given vectors back to the RNAV 21 final approach fix at WIZNY.  Magically, LPV was now working again.  Without going into detail, my instructor disabled WAAS before I loaded my previous approach and enabled during the middle of said approach.  However, in order to get LPV back, you need to resequence the approach.  Once we added the RNAV 21 back into the gps, LPV was working again.  Another good lesson because you never know what the previous pilot may have done or previous instructor… or your current instructor!

Now the fun begins. The moment of truth.  Am I ready?
I am on the glidepath for a zero/zero landing on Runway 21.  I slow the airplane to 70 and drop 10 degrees of flaps.  This configuration would take me to the promised land.

I was hyper focused on keeping the vertical and horizontal lines on the CDI perfectly on target.  There was some drift left and right but not too bad.  I got a little low on the vertical and compensated by being a little bit high.  That is better than low but need to keep it close

I wasn’t nervous but really sweaty!

We neared the runway, I am holding the vertical and horizontal needles on the CDI in the middle.  We are now nearing the touchdown altitude of 230.  At around 245 on the altimeter, I begin the round out and hold level….. holding …. holding….  holding, then I feel the wheels touch down.  OMG!  We are on the runway. Looking up from my foggles, we are about 10-15 feet left of centerline but safely on the runway!  I did it!  It was a crazy cool feeling that I was able to make this happen fully under the foggles.  I didn’t peek, it was a complete surprise.  Honestly, one of my better landings with my instructor on board, lol.

As we taxi’d back, I was on cloud nine.  I had so much to unpack on this lesson, that I needed to wait a few hours and dump my thoughts into this blog.  To be sure, I missed some details but hit the big lessons for today.

I don’t ever want to be in an emergency situation where I would have to land in zero/zero conditions but it is good to know that I do have the capability and it could potentially be a life saving tool.

 

 

 

Today was yet another time building flight but it became so much more.  Dodging weather and ADM (Aeronautical Decision Making) became the lesson of the day.  The weather forecasts look pretty good for this flight.  Early morning fog would burn off to few/scattered around 10,000′.  It was also forecast that near the NC/SC border, clouds would start to build around 1pm and a chance of some thunderstorms. It was to remain pretty clear, scattered 6000 along the coast. We made the decision to head south first to avoid these build ups.

We planned a route TTA -> CRE (N. Myrtle Beach SC) -> KEDE (North Eastern NC Coast) -> TTA.  As with anything in aviation, you must always be flexible.

Before taking off, my safety pilot and I briefed the proposed trip and talked about alternates along the route.  We also agreed that we would look at the weather at CRE and revise if needed.

As we departed TTA, the sky was quite clear with some scattered clouds in front of us we climbed up to 7,500′ to remain VFR.  As we neared our destination, we could see that the cloud layer would dissipate over our destination.  I was under the hood for most of the flight and my safety pilot would give me vectors and descent instructions until we were around 10 nm from our destination.  CRE tower gave us a right base entry for Runway 23.  Landing was ok, not my best not my worst.

We taxi’d to the FBO for fuel and to check the weather.

As we looked at our route, there were still quite a few low scattered clouds over our next destination EDE.  I made the determination, proved incorrectly, that it was still some of the lower cloud layers burning off and that they would move out as we traveled.  Everything to the west of this line seemed to be vfr with decent cloud heights.  We decided that we would takeoff with EDE as the destination and along the route we would evaluate the weather and be willing to land at one of the airfields more westerly if needed.  The lesson here is always have an out.

As we departed, there was a perfect hole in the clouds to climb up on top.  Our target altitude was 5,500′ but it would seem we would need to go higher.  I informed ATC we would be climbing to 7,500’… then after a bit 9,500′.  In a Cessna 152, I was in rare air.  I think the highest I had ever been, in the mighty 152, before today was 5,500′.

About 30 minutes into our 2 hour flight, it was becoming obvious that the weather was not getting better at EDE and actually getting worse.  We were also starting to see radar echoes and possible cells forming.  After a couple minutes of talking about diverting to a westerly airport we made the call to return back to TTA.  We knew that the more west we flew, the better off we were.

I keyed the mic and informed ATC that we would be returning direct to TTA.  They asked if I wanted to stay at my odd altitude or change to an even altitude.

Note: We were changing from an easterly direction to westerly direction so VFR dictates that we fly even thousands plus 500′.  I imagine, he offered the odd altitude as a courtesy, since the clouds were obviously in our way.

We said we could take an even altitude so he asked us to descend 8,500′.  I requested instead of 8,500′ we could do 10,500′ for cloud clearance.  Once approved, we started the climb from 9,500′ to 10,500′.  In the summer, climb performance is a bit lowered in general and as you climb higher, the performance degrades even more.  So we were only climbing at about 200′ per minute at an airspeed of 70 kts. You also must really work the mixture at this altitude. As the air becomes thinner, the mixture become excessively rich.  You must lean out as you climb.  This isn’t unusual but since I haven’t been this high before, it was interesting. Much easier in a SkyHawk when you have an EGT to help out.

Our path back to TTA would take us over familiar territory, albeit a lot higher.  We would cross over KFAY on our way back to TTA.

At about 20 miles from KFAY, I made the request from approach to start our descent.  I was concerned that we would have fewer holes below us as we approached and we had a nice path down in front of us.  It also looked like clouds were scattered 3500′ the rest of the way to TTA. (We ended up flying 2500′ because clouds were lower than expected)

Approach approved the descent and handed us off to Fayetteville approach. Once on with Fayetteville approach, things started getting interesting.  Lots of chatter on the radio with route deviations due to building convection.  At one point we were given a vector toward restricted airspace while we were over KFAY.  The vector was so that another aircraft would have time to climb over us.  As we neared restricted airspace, my safety pilot suggested we give it another minute and then nudge approach that we were close to restricted.  I agreed and at the same time, approach told us to turn right and resume our course towards TTA.

As we neared TTA, things looked pretty good.  No echoes, there were planes in the patter and one of our club planes flying over top of us to join the RNAV 3.  All of this was carefully choreographed by approach.  In order to cede some room for the aircraft in the pattern and the aircraft on the RNAV, we briefed an approach from the east.  The idea was that we would fly east of the field and cross over mid-field and join the downwind for runway 3.  This would give the RNAV traffic time to get in and allow us to observe the pattern to safely enter.

We entered the downwind, and followed the RNAV traffic for a landing on runway 3.  I was a little fast because I was concerned about a possible tailwind.  This caused me to balloon slightly but I let the aircraft settle in for a soft landing.  Again, not my best, not my worst.

As we tied down, my safety pilot and I debriefed what we did and what we learned.  The biggest takeaway was that you always need an out. I think we did well in this regard. We had backup plans and then backups to those. We are also pretty lucky in that we have ADSB with moving maps and ability to get en-route weather.  Weather that you see on the maps are delayed but it definitely helps you make strategic decisions. By the time we see small echoes, they are probably magnitudes larger in reality.  You can’t rely on the data to pick your way through storms but you can use it to avoid them from a distance.

It was the first time flying with this particular pilot and I think we worked well together. I didn’t get as much flight time as I wanted today but I learned a lot more than I could have imagined.  I think we added to our bag of experience and saved some from our bag of luck.

Above all, I got to fly an airplane today, at 10,500′ no less.  That is always cool!

Big thank you to my awesome safety pilot.  It was a luxury to have another cool head in the cockpit helping make decisions much easier.  Even though we are certificated Private Pilots, we are always learning!

As with the last flight, todays flight was about building simulated instrument and cross country time.  I scheduled a 152 because… well… it’s slower and cheaper.  Slower means that I don’t have to fly as far to get my time in and much cheaper.

In aviation, best laid plans plans always call for a backup. Sometimes a backup to the backup.  We had planned on flying one of the same two routes as last week.

Primary route: TTA -> CRE -> EDE -> TTA

Secondary route: TTA -> CPK -> DAN ->TTA

Well as weather tends to do, it was looking like we would be thwarted on our primary and secondary.  A trough of low pressure settled into the middle of our state and was threatening some nasty weather.  As I do, I watched the weather all week and last night it wasn’t looking too good.  In the morning before the flight, my safety pilot and I got together to assess the situation.  It looked like all of the bad stuff would stay south and east of TTA until around 1-2pm and then we could expect building cumulus and afternoon thunderstorms.  The North and west was looking awesome.

So plan 3:  TTA -> SVH -> DAN -> TTA

It was about an hour and a half shorter of a trip but it kept us in good weather and close to home for the most part.  We figured that it was better than nothing and we were being safe and responsible. One thing our club instructors have drilled into us is that you never play with the weather and we were prepared to cancel our plans all together.

We get to the airfield and if you were just to gauge the sky, you would think it would be an awesome clear sky day.  Luckily, we have great weather tools that tell us otherwise.

Off TTA, we climbed to 3000′, dialed up Raleigh approach, requested flight following and away we went.  The flight to Statesville (KSVH) was pretty uneventful and smooth.  The plan was to work on keeping the heading and the altitude as close as possible.  I kept altitude within 50 feet for most of the trip, a large part of that time I was within 20ft.   In the end, I was pretty pleased with myself since the 152’s are pretty twitchy beasts. ok, done patting myself on the back.

On the way to Danville (KDAN), was a little more interesting.  We climbed up to 5500′ for smooth air but turns out it was a good idea all around.  As we neared greensboro, traffic started to get pretty heavy and we were given an altitude restriction.  Turns out 5500′ was perfect because all of the traffic was around 3000′.  We also listen to a lot of chatter over a drone spotted in Greensboro’s airspace at 6000′.  PSA for Drone Pilots:  Please don’t do this.  Airspace near airports are largely crowded with aircraft in close proximity.  And more importantly, climbing and descending through a lot of altitudes that drones fly. If a drone hits an aircraft (Especially general aviation aircraft) it’s very likely to be fatal.

The rest of the flight to DAN was pretty smooth, we landed Runway 2 and taxied up for fuel.  We were greeted by a lineman who parked us and fueled us up.

Departing, I was sequenced to takeoff behind a learjet. I’m talking like there was some sort of grand plan here.  It was just that he pulled out of his spot before me, lol.

Honestly, I was a little nervous taking off behind the lear. As a precaution, we gave it several minutes and followed the climb out safety rules.  First, we made sure that we lifted off the runway at a distance before the lears takeoff point. Second, we made a quick turn as soon as were were high enough to avoid any other vortices.

On the way back to TTA, we heard some interesting chatter from a pilot stating that the first number on his transponder seemed only capable of registering a 0 or 1.  Approach asked if he had another transponder. “Negative, this is my only one.  Is it possible for you to give me a squawk that starts with 0 or 1?” Approach: “Probably not”.  That was pretty much the end of it but I thought it was pretty funny.

As we neared TTA, you could see the clouds were now building and starting to come down a bit.  We had plenty of room but our weather research and predictions were becoming reality.

We were able to make it back safely and confident in our ability to plan around the weather.  As a side note, this sort of thing is a trap that we have to be vigilant not to fall into.  This is our second trip in which we were able to plan around weather with successful outcomes.  It is easy to feel too confident in your ability to plan these things. When that happens things can start to get sloppy.  This is exactly how pilots end up in bad situations.  Even though we have had two successes we must always plan carefully and making sure we have alternate options in case things go sideways.

Totals for this flight:
3.6 Cross Country
3.2 Simulated

Overall it was a fun day of flying.  I didn’t really get to look outside much since I was flying with foggles but hey, I got to fly.

 

Today and for the next couple of flights, it will be about building time for my IFR.  I am around 20 hrs short for cross country and simulated/actual time.  My instructor has cut me loose to fly with a safety pilot in order to get some of these hours, so I am taking advantage.

I have found a few Safety pilots that are willing to look out for me while I fly VFR with the foggles in order to get credit for simulated.  My original plan was KTTA -> KCRE -> KEDE -> KTTA which is about a 4 hour trip.  However, weather had other ideas.  I noticed that there was a low pressure being pushed across the border of NC and SC that would bring yuck weather south and up the Coast of NC.  Once I accepted this would be more probable than not, I planned an alternate path.

We ended up with plan B, KTTA -> KCPK -> KDAN -> KTTA.  This would take us northerly still within the dominate high pressure area and away from the yuck.

We preflighted and jumped in the skyhawk, me the pilot and a pilot friend of mine as the safety pilot.  We briefed responsibilities, I was PIC, he was PIC as well when I was under the hood.  He was responsible for safety of flight. In an emergency, I would have the controls, he would have the checklist and troubleshoot. Crew resource management was the name of the game.

We departed at 10:00 am and headed for KCPK (Chesapeake Regional Airport) at 5500′.  I picked up flight following from Raleigh Approach and we were on our way.  Pretty uneventful trip, that terminated with an RNAV 5 approach at KCPK.

Once on the ground, we taxied to refuel.  After refueling, we used the facilities and checked the weather… all was good.  After a few minutes troubleshooting why our secondary comms were not turning on, (Turns out was a bad switch that had to be coaxed a little) we prepped for our trip to KDAN (Danville).

Once we were airborne, I picked up following from Norfolk approach.  We stayed at 3000 feet due to clouds.  The ride was more bumpy and I had to work more under the hood, but pleasant and uneventful.  We finished this leg with an RNAV 20 approach at KDAN.

After refueling, we departed on our final short leg back to KTTA.  When we were 5 miles from KTTA, I pulled the hood off and made a normal crosswind landing on runway 3.

Total Trip time: 4.4

Simulated time: 3.8

As you can see, I spent quite a bit of time simulated today. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad.  I remember back during my private, simulated would exhaust me. Today I felt pretty good.  I guess it means that I am starting to get the hang of the scan and workload.

I think the main takeaway from this trip is that I was able to practice all of the things my instructor has trained me to do.  Like setting up navigation and radios, thinking ahead to the next event, briefing the approach, talking with ATC.  Even though I was only on flight following, I made requests for altitude changes, requests for the approaches, etc.  I was vectored or given direct to the approaches just like when we are on an IFR clearance.  It helped me build some confidence and I felt like a real pilot using the tools of the trade.

All in all it was a good day.  I got to fly and airplane… a lot…. under the hood.  And I made some much needed progress towards my instrument rating!

Enjoy some pics from todays flight:

Today’s lesson had me back in the foggles for a quick trip to Fayetteville (KFAY).  With the rise of GPS approaches, localizer back courses will soon be a thing of the past so it is cool to try them while they exist.

I arrived at the airfield and performed the pre-flight like normal.  My instructor asked me to check KFAY to see if the winds favor the Loc 22 BC.  Indeed they were.  We have talked about doing this approach for the last couple of lessons but one thing or another has caused us to change plans.  Mostly my club annual that I have mention about a million times.  Don’t worry, it’s done.  I won’t mention it anymore…. I promise.

Until next year…

So we jumped in the airplane and started our flight preparations.  I was able to setup the radios and our initial navigation mostly on my own.  My instructor had to prompt me a few times with phrases like… “What else can we setup ahead of time?”  I am starting to get better on the preparation but still have to button down a few things.

I set the primary and en-route radios, including the Localizer frequency for the approach.  Loaded up our initial flight plan, a simple direction KTTA->KFAY.

As we departed, my instructor gave me an initial altitude of 2500 and when I asked if we should turn toward KFAY, “You’re cleared direct to KFAY at 2500” and we were on our way.  I reached over and re-sequenced direct to KFAY and performed the match-set operations.  My instructor helped out by checking the ATIS and we were current with information Zulu.

At this point, I am thinking, how do I get ahead of the airplane.  Looking back, this in itself is progress.  Not too long ago, I was almost saturated and could barely think about what is next.  Anyway, back on point.  In futility, I tried to see if I could recognize the localizer, and since we were still pretty far away, no dice, makes sense.

Next, I called up Fayetteville approach. I did ok with the radio call here.  I was supplied a squawk code and and I asked for the localizer 22 BC practice approach.

After this we were given a vector.  During the next few minutes, I loaded up the localizer 22 BC approach plate and briefed. I started to really just skip over the frequency section.  My instructor made a point to make sure that we go over each of the fields.  This is good because I set these before we departed TTA.  If I skip that part on the brief or gloss over it, I may not catch a potential error.

At this point we get a call that we are cleared for the approach, on the missed, I was instructed to  climb runway heading to 2000 and contact approach on 133.0.  I briefed the rest of the approach and when I got to the missed approach section, my instructor said… “Are you sure?”  Doh, yeah I have the missed approach instructions from ATC and I read back those.

As we approached the localizer intercept, we were given another vector to establish and instructions that we were cleared for the approach.  Once established I made the call that we were established and the controller told us to change to tower frequency.  Once on tower we were cleared for the option.

I didn’t have too much of an issue with the reverse sensing.  I remarked as we got closer that you can really see the sensitivity.  I had read previously that it is really sensitive because the front course localizer antenna is actually broadcasting from the departure end of the runway. Since we were on the back course, that meant that it was near the approach end on our side, thus really sensitive.

I reached my minimums around this time so my instructor said “Hang here for a bit and let’s see how sensitive it gets”  I was splitting degrees to stay on course.  Cool.

Once I looked up, it was pretty neat to see the runway right there but also that a regional jet was holding short waiting on my slow little skyhawk to get on with it.

We went ahead and declared the missed and started the climb back to 2000 on runway heading.  Once back over to Fayettville approach, we were vectored back to TTA and cleared to IKTOW for the ILS LOC 03 Y approach.

As I was loading the approach, the GPS asks the question if we want to perform the procedure turn.  My instructor said “Do we want to?”  At first I said no because we were on the side of the hold entry that we don’t need to.  Really, I thought he was asking me if I wanted to do it.  It was a good lesson on identifying if you have to perform the procedure turn and we discussed more in debrief.

There are 5 times that you don’t have to perform the Procedure turn.

• Vectors to final
• Cleared for the straight in approach
• We find “NoPT” on the plan view of the approach chart                            (And we did for IKTOW in the direction we were heading)
• You are on a DME Arc
• Timed approaches from a holding fix

This is where I had my biggest brain fart of the day.  I thought we talked about doing the LOC 03 Y approach and when I briefed, I started briefing the step down by identifying AMIRS.  It turns out, and if I listened, “You are cleared for the ILS 03 Y approach”.  The ILS is easier, though I was probably more off the needles this time than any other.  Slightly high and left.

It did prompt a good discussion in debrief about whether or not we can identify AMIRS. This comes down to the difference in having a DME vs GPS only.  The short of it is that we can’t use AMIRS without a real DME on board and calculating the distances is unacceptable.

All in all it was a good flight.  There were highs and lows, no pun intended. In the end, flying always puts me in a good mood.

 

Today was a really short lesson, all about finishing up my club annual .  I need to finished up before my instructor heads out of town for vacation.  This way, I can get in some cross country flights with a safety pilot. This will help met get some of my last IFR requirements out of the way.

In the previous few lessons, we took care of a lot of the items on the club annual.  After looking over the checklist, we found that I really only needed emergency engine out testing.  With weather coming in, I decided we could just go do those real quick and let my instructors other students start a little earlier.

We were going to stay in the pattern, so I was mentally prepared to have the engine “Fail” at any moment.  There was quite a bit of traffic at the airfield at the time, so I was able to predict, with some accuracy, when the engine failure would come.  That and my instructor giving me some really good hints as to what, when and where.

For the first maneuver, I was instructed to climb to 2000 and we performed a spiral down engine out maneuver over the numbers.  I have done this once in the past during my private pre-solo check with the chief flight instructor.  I did a little better then than I did this time.  My instructor said “pick a spot” and fumbled around a bit but went with the numbers as to what I would aim for.  I am pretty sure he was setting me up for the big lesson on the next attempt.

As I descended down lower and lower, I decided that we couldn’t make another 360 and we would go for it. I should have extended the downwind on that last turn a bit to set up for a more natural approach to the threshold but instead I dropped full flaps and tried to slip down.  Now you have to understand, when I started this, I was already over the landing point that I said I was aiming for.  Do you think I could make that spot?  ha, …. no.  I am not even sure I could have made the end of the 6000′ runway but we decided to go around before trying.

Now the cool part.  This time we went up to pattern altitude and performed a power-off 180 accuracy landing.  A maneuver that you learn during your commercial training (Which is coming up after my IFR).  This maneuver involved pulling the throttle downwind abeam your touchdown aim point, in our case the 1000 ft markers.  When you turn base, you judge your height (too high? too low?) and you can use S turns in order to better lose altitude until you are right on target.

We performed this maneuver two times and hit the 1000 ft marker both times.  Before this, I only had a few tools in my bag, judging distance on the downwind, flaps and slips.  By adding S turns, you can use the bank as a way to lose some lift. This allows you to better control distance between you and the touchdown point.

It was a great lesson in energy management and a really cool peek into my future training.

Next on my list is knocking out about 20 hours or cross country and simulated instrument time. I am planning some long cross country flights with a safety pilot to try and get some significant hours.  Should be a lot of fun.

The check ride is coming soon and honestly, I have had so much fun that am not sure I want it to end, lol.  However, my instructor is awesome and we are already talking about the commercial so there will be more fun to be had!

Today I got to fly again.  It seems like forever between vacations, schedule conflicts etc.  In reality it has only been a little over a month.  I think it was a good lesson in that I gained some confidence but also because I got to see rust in IFR flying.

By the regulations, you are IFR current if you have performed 6 approaches and holds in either actual or simulated conditions in the past 6 months.  This is one of those weird things that just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.  Even though you are technically current, doesn’t mean you are really ready to launch off into the clouds.

Today, the clouds were decently low so we decided to file a round robin IFR to KHNZ Henderson-Oxford (Which btw, I sucked at remembering the name)

I filed the flight plan, (forgot to do round robin, more on that) and headed out to turn money into noise.  Run-up went fine and as I called for my clearance, the first bit of rust showed.  I called up Raleigh approach and asked to pickup my flight plan….. sigh… I should have asked to pickup my clearance.  Ok no biggie, however we were asked if we could take off and pickup the clearance in the air since the field was already locked due to an incoming aircraft on IFR.  We decided we needed to wait so they asked us to call back in 10 minutes.  ugh.

After thinking about it for a minute, my instructor looked at the weather again and decided that we could try to pick it up in the air.  We departed and I performed a soft field takeoff (I am in need of a club annual so we are going to do some things to help that out).  Once we were aloft, I made the call to approach to pick up the clearance.  We got a squawk code and after a minute or so, we were given a vector and altitude.

Since I actually failed to file Round robin, we discussed how to request the amended clearance.  I made the call and they amended us for the round robin and asked which approach we would like.  I requested the LOC 6 approach and we were on our way.

I had decided earlier that I wanted do the hold so we discussed how to ask for the hold.  At the appropriate point, I asked for and received the hold on the LOC 6 appraoch.  We were flying at 5000 and pretty much IMC for the the duration of the trip to KHNZ.

Preparing for the arrival, I setup the radios, checked that the localizer was tuned on the primary and en-route radios and set the CDI.  I then briefed the approach.  This part of the flight started feeling better.  My radio calls were sometimes… um… terrible.

Once we arrived, I donned the foggles to make sure that I would get credit for the approach and performed the hold and then turned inbound on the localizer.  I performed the step downs to minimums and voila…. runway right where it is supposed to be.

Making the inbound radio calls I kept forgetting the name of the airport, Henderson-Oxford.  Even while writing this I have to look it up.. ugh.  In the future, I will write this down on my kneeboard.

The landing went well, performed a soft-field landing and followed up by short field take off ( more club annual work).  I performed the missed approached and called Raleigh approach up to get back to TTA.  I was given an altitude and vector.  We asked and received the RNAV 21 and we were vectored to YUXI.  It was my request to perform the RNAV 21 is because I wanted to do the circle to land.

The approach was pretty uneventful and I followed the RNAV LPV glide path down to the circle to land minimums.  To finish the approach I completed a short field landing.

Overall, I think I did well today.  I was very rusty, with my scan and with my radio work.  I think I did pretty well in the areas of configuring to land, briefings, etc.

As I stated at the beginning, it was a good lesson in how you can quickly that you get rusty and even though you are technically current in the FAA eyes, doesn’t mean that you capable.  I will take this lesson with me for the remainder of my aviation career and hopefully guide me in making better Aeronautical decisions in the future.

Well, life isn’t exactly thwarting my progress as much as me needing to take a vacation.  My family and I spent 10 days at Disney World to reward ourselves for surviving Soccer and Dance Seasons.  This, coupled with some aircraft scheduling conflicts, has lead to a bit of a flying drought.

It will still be another week or so before I am back on the flying schedule and I need to do my club annual as well.  I should be back to blogging shortly. In the meantime, I am trying to focus on some simulator time and getting ready for my club annual which consists of two tests and a flight test.  I am hoping to roll this into my ifr training in order save some time (and money) but I also want to get it done soonish so I can fly outside of my training flights.

My wife and I are obnoxiously big Disney fans (don’t judge), so here are some pics from our vacation!

In todays Lesson, we planned for the KDAN (Danville Virginia) VOR 20 approach and then back to TTA for the RNAV 21 approach.  This lesson contained a healthy amount of VOR tracking to DAN and some partial panel on the return.

Once I arrived, my instructor confirmed the weather and said we were all good for the KDAN trip.  Once preflight was complete, we did our run up and this time I made sure all of the radios were set for navigation.  This entailed dialing in the KDAN VOR and RAL VOR initially with the SBV (South Boston) VOR for once we got closer to our destination.

We departed KTTA and I was given a mock vector and altitude of 4500′ and cleared direct DAN, with a confirmirmation once established on course.  Once I reached 1800′ I called up Raleigh approach for the flight following and this is where the wheels fell off.  I have never had much of an issue making a call for flight following but my tongue decided to throw me a curve.

Once given the squawk code, I established myself on the KDAN VOR.  “53587 established on course to DAN”.   “Are you sure that you are established?”  Um… well… uh.  At that point I got the hint that I needed to verify the VOR audibly.  Doh.  Ok.  Next my instructor asked me to let him know when the old Chapel hill Airfield would be at our 2 o’clock.  Ok, let’s see.  I have the Raleigh VOR and if I set it up for the 279 radial, when we are on that radial, the airfield should be at our 2 o’clock… easy peasy?  “Are you sure?” Oh doh!, verify the RAL VOR. At this point, I told him that if I was smart I would have verified the RAL VOR after I verified the the DAN VOR.

A lot of this is just getting into the habit and it will come with time.  The important part here is that I was not overloaded and I was able to use the 2 VOR’s effectively to figure how where we were.

I was asked a few times to report where on the track we were currently and I did this by using the secondary VOR.  When I switched over to use the SBV VOR as we neared Danville.. I verified the VOR audibly… YAY!!!!!

I briefed the approach and we got the ASOS at DAN.  Raleigh Approach released us and my instructor said “About 10 miles out we will start making radio calls”.  This was the cue to figure out how to tell if we are 10 miles out.  Easy peasy, find the spot on our track that is 10 nm’s out and then get the radial to the SBV VOR and dial that in.  Once the VOR Centers, Robert’s your mothers brother.  Or bob’s your uncle, which ever you like better.

“Skyhawk 53587, cleared for the VOR 20 approach, cross DAN at or above 3000 until established”.  I won’t bore you with the details of how many times I had to have this clearance read before my read back was correct.  I began my descent from 4500 down to 3000.

Once over the DAN VOR, we started the clock… err…. I was reminded we needed to start the clock for a 3 minute outbound before the procedure turn.  As we tracked outbound I made sure we could identify EDWIN on SBV.  By being able to identify EDWIN we are able to descend 400 feet lower.  This would be awesome if we were actually in the soup.

Side Note, I learned that due to a recent regulation change, you are now allowed to identify intersections like EDWIN using GPS.  Evidently, in the past, this was not allowed.

Everything else about the approach was pretty standard.  I completed the procedure turn and then once established, descended to 1480 until EDWIN, then down to 1060 and foggles off, for the cross-wind offset landing.

Why Offset landing?  One of the more interesting things about this approach was that the runway is actually offset 5 degrees from the approach course.  The approach course is 195 and the runway course is 200.  No big deal but the visual in my head about where the runway would be located did not match reality.  I figure it would be more right in the windscreen.  No matter, I was able to actually complete a competent crosswind landing which was probably the highlight of the flight to be honest.

After the touch and go I performed the missed and was given vectors and altitude of 3000.  “Wow, your GPS started working again!  Cleared direct to OZOPE”.  I punched in the RNAV 21 OZOPE approach in the GPS, set the CDI and turned direct.  At this point I was told that I should contact Raleigh Approach about 30 miles out.  This radio call was better than the first call when we left TTA.  I got the squawk and ident even though she didn’t ask for ident.  I am an idiot. ugh.    Listening is fundamental kids.

As we go closer, I briefed and we tried to get the weather at TTA a few times to try to figure out if we would have to perform the circle approach.  Once we reached OZOPE, I slowed us down and by this time, we knew we would need to circle to land. Oh, and now we are partial panel, no AI or DG. Meh, no biggie.

Once I hit YUXSI, we cancelled flight following and I commenced to blowing radio calls at TTA.  I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how far away we were.  I kept telling them we were on the RNAV 21 approach instead of simply inbound final runway 21 circling approach 03.  Eventually, I got my act together and followed the glide path down to the circling minimums of 760, took off the foggles and joined the downwind for runway 3.  It was good practice flying the tight short pattern. In hindsight, I didn’t actually make a radio call after I called downwind until I said I was taxiing back.  UGHHHHH.  My radio work is very porous at the moment.  IT WILL GET BETTER!!!!

via GIPHY

Ok, radio communication flubs aside, I guess I should be heartened that I did make more radio calls today. Handled dialing in the nav frequencies, and tracked the VOR’s and generally navigated well.  My instructor seems to be pleased with my progress and in general I know that I am hard on myself.  It was a really fun flight though and I had a great time.  Looking forward to the next flight which should be to KHRJ for the Localizer 05 .

Today I was able to get in 3 different approaches and one came with a real world learning experience.  The plan for todays lesson was to fly a VOR/DME Arc (VOR/DME A) at KCTZ (Clinton Sampson County)  and then fly the PAR at Fort Brag (PAR 27).    That was really cool because not many students, or pilots in general have access to that type of approach.  We couldn’t land, but were cleared for the low approach. Once the PAR was completed back to TTA for the ILS 03 Y approach but best laid plans?

Today was an interesting lesson really because of a lot of different factors not just because of the wide range of approaches.  My company scheduled a last minute meeting that would have me cutting it really close on my lesson.  If you have read previous posts, you know it is really important to me to be thoroughly prepared.  I felt like I was rushing all the way up to the point the lesson began. I knew that I was in a rush but I made sure to take my time with preflight because this a big bear trap.  You don’t want to be a statistic because you rushed the pre-flight in order to get off the ground quicker.  I kept this in my mind for the entire process.

Part of my unpreparedness came in the form of not having the latest downloads in ForeFlight. It caused me a momentary issue on one of the approaches because it wouldn’t activate the geo-referenced plate overlay.  However, it isn’t a big deal, the plate is for briefing. However there was an update to the missed approach altitudes that my instructor relayed to me.

Once off the ground, we turned toward the FAY VOR. The is the VOR used for the DME Arc). We picked up flight following from Fayetteville approach and requested the VOR/DME-A approach with HOCKMU as the IAF.  Once in the system, we flew direct HOCKMU at 3000 with a clearance to stay above 2500 until we crossed ALEXA (IF).

I felt really good flying the airplane today, stable and ahead of the airplane.  Ahead of the radios? not so much.  I made a few sporadic radio calls and a few times I hesitated and right before I was going to make the call, my instructor would do it for me.  I think I need to be a little more assertive in this respect.  On the bright side, I feel ahead of the airplane enough that I felt I could make some radio calls, but I still need a lot of work in this area.

One thing that I am still forgetting is that we need to get weather at the destination.  Since this was a circle to land, we need to know which runway. doh!  This is another thing that I am not sure why I am tripping over.  When I fly on my own, this is automatic.

Back to the arc.  Flying the arc wasn’t all that bad.  We don’t have a DME in the airplane so we simulated it using the gps.  My instructor killed the moving map and we were able to just see the waypoint distances to use in order to simulate the arc.  I never really felt behind and I think that was due to how well my instructor eased me into it.  He gave me a couple of instructions about nudging the turns to check to see if we get the desired results… ie. distance is converging or sticking to exactly 12 miles.  He also had me adjusting the VOR to know what radial I was on in order to know where in the arc I was flying.

This was interesting because he approached it as a (Paraphrasing) “Just twist this every so often so that you know where you are and you can tell me”.  The point was really to know how close we were to the 095 degree radial which is ALEXA and the turn inbound.

I really like the way my instructor can break things down in a simple manner that would otherwise be complex.  Sometimes instructors will go through the entire process on the ground (It’s cheaper right?) but then in the airplane you are trying to remember the whole sequence and you start to get behind the airplane.  Once you get behind the airplane, bad things happen. I really liked the way this was conveyed during the lesson.  Once we reached ALEXA, I turned us inbound and flew the step down for the circling approach.  This is where I performed a less than graceful touch and go (for the X-Ctry time).  It was really less than graceful, we’ll leave it at that.

Once on the missed, we asked approach for the PAR 27 (Precision Approach Radar) at Fort Bragg.  This was really cool because not many students much less certificated pilots get the chance to do a PAR in real life.  Again my instructor broke it down pretty nicely for me.  He gave me the skinny on what the controller will say “Right 270”, “Slightly left of track correcting”… things of that nature.  He also told me the many traps students fall into.  Like when they say “Slightly left of track, correcting…”, it is advisory in nature, no need to do anything it is just letting us know what he sees.  I really really had fun on this approach.  I felt stable and was able to split the DG by single degrees.  It felt really awesome that I could be that precise.  I’m sure my instructors definition of precise is a little different. But I felt good about it, lol.

After we reached minimum altitude, was told the controller we would go missed and we flew our missed approach and went back over to Fayetteville approach for our return to KTTA.

We requested vectors to KTTA for the ILS 03 Y approach.  Now this is where a real world learning experience comes into play.  I was able to get through the approach brief and I began working on setting up the radios when my instructor said “Remember, we need to tune in to verify the ILS”.  VOR 2 on the correct frequency and turned up the volume….. um…… static…. um… nothing.  I say that it doesn’t seem to be working.  “Well, let’s try the other one”.   I setup VOR 1, and static.  hmm.  “What do we do?”  We talked about how we couldn’t fly the ILS because duh, something is wrong but we can fly the RNAV so we reconfigured for the RNAV 03 approach.

This was interesting in a few ways but most importantly, the learning aspect.  There wasn’t yet a published NOTAM about this. And this goes to prove why at TTA the ILS 03 Y approach is not allowed to be used as an alternate.  In real life, THIS CAN HAPPEN!  So what do you do.  It was a good lesson in decision making.  Of course my instructor already knew this because it wasn’t working earlier and he gathered a few bits of info to report on.  Oddly enough the glide-slope seemed to be working, no flag. weird

Once down to minimums, I pulled off the foggles and landed the airplane.  This time I landed with a hint of competency.  I don’t know why those demons are haunting me, I think I am just in my own head about it.  In the past, landings have always been one of the things I did well. Oh well, I will get better.  Always learning they say!

So 3 approaches today, two new ones and one with a curveball.  The one thing I like about flying is, no matter how much crap is going on in your daily life, work, family, etc.  Flying allows me to put it all aside. While I am flying, none of that even exists, just the task at hand.  I really love to fly and I am really enjoying IFR training.  I know a lot of people just kind of slog through it to get to some checkpoint or goals for the future, but I really enjoy it.  Part of that comes from the instructors and members of our flying club. Most are not there because they have to be, or as a stepping stone.  And most of all, I see why our instructors win so many AOPA awards including my current one.

So no matter the rush, the stress of meetings and the pressure of life, I got to fly today.