This lesson almost didn’t happen because of weather, but we went, and I am glad we did because it turned out to be a great flight. We’ve had another couple of days of not-so-nice weather, and with its multiple layers of clouds and crazy winds, today was no exception. We reviewed the TAFs, radar and satellite imagery before walking outside to make our final decision. It looked like we had plenty of holes in the clouds which we could use to get out, buy my instructor decided to file an IFR flight plan for our return in case the clouds closed in behind us.
After takeoff I headed east towards the practice area, climbing up through the holes in the clouds on our way to our final altitude of 6,500′. This was a little higher than we have been going, but we needed to clear of the clouds with the appropriate clearances. Most of the climb was VFR, but my instructor had me don the hood for the last 2,000′, vectoring me around clouds as needed. Well, since I could see I assume that’s what he was doing.
Once settled into cruise, I got my first exposure to partial panel with the Attitude Indicator (AI) and Heading Indicator (HI) covered. It took a minute to adjust, but overall it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. At first I did some climbs and descents, and then we moved right into heading changes using only the compass. This was the tricky part of the day because I had to put the acronyms of ANDS and UNOS to actual use. For those unfamiliar, ANDS and UNOS stand for the following.
Accelerate-North-Decelerate-South
Undershoot-North-Overshoot-South
Both of these acronyms are used to help you remember the various compass errors encountered during acceleration, deceleration or turning flight. I won’t go into each of them here but as an example, but using UNOS you know that if you are turning to a Northerly heading, you will need to undershoot your heading by as much as 30°. Let’s say you are flying a heading of 220° and want to turn to 350°, using this memory aid you know to start your roll out on 320°. Once wings level, you let the compass catch-up or correct itself before making small heading adjustments. After I got this through my thick skull, it was amazing how accurate you could be just by overshooting or undershooting the appropriate amount.
I think the most difficult part of the compass work was determining which direction to turn (left or right) for a specific heading. The problem is that when you look at the compass, the numbers are misleading with 17 (170°) is to right of S (180°) on the compass card. This tricks you into thinking that you would turn right to get to 170°, when you really need to turn left. It seems straightforward when you think about it on the ground, but when you are up in the air and busy with other things, it’s easy to take the bait and turn the wrong direction.
To solve this, my instructor taught me a little trick. He had me look at the OBS on the VOR indicator to determine which direction to turn. You just look for your current heading on the OBS, and then find the shortest direction to your desired heading (left or right). This is of course assuming you want to turn the shortest direction.
Still with the AI and HI covered, we then went into some slow-flight, power-off stalls, and unusual attitudes. Overall, I had no major problems with completing the maneuvers without the use of the AI and HI, and I was actually getting pretty good at it. The strange thing is that I actually liked having them covered up. It may sound strange, but it allowed me to slow my scan of the instruments I could see, and focus on or process the information from each with greater accuracy. I guess you could say it was the less is more approach.
After a bit of flying it was time to head home. While there were plenty gaps in the clouds we could get down through, my instructor decided to activate our IFR flight plan so that I could be vectored in for the approach. He did all the radio work, and I did all the flying, but I could easily understand instructions the controller was issuing so I never waited for my instructor to tell me what to do, I just did what the controller wanted. After being vectored around a bit, and stepped down in altitude we were eventually on the ILS for our home base. My job now was simply to keep the needles centered, which I did with a great deal of success by modulating attitude and power as needed. The wind had really picked up while we were gone and we were getting bounced around quite a bit, which made it hard to maintain course but I got it done. As we got closer to the airport I did a bit of chasing the localizer needle (course), but that is somewhat expected as this is only my second ILS approach and the needle(s) get much more sensitive the closer you get. Well, that’s my excuse anyway.
At about 500′ AGL my instructor told me to go ahead and remove the hood, and I found myself on about a half-mile final and about 50-100′ off centerline to one side. Not perfect, but pretty darn good for my first real IFR approach. According to the tower the wind was gusting to 30 knots, so I applied only 10° of flaps and kept a bit of power in. We sank a bit as we crossed the threshold so I gave it power and managed to put it down quite softly. Sweet!
Upon shutting down my instructor had some nice things to saying, telling me that his is impressed with my flying and he thinks my tailwheel experience has a lot to do with that. He added that because the flying portion is progressing so quickly, we have to be careful to not get ahead of ourselves with regards to the ground topics we need to cover. This was good to hear, because last weeks issues with my ability to get us into a decent approach had me a bit frustrated. We are scheduled to fly again on Thursday. Let’s hope I am able to keep up the good progress.
Cool Brad, The first few localizer based approaches are a real eye opener!
Just remember that the heading indicator is primary use the needle as a tool to tell you when to correct a “little”. Once your on that localizer and headed in the right direction, keep that heading dead nuts and you will be amazed at how easy it is to keep the needle centered. If it drifts, make smooth and very small corrections and wait. If it does not respond, make another smooth and small correction.
I had all kinds of trouble with the localizer until I realized the heading indicator was my best freind, once that lightbulb turned on, it was easy peasy!
Cool, thanks! I do remember trying to hold heading on the HI, but it was so windy and bumby I was lucky to get what I did.
I have to learn to spread my scan out a bit more. I tend to fixate on one or two instruments, neglecting others. Then when I look at the ones I have been ignoring it’s like, “Oh crap!”. After three hours I can already see improvements in my ability to processs the information, but I still have a looooong way to go.
Just like Tony kept saying to Rocky when he was training him to fight like a black fighter, “It will come, it will come…”
It is kind of like trying to ride a bicycle. One day it will just click and you will have it nailed.
Sometimes it feels like trying to ride a bicycle, backwards, while juggling six flaming hatchets.