Pilot Brad's Flying Blog

I am still playing a bit of catch-up, but I am getting there.  While today is May 30th, the lesson I am writing about here occurred on May 17th, so just keep that in mind as you read even though it may seem at thought the lesson occurred today.

The day’s flight was mostly just practice of all the Stage 1 basic instrument flying skills.  This was no surprise, as early in my training Nick told me would spend a few hours towards the end of stage one polishing my skills, trying to get them as “solid” as possible before moving onto stage 2. 

We started with a simulated Livermore One departure, followed by an exercise in tracking the localizer back course.  You may be asking, how do you fly a published departure that takes you away from the airport and then track the back course?  In our case, after reaching the final intersection of the departure, we turned towards the outbound localizer heading and intercepted the back course, but only after we were well away from the airport and at a safe altitude.  At that distance the needle barely moved, but it was a reverse sensing situation, and that’s what Nick wanted me to experience.

As I said, the majority of the flight was simply practice of my basic instrument flying skills; BAIF, NDB/VOR intercepts, partial panel, steep turns, stalls and unusual attitudes.  When we were done and on our way home, Nick set me up for a partial panel localizer only approach, which was interesting, but turned out pretty good for my first attempt.  Overall everything went very well, and Nick informed me that he is satisfied with my performance and that we will now start in on stage 2 topics, beginning with DME Arcs.   

So it is onto stage 2, but not before I take a stage 1 check flight with a different , and more senior instructor.  Nick went ahead and scheduled it for the 21^st, so I’ve got a little bit of studying to do to make sure that my knowledge is up to par for the oral portion of the check.  It shouldn’t be a big deal, but I’m going to make sure to study up anyway.

At the time that I sat down to write this, the referenced lesson was alread a week old, so I hope I can remember everything that happened.  I’ve been meaning to update the blog more regularly, but I have just been so darn busy.  Yes, I am whining, and if you visit here often you’ll get accustomed to it.

There was some debate as to whether or not we would fly today or do more ground instruction, but it was a little foggy this morning and Nick thought it would be a good opportunity for me to get some actual time (in IMC), so we went flying.  I had showed up a few minutes late for the lesson, which is very unlike me, but it worked out fine as Nick used the time to file and IFR flight plan for our flight (KLVK to KSCK) and was ready to go by the time I arrived.

After I pre-flighted, we strapped in and he briefed me on the Livermore One Departure while walking me through the set-up of all the radios.  The Livermore One departure is simply a climb at runway heading to 1200′, followed by a right turn to 020° to intercept the 060° Radial from the Oakland (OAK) VOR to the ALTAM intersection.  It sounded simple enough, so with Nick’s guidance I called Ground and asked for our IFR Clearance.  I listened intently, pen in hand, as the the ground controller came back and started rattling off words and number so fast I couldn’t keep up.  I heard, “Cessna 624QF cleared to Stockton via Livermore One Departure blah blah blah…” and that was about it.  By the word “departure” I had realized there was no way I was going to be able to write all of it down and gave up trying.  Fortunately, Nick was busy copying it and was able to read it back to the controller.  This was OK, and Nick was expecting me to get it as we haven’t yet talked about departure clearances or the shorthand needed to write them down quickly.  For today’s flight, all that mattered was that he got it right, and he did.

Continue reading ‘IFR Lesson 9: An Instrument departure and 0.1 actual’

Today’s flight was a potpourri of basic instrument flying, yes I said potpourri.  Rather than start something new, Nick decided that it would be best if we went up and practiced everything in one flight to prepare me for my IFR Stage 1 check flight.  With this in mind, I donned the hood and we covered topics such as… 

• Basic Attitude Instrument Flying (BAIF)
• Power-Off & Power-On Stalls
• Steep Turns
• Constant Rate and Speed Descents
• VOR Intercepts
• Intercepts with Partial Panel
• Unusual Attitude with Partial Panel
• Localizer Interception

It was sort of strange up there today.  We arrived at the practice area and dialed in the Approach frequency only to find it eerily silent.  This was so unusual that for a moment we thought we had a comm failure.  Nick told the controller that would be practicing in the area, and asked for traffic advisories, to which the controller happily agreed to provide.  We flew around the practice area for about 15 to 20 minutes in mostly silence, but all of a sudden the frequency (and the Zaon MRX) lit up and we were avoiding traffic left and right.  The controller who minutes ago had plenty of bandwidth, was now busy dealing with a jammed frequency and asking new aircraft to call back in a few minutes.  It was like when you go to the store and on your way in past the cash register there is nobody in line, but by the time you’ve picked up what you need and headed to headed to the front to check-out, a long line of people has now formed, and you get that, “Where did all these people suddenly come from?” feeling. 

Just before the peak of activity we had asked for the ILS into Livermore and the controller had begun to issue us vectors to intercept the localizer.  However, as it got increasingly busy it was obvious that he was looking to offload some of his workload so he basically shortcut us to the FOOTO intersection, and told us to contact Livermore tower.  Oh well, so much for that.

Despite the chaos of the heavy traffic, it went very well overall and Nick is pleased with my progress and performance.  I don’t yet know when my stage check will be, and I am told we will now be spending an hour or two on the ground talking about approach procedures.

Today was more NDB intercept practice, but this time in a real airplane.  At 1.0 hours on the hobbs it was a relatively short flight, but that’s OK I accomplished what I needed to do.  Nick had be intercepting inbound and outbound tracks to Stockton NDB, some with full panel, others with partial panel (AI and HI covered).  I did fine, but I still don’t like NDBs, and I could use a little more practice.  While I may jump on FSX to work on the NDB stuff a bit more, Nick tells me that during our next few flights I will be putting it all together; working on my BAIF, Partial Panel, Timed Courses/Turns, and VOR and NDB skills.  Then it’s time for a stage check with another instructor.

On the way home it was time once again for me to practice my localizer tracking skills, and I am happy to report that I did very well, with only very minor swings of the needle.   When Nick told me to remove the hood, I once again found myself about a mile out on final, but this time I was right on centerline.  Solid, right Nick? ;)

The one interesting, and slightly freaky, thing that did happen today was that we heard someone declare an emergency on the Approach frequency we were monitoring.  The pilot of a C182 told the approach controller he was having engine trouble and was descending for an emergency landing.  The last transmission we all heard from him was that he was at 800′ and would be landing on a road.  I have to hand it to the pilot, from what we could hear he was surprising cool and collected and appeared to be handling the situation quite well.  The approach controller was very helpful and directed another aircraft in the vicinity to circle overhead to survey the situation, as well as alerting local authorities.  A minute later the other aircraft said that he had located him and that it looked like he had landed fine.  Nick and I, who had been listening very intently, both let out a big sigh of relief as the Approach controller responded back that the pilot of the downed aircraft had just called from his cell phone and that all was OK.  Shortly after, a CHP helicopter was on frequency and on his way to assist along with ground emergency units.  Scary, but I am glad it ended well.  Today I found mention of the incident on a local news web site.  Kudos to you Mr. Pilot, whoever you are.