Sunday, April 20, 2008

IR Lesson 10 Procedures, Holds

Another typical 7am start at TAS Flight School. Brian and I walk in together although he threw me off a bit arriving in a different car. He recently purchased a new house so he is learning about what the real 'money pit' is all about. I didn't bust on him but he still had paint on his hands from applying Killz sealer. I remember those days, now it's much easier to just write the darn check and get it over with.

We picked up where we left off last lesson and that was flying around Wilmington (KILG). Brian set the sim for 2000' and somewhere on the ILS RWY 1 approach. We talked about procedures and the need to flow through the same process. Brian advised that once ATC gives you the "expect runway whatever" you will once again brief your approach plate. I say once again since you already have a good idea what the winds are doing from your pre-flight wx checks and should have prepared accordingly. This is the time to double check your comm and nav settings and as I call it, play out the scenario in my head. I am learning to visualize the approach and commit it to memory, even though the plate is right in front of me on the yoke clip.

I am going to get set up for 90 knots and 10* of flaps within 5-8 miles of my IAF. This gives me time to get stable and run through my landing checklist. With the checklist complete I can concentrate on flying the plane. I am now "time in" as the aircraft is pointed for ILG. I am crossing HADIN as the outer marker light glows and I hear the tone. I click on the clock to begin my timer, three minutes and thirty two seconds until my Missed Approach Point (MAP). I can not descend below 275'. I focus on holding course and intercepting the glide slope trying not to fixate on the altitude. About 600' I break out and see the runway environment, what a pretty sight! I reduce throttle and add a second notch of flaps when Brian drops the cloud layer down to zilch! What??!! Where!??? Going missed, full throttle, positive climb rate and retract flaps. I climb straight out to 900' then turn left to a heading of 220* while climbing to 2000'. I already have nav two set for the missed 271* radial so as I see the CDI needle come alive I turn right to intercept 271*. No missing the radial like the last time going missed. I am watching the Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) and looking for 9.2 miles to the ELUDE intersection.
I am looking good on course holding altitude and tracking to ELUDE. I cross ELUDE and perform a teardrop entry turning course to 240* for one minute then making a standard right turn to 91*. That didn't seem to bad as I start my way around the hold doing laps. Brian says enough here, very good handling the winds and good job tracking in and outbound headings.
We reset for Pottstown Limerick and brief the LOC RWY 28 approach plate. This one looks interesting since the GOOGL intersection is both the initial approach fix (IAF) and after completing the procedure turn course reversal it becomes the final approach fix (FAF). I depart PTW and after climbing through 700' feet I start my right turn to a heading of 90*. I set the ETX East Texas VOR up on nav two and for my DME. The plan is to intercept the 160* radial and follow it until I am 22.7 miles from ETX. At this point I am late turning to the 96* outbound leg (parallel entry) and blow through the safety zone of the holding pattern. Not a good move but I continue outbound for one minute then turn left to a heading of 240* to intercept the localizer of 276*. It didn't take long because of my bad position from the initial entry. I continue in a hold for a few laps and then we take a time out. We review my flying on Brian's computer screen and it tells the tale of what went right and where I ended up. After the initial slow turn on course I recovered and held really nice patterns around the hold, working my scan, verbalizing the five T's and overall a nice lesson. I did have some trouble holding altitude at various times and that I will need to work on. It so much easier flying 679er!!!

I scheduled six lessons that should take me through my sim time of 20 hours. Brian and I agreed that we would schedule blocks of time for the flying portion of my lessons. Maybe two to three hours at a time depending on wx and the call of nature. I'm up again Wednesday morning at 7 am.

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