IR Lesson No. 6 GPS Approach

Another 7am start for my sim time lesson. Brian and I both walked in and got right to business. He fired up the sim and I grabbed the checklist and my knee board. I was on a very tight schedule this morning due to meetings at work so I didn't want to run long. That had to be a first, me not wanting to fly, sim or in reality!

Brian started me out at 3000' over the top of Brandywine (KOQN) and vectored me direct to the Pottstown vor. I was really wanting to hold altitude to standards. I crossed the Pottstown (PTW) vor and continued with various turns to new headings that eventually turned me back inbound to Pottstown (PTW). I was going to fly the GPS RWY 9 Approach into Brandywine Airport. Together we set up the Garmin 530 for the approach with my initial approach fix (IAF)as ECZEL. I was on heading 240* and holding steady at 4000. So far, so good. This is where you would think it goes to hell in a hand basket but it didn't, the flight was actually going smooth.

As I approached ECZEL I ran my landing checklist and configured the plane for 10* flaps at 90 knts with a 500 fpm descent rate. Three miles later I was crossing the IAF and flowing through the five T's (turn,twist,time,throttle,talk). I turned course to 178*, no timing here, twisted the heading bug and CDI to 178*, adjusted throttle and there was no talk since we were not working on communications. I was really doing well, holding on course and altitude. In just five short miles I was again working through the T's crossing CEFSY and setting a new heading to 088* and now good to descend to 2100'. In another five miles I was crossing the FAF Waccy, and continuing with my stable descent to a minimum descent altitude (MDA) of 920'.

As I approached 920' I held level until crossing the missed approach point (MAP) point that was five miles from Waccy. No runway in sight I went full throttle into a climbing right turn to 2900' direct to CEFSY to hold. This hold was different, my first parallel entry and not timed but working off a given distance from the fix. I crossed the fix and continued outbound for four miles then made a standard rate left turn to a heading of 050* to intercept the inbound 088* radial. It went pretty smooth.

Time was up for me so we ended the session at that point and followed up with a brief review as we took care of payment, scheduling and signing my log book. I was rushing some today but still had a great lesson in the Elite RC-1 sim. Next lesson is this Sunday 7am.