IR Lesson 16 VOR Approaches

I was up early and excited about today's lesson. It was a nice leisurely drive to the flight school minding the 45 mph speed limit and taking in the cool crisp air. There was only a few of us on the road at 6:15 am, I was in no rush.

I had a chance to page through my Airport Facility Directory (AFD) so I re-acquainted myself with KOQN formerly N99, Brandywine Airport. Brian arrived on time and we both headed inside to get the paper trail started. This is where the "good morning" ended. Today Brian wanted to review VOR approaches and he decided on VOR RWY 9 at Wilmington, KILG. Hey, this should be no big deal right? It's the home airport and I should be pretty comfortable, yeah ok.

I started out north east of the Modena MXE VOR. I tracked direct to and once crossing the station I dialed in a 197* FROM heading. This had me on course to the IAF GLEEM, which is the FAF once you complete the procedure turn and headed inbound. I flow through a final checks and all my nav and comm settings are correct. I even made sure I had flipped the Woodstown OOD VOR with a 266* heading in place for my missed. I cross GLEEM and totally screw up my procedure turn. I start to think (mistake no. 1) that I am direct entry, I'm not. I correct my self and perform a parallel entry, ok recovery. Looking good as I reach the 1 minute mark outbound so I turn to a heading of 060* so I can intercept the 094* course. Remember what I said about finally being more aware of the wind? Well, I did think about it but didn't correct fast enough for it. I passed the FAF GLEEM but managed to get on course for final approach. My altitude was here and there, nothing to write home about but I didn't burn myself a hole in the ground either. I'm looking for a 3:24 mark on the timer but since I started it late I'll be happy with 3:10 or so. I was holding altitude at 620-680 holding course when reaching the Missed Approach Point, I went full throttle.

The missed called for a right turn out climbing to 2000'. I climbed out but didn't execute the turn until double checking the approach plate for my outbound heading from the DuPont DQO VOR. Duh.....what a tool, totally behind the plane today and actually feeling like it was my first time in the sim. I finally got on the 184* radial and by the skin of my teeth crossed the WACON intersection at 6 miles from DQO. A bit of a relief but not for long as I set up for a teardrop entry to the hold. Brian says your back under control good entry. DOH! that didn't last long I turned out right the caught it and turned left on course without enough wind correction and blew towards NJ. I asked for a search team to come find me in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

Brian reset me just a few miles from the GLEEM IAF and I made a decent procedure turn and chugged along on final going missed again, this time getting it right. I didn't feel much consolation knowing how bad I was the first go round. We sat and reviewed the lesson, all the "what went wrongs" and what I did different to fly the approach correct the "second time". This lesson really knocked me in the dirt but it also taught me that the briefings are so important. Looking at a plate then immediately flying it is pretty tough, at least for me.

We are off to Wilkes-Barre, PA, driving not flying (crappy wx) to take care of my parents grave. I want to make sure Mom has her favorite pink geraniums for Mother's Day and that everything is done right for Memorial day. I'm up again flying on the 21st.