Sunday, March 21, 2010

Knocking Off The Rust

It's time to finish the Instrument rating. This past Thursday with Safety Pilot Mike along was a great start to getting back in the saddle. Our discussions about instrument flying left me with some things I need to polish up on and now I'm more focused than ever. I need to get aggressive with altitude and heading, this is not VFR flying, this is precision flying with no room for error. Bouncing ideas and talking about procedures really helps get the mind back in the game, it's all about precision flying.

This afternoon we had the chance to meet up with fellow POA forum members AdamZ and Lee. I was a tad late to Chester County(KMQS) but did finally make it there in time to receive a landing grade. I shot the ILS 29 approach into gusting wind conditions which provided plenty of float but for the most part an on center looong landing. Once all together we walked into the Flying Machine Cafe' for lunch. AdamZ had a Ruben, not sure what Lee had and Mike and I each had a salad. After some great hangar flying we all headed back out to the ramp. I thought I would help out a Cessna that taxied in by bringing out a set of chocks. When the pilot got out he called my name, I had to look twice. The pilot was Keith, one of the men that work at Cecil Aero at 58M, what a nice surprise to see him and his wife.

Mike and I saddled up for some additional approach work. We role played ATC as I set up for GPS 17 into KEVY, Summit Airport. The GPS approach was fine and just prior to the MAP we went missed. A brief approach review and then we were off to KILG for the ILS Runway 1 approach. Wind's strongly favored one niner so we terminated this approach with a circle to land on one nine. No pictures from today, this IR practice time is all business and I want to hold on to what Mike said out in the parking lot. Shooting the approach is like fighting a five mile battle....stay focused. Let me add don't quit....Me Quit? I don't think so, it's just not my style. I hope to get some additional hood time this week but that will depend on the wx.

One side note.....I broke the 400 hour mark today!! Hard to believe, in just 3.5 years I've come this far.

1 comment:

Geoff Nelson said...

Keep up the effort. It's amazing how the IR will open doors for you and allow more travels with ease. Good luck!