Another fun flight last night! An ILS to 300' with pics and video

beestforwardspeed

beestforwardspeed

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CoopAir
Mother Nature cooperated again last night and gave me some decent IMC. Took off from Westfield, MA (BAF) at 7 PM bound for Worcester, MA (ORH).

Here is the video in full HD 1080P.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir4gL9OzUnA&feature=youtu.be

Here are the various pics:

http://s1102.photobucket.com/user/p...ir June 7th BAF to ORH and Back?sort=2&page=1

Entered the clag around 1200' on departure and asked BDL app for direct to RILOC for holding (FAF for the ILS 11 at ORH).


Tried to get between layers so I requested and was granted 7000, but still solid up there so I just scrapped that and asked if I could start the approach. BDL app gives me a 050 hdg to intercept the LOC and at 2800' passing RILOC I check the GS.

Its raining pretty heavily, but its a pretty smooth ride---although it's a bit hard to track the localizer since at 2000' AGL the winds are from 140 deg, but near the ground they are from 070, but good practice. BDL hands me off to the tower and I request a T&G which they are happy to accommodate.

Broke out at 300' but I could see straight down before that, so not a true "in the clag" app like most of them are. Very squirlly winds on the landing so my hands and feet are plenty busy.

Twr ships me off to departure and re-clears me back to BAF for the VOR 2 app. Lots of rain but pretty smooth air since the air is pretty stable. No one else is complaining about the ride.

Due to the BDL arrivals, the app controllers have to vector me around the backside of the final app course (left downwind for VOR 2). BAF is reporting 800 sct and 1200 over so I'm not too worried about not getting in with a 530' MDA.

Sure enough we break out at around 1100' and make an uneventful landing on runway 2 back at BAF.

Pretty amazing how you can have such heavy rain, yet have such a smooth ride, but looking at the skew-t that I attached makes me see why as there is minimal instability only up to 15,000---if that, so no way any parcel of air would rise on its own higher with the cap above it.

 
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I wish we had more weather like that in AZ..... Tired of sun all of the time. I love IMC!

Dan
 
We don't get much flyable IMC here either. I'm not sure I would jump into a flight through moderate or greater precip in my Cardinal, at least at my level of experience. But any time we have really benign IMC, I try to get out and play in the clouds to keep my skills up. Yesterday morning we had winds from the NE blowing moisture off of Lake Huron that created a marine layer with ceilings about 100 feet above minimums around KPHN, so I filed to there and shot 3 approaches, two ILS and one RNAV, including one published miss with a hold. It was great fun! Coming back at 4000 I was surfing the tops for a while, like riding an ocean of foam. Then I shot the RNAV into home base to finish the flight (though conditions were already "deteriorating" and I broke out high enough to cancel IFR before landing).

I wish I had equipment like Andrew's to make videos like he does...
 
We gotta hunt down the ground loop that gives you that whine in the audio. :) But I still love watching them anyway.

We had flyable IMC here... Three days after the airplane went out of Annual awaiting her shop schedule date. :) Of course. (We changed shops this year partly wanting to get a different AI's eyeballs on her after the other AI has done every inspection for almost 20 years, and partly because we were tired of the "someone has to drive up and get the airplane" shuffle of taking her to BJC every year. We were all busy and didn't request a slot in the shop's schedule soon enough, so we got the next open slot which isn't for another week. Oh well...)

And Friday we had this... and some Bonanza went right over the house... (Blue dot) wedged between DEN airspace and the line of weather, aimed right for that supercell to the southeast until DEN APP turned him toward Centennial.

tyjy4y6u.jpg


I could see how rough his ride was from the ground... Not kidding. Bouncing him all over the place and could see control movements and whole aircraft bein rocked. Not a smart place to be.
 
Very nice. I guess not everyone enjoys playing like that, I know I sure do.
 
snoboy said:
Very nice. I guess not everyone enjoys playing like that, I know I sure do.
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No offense, but I can't see anything "fun" about flying in IMC.

Thrilling, exciting, fulfilling, and challenging, yes -- but fun? I've had more fun at the dentist. YMMV.
 
Fun sometimes means challenging and interesting. I find learning IR stuff "fun" but it's just new and interesting to me. It sure is a lot of work but I'm doing it so I can fly in the clouds and get to where I want to go.
 
Jay Honeck said:
No offense, but I can't see anything "fun" about flying in IMC.

Thrilling, exciting, fulfilling, and challenging, yes -- but fun? I've had more fun at the dentist. YMMV.
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I've never found being at the dentist fulfilling or challenging though, and those qualities are a big part of other activities that I find to be fun. And I've really enjoyed surfing the tops and seeing some of the weird, surreal cloudscapes you find between layers.

My main reason to get an IR ticket was to be able to go places on days I otherwise couldn't, or wouldn't dare to, because of ceilings or visibility. But I definitely enjoy the process of keeping up my currency too. There's nothing like shooting an ILS in solid IMC and seeing the runway at the bottom like a pot of gold.

It's definitely a YMMV thing. I know people who find doing landing practice in strong crosswinds to be fun. Personally, I find it nerve-wracking to wrestle with an airplane that close to the ground, especially when it's my own airplane. Fixing a broken airplane would have to be a LOT cheaper before I would really enjoy doing that, though it's also exciting and does feel fulfilling when I'm safely on the ground again.
 
Jay Honeck said:
No offense, but I can't see anything "fun" about flying in IMC.

Thrilling, exciting, fulfilling, and challenging, yes -- but fun? I've had more fun at the dentist. YMMV.
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Just like golf? But many people find that "fun"! I just see it as aggravation! IMC is fun!
 
denverpilot said:
We gotta hunt down the ground loop that gives you that whine in the audio. :) But I still love watching them anyway.
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Yea, I've been wondering how to get rid of the excess noise in the video, but have no idea how to. Maybe you might have an idea?

Is there any way to get the ATC audio clearer or is that as good as its going to get you think?

Here are the audio cables that I use for the setup

 
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While I think of IMC as fun, I certainly see why the next pilot would think of it as a chore. To each his own on that one I'd say!
 
Jay Honeck said:
No offense, but I can't see anything "fun" about flying in IMC.

Thrilling, exciting, fulfilling, and challenging, yes -- but fun? I've had more fun at the dentist. YMMV.
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Andrew has an IMC fetish.

saracelica said:
Fun sometimes means challenging and interesting. I find learning IR stuff "fun" but it's just new and interesting to me. It sure is a lot of work but I'm doing it so I can fly in the clouds and get to where I want to go.
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I agree. When I first started flying IFR, I enjoyed the opportunity to experience flying in IMC. After doing it awhile, I've discovered that my passengers don't enjoy it much, the sightseeing sucks, and prolonged flight in weather is more fatiguing than a nice VMC flight.

The fun in IMC flight for me these days is accomplishing the mission, or punching through a cloud layer to get to the beautiful clear skies above, and of course breaking out on at minimums.

I do enjoy a well executed approach, but with ubiquitous GPS approaches, its not as challenging as it once was. Flying a partial panel NDB approaches to minimums used to be quite a hoot...I miss having an ADF :)
 
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