IFR Learning Experience

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Tommar98

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Tommar98
So I used my newly minted instrument rating Saturday and thought I'd share a few notes on my experience. I passed my check-ride in June so this was my first filed plan by without instructor. My wife was co-pilot. I was just making a short trip to Sanford ME. The forecast all week was great. I was taking my wife there to say hello to her parents and have the proverbial $500 breakfast. I was more nervous leading up to it than I expected. That morning I did my brief, filed my flightplan and everything was perfect. However, I noticed some morning fog forecaast, which is what I expected. We got to the airport and had some low scatter clouds and fog (all about 1000 agl) so within my comfort zone. It was absolutely amazing to take off and turn and climb through some clouds for the first time on my own flight plan and no instructor. We climbed through pretty fast and we were on top and that was also a cool feeling to see the cloud deck below. Of course the realization that if an engine problem were to occur a landing spot wasn't going to come into view until 1000 agl.

As the trip progressed the clouds weren't burning off as fast as I expected and about 50 miles out from Sanford , AWOS was reporting 1 mile, mist and 100 feet! Yikes. Boston Center asked if I had weather and what approach I wanted. I told them I did but based on what I heard wasn't confident we were going to complete it and asked for RNAV 32. I was cleared to IAF and sent on my way which was still 30 miles away, so I was hopeful Sanford would improve by then. Flying a warrior at 100 knots gave me plenty of time. I was then handed off to approach and was cleared for the approach at or above 2000 at IAF. At that point Sanford was now reporting visibility down to 1/2 mile, mist and still 100'... so I told approach I wasn't going to proceed and asked for some delaying vectors while I decided on plan B. I didn't see any benefit in flying the approach and going missed with the weather that low. Also at the time I was still VFR where I was. All the clouds where to my left where the airport was. I ended up with vectors over the water at 3000 which I didn't like. Not many options with engine out at that altitude. But I was VFR.

After about 10 mins, no changes at Sanford so I asked for route back to 7B2 where I started from. It was my first time getting an amended clearance while flying. Fortunately it wasn't a complicated one. Off I went head back home. Then my Ipad heated up and shut off so I lost foreflight. Not an immediate big deal until I realized if I had to do an approach back home I hadn't printed paper approaches. In all my training I never had the Ipad heat up and crap out. My wife was able to hold it next to air vent and after about 10 mins it started up again, then crapped out again after another 10 mins as I approached home. I did have foreflight on my phone for back up-but it had very little power left. All of this was a great experience. Despite the best forecast, it turned out I couldn't go where I wanted. I could have diverted, but with a rental plane and tight schedule it didn't make sense. I need to consider printed plates in the future and plan for Ipad or phone not working. All in all it was an opportunity to learn, and given that I hadn't launched in heavy IFR, it was an easier workload. Discovering for the first time that my Ipad can crap out and being in the soup would not have been good. Sure I was aware of that in my training, but the weather forecast showed sky clear, nothing below 12,000 and VFR. Lesson learned! It turned out they were wrong. Glad to have the rating. I'm sure I'll keep learning every trip.
 
Great learning experiences there.....

Some takeaways I see from your experience
  1. Have printed copies of the approaches, including departure, alternate, and destination
    • A local CFII provided the really great idea of enlarging the pate to fit a full size 8.5x11" paper. Maybe overkill, but the larger size might help older eyes see key details
    • Same CFII is a huge fan of using highlighters and colored pens to mark up the plate, adding key data in key spots. Especially the FAA ones.
  2. Always have an out. You're requesting the delay vectors was spot on.... As was deciding the destination wasn't going to happen and requesting clearance back home.
  3. Until that rental airplane has a USB power port installed, invest in a power brick. The Anker PowerCore 26800 is my current one and I love it. Plenty of juice to keep phone and iPad topped off even on longer flights.
  4. To prevent iPad heating shutdown, there are some simple "hacks" to help here. Mostly just keep the back area clear and cooler air flowing over it. I've also seen some then reflective foam board cut and shaped to provide a "visor" over the iPad preventing IR and heat from getting to the iPad.

Keep adding the right stuff your your experience and skill bag, like you did this time, and you'll eventually be one of those "old" pilots. :cheers:
 
AggieMike88 said:
Great learning experiences there.....

Some takeaways I see from your experience
  1. Have printed copies of the approaches, including departure, alternate, and destination
    • A local CFII provided the really great idea of enlarging the pate to fit a full size 8.5x11" paper. Maybe overkill, but the larger size might help older eyes see key details
    • Same CFII is a huge fan of using highlighters and colored pens to mark up the plate, adding key data in key spots. Especially the FAA ones.
  2. Always have an out. You're requesting the delay vectors was spot on.... As was deciding the destination wasn't going to happen and requesting clearance back home.
  3. Until that rental airplane has a USB power port installed, invest in a power brick. The Anker PowerCore 26800 is my current one and I love it. Plenty of juice to keep phone and iPad topped off even on longer flights.
  4. To prevent iPad heating shutdown, there are some simple "hacks" to help here. Mostly just keep the back area clear and cooler air flowing over it. I've also seen some then reflective foam board cut and shaped to provide a "visor" over the iPad preventing IR and heat from getting to the iPad.

Keep adding the right stuff your your experience and skill bag, like you did this time, and you'll eventually be one of those "old" pilots. :cheers:
Click to expand...

Thanks for feedback. I do have a power brick. They’re great. The overheating was new to me. I will definitely look into cooling better and maybe a 2nd iPad backup.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Great job on thinking ahead..having an out.. telling ATC what You wanted...and most of all exercising prudent decision making.
I have iPad with foreflight in cockpit but only use to look up frequencies that are unexpected or a plate or waypoint that is unexpected. I print plates for all kinds of approaches. Including departure point- because you are going to be coming back soon and what if you wed to turn around quickly and shoot that approach. Imagine you are in the soup and that iPad craps the bed. Would add to the stress imo.
 
Went through some similar lessons after getting my IR ticket. First off, I would recommend getting the full booklet of approaches for whatever region you are in and just keeping them with you. May not be the “best” way of doing it, but realistically approaches dont change that often and since it isnt your primary source of information I personally dont think its the end of the world if those are expired. Its a backup that has all the airports in your area if your ipad and phone both fail (yes i have used my phone before going for paper).

As far as the ipad goes, if you see the sun hitting it directly it will overheat fairly quickly. If im in cruise ill usually keep it off and in the shade somewhere, and always try to keep an air vent on it when i am using it. But most importantly just try to keep it out of direct sunlight if you can.

Congrats on the IR! Go put it to use!
 
benyflyguy said:
and what if you were to turn around quickly and shoot that approach
Click to expand...
.... after hearing a "lesson learned" story pertaining to this idea, when I depart any airport, I always have the appropriate approach queued up for fast access in ForeFlight and selected (but not activated) in the NAV/COMM.

Never needed it yet, but can see the day when I do and getting behind the airplane 8-ball isn't going to be a good thing.
 
First time I ever flew with Foreflight on the iPad, I took off and about 5 minutes after departure on a hot summer day, the screen went black. I set it on the floor, reached over to the open paper chart sitting on the right seat and continued on my way. I still fly that way. Paper is such a cheap backup.
 
Good decision making to keep out of trouble. Consider a secondary tablet or phone loaded appropriate software, and a power source. I've never had an Android tablet crump in the heat, BTW, since Android tablets were a thing. I don't know why some iPads are so susceptible to overheating.

Onshore winds can cause sudden low ceilings on the Maine coast. My first IFR trip was to BHB with minimum reserves. A line of isolated CBs developing 50 miles west, near Bangor, sucked cold ocean air inland just as I was arriving, with BHB going from clear to 1000 OVC in nothing flat. I flew the ILS, tied down, and rented my car before the storms rolled through. That was an eye opener.
 
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Tommar98 said:
After about 10 mins, no changes at Sanford so I asked for route back to 7B2 where I started from.
Click to expand...
Interrupting this thread to say, "how are things at 7B2?" That's where I learned to fly.
 
Great decision and sounds like you are comfortable with your personal minimums. I just did my first ifr flight solo and was nervous before as well with the family in the plane. Once the engine started that all went away. Climbed through a low layer and had a great flight from MA to Atlanta.

Without paper, I use a backup device, a bigger iPhone, in addition to my ipad. I also have an Anker charger that works awesome. I have had iPads overheat, especially in low wings in the summer. Luckily I learned that lesson years ago vfr.
 
I’m a VFR pilot and print off the approaches, just in case. I trust nothing with electrical power. I’ve been in the software industry waaaaay too long.
 
Some enjoy the security blanket of paper. Others don't worry about it. I'm 8+ years with no paper charts and have had only one failure. That was a bug in Foreflight about a year ago which caused it to freeze. Tapped to load my backup EFB and continued on and flew the IAP to my destination.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Some enjoy the security blanket of paper. Others don't worry about it. I'm 8+ years with no paper charts and have had only one failure. That was a bug in Foreflight about a year ago which caused it to freeze. Tapped to load my backup EFB and continued on and flew the IAP to my destination.
Click to expand...

I'm with you. Unless you are prepared to subscribe to paper charts, then your paper backup strategy is likely to be incomplete. It might be difficult to predict and print out charts for every possible approach for alternates and/or potential diversions.

Carry backup electronics with separate power supplies. I've yet to need to use an electronic chart backup in flight. But I have them at the ready. It would be a really bad day at the office to lose 4 redundant GPS, three redundant COM, and two redundant chart sources. Any one nav or com system is enough to wriggle out of an emergency, even if it won't look pretty juggling stuff in the cockpit while IFR. A com loss would be the worst emergency, quite frankly. With ATC assistance and any nav source, you can probably deal.
 
chemgeek said:
It would be a really bad day at the office to lose 4 redundant GPS, three redundant COM, and two redundant chart sources. Any one nav or com system is enough to wriggle out of an emergency, even if it won't look pretty juggling stuff in the cockpit while IFR. A com loss would be the worst emergency, quite frankly. With ATC assistance and any nav source, you can probably deal.
Click to expand...
You have described the standard response to the old "what if I lose my charts" scenario. It is older than our newfangled electronics, but somehow folks think it's brand new. If anything it's both less likely to occur and easier to handle these days.
 
Have yet to have an android tablet overheat and shut down even in full sunlight on a 4 hour trip. Seems to be a FF/Apple issue, but that Koolaid flavor is so yummy. I run two different OS/EFB (neither of them Apple) not counting the Garmin Box just in case I have a software bug that manifests itself in flight. Having the same software as a backup on a second device isn't really a backup in my book.
 
EdFred said:
Have yet to have an android tablet overheat and shut down even in full sunlight on a 4 hour trip. Seems to be a FF/Apple issue, but that Koolaid flavor is so yummy. I run two different OS/EFB (neither of them Apple) not counting the Garmin Box just in case I have a software bug that manifests itself in flight. Having the same software as a backup on a second device isn't really a backup in my book.
Click to expand...

This is a person who understands system redundancy. Most people seem to think two of the same device or same family of devices is redundancy. It's not a defense against software bugs. I'm an Apple user, and while I have Foreflight on my iPad and iPhone, I carry paper for redundancy. If the iPad dies, I'll try the phone, but I've got backup.
 
chemgeek said:
Unless you are prepared to subscribe to paper charts, then your paper backup strategy is likely to be incomplete. It might be difficult to predict and print out charts for every possible approach for alternates and/or potential diversions.
Click to expand...
Subscription to a paper only source not really necessary. Printing from the iPad is a normal thing nowadays. So for this use, just bring up the desired plate on in FF, hit the "send to" icon (square with upward pointing arrow) and tap Print. Idea also works with the other popular EFB's.

And the subscription to FF or your EFB of choice takes care of keeping the plate current, and advising of any NOTAMs concerning that plate.

Regarding alternates / diversions.... Before departing, it would be easy to update your "trip kit" at the FBO, by reviewing the TAF or general area forecast for your destination airport, noting the wind direction, and selecting the appropriate approaches for the wind. For diversions, something of the same process.... Make a decision on what would be your divert airports and print out those plates.
 
I always carry a backup iPad. I've never had my iPad overheat in the 182 (high wing = less sun), but I did have it happen in the Warrior once. That was an eye opener.
 
EdFred said:
Have yet to have an android tablet overheat and shut down even in full sunlight on a 4 hour trip. Seems to be a FF/Apple issue, but that Koolaid flavor is so yummy. I run two different OS/EFB (neither of them Apple) not counting the Garmin Box just in case I have a software bug that manifests itself in flight. Having the same software as a backup on a second device isn't really a backup in my book.
Click to expand...
OTOH, my Android phone has shut down from heat. My iPad never has.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Interrupting this thread to say, "how are things at 7B2?" That's where I learned to fly.
Click to expand...

7B2 is booming. Flight school probably has 8 or more instructors. 10 planes. Always busy there. They are adding more hangers (all accounted for) and just redid taxiways.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
AggieMike88 said:
Subscription to a paper only source not really necessary. Printing from the iPad is a normal thing nowadays. So for this use, just bring up the desired plate on in FF, hit the "send to" icon (square with upward pointing arrow) and tap Print. Idea also works with the other popular EFB's.

And the subscription to FF or your EFB of choice takes care of keeping the plate current, and advising of any NOTAMs concerning that plate.

Regarding alternates / diversions.... Before departing, it would be easy to update your "trip kit" at the FBO, by reviewing the TAF or general area forecast for your destination airport, noting the wind direction, and selecting the appropriate approaches for the wind. For diversions, something of the same process.... Make a decision on what would be your divert airports and print out those plates.
Click to expand...

Good luck getting your printouts in the air should you divert to somewhere not anticipated. Nothing wrong with printing all the possible approaches for your departure and destination airports, alternates, and maybe a bunch more for intermediate stops, but if you are going to do all that for every trip why not just get the printed charts? How many times have you had your EFB fail? And the backup EFB? Just sayin. If you just prefer printouts, that's a different matter. A partial backup is not really a backup. If you have only one EFB device and a few printed charts, you have only partial backups. Something to think about.
 
Good job, good ADM, glad you had fun and enjoyed the new rating. That's what it's all about.

Btw, your instructor should have taught you a long time ago the difference between VFR/VMC and IFR/IMC. They are NOT interchangeable. But no big deal, newbies make newbie mistakes, we're all human. Learn and sin no more. :thumbsup:

And see ya in the clouds!!
Oh wait, I guess not. :D
 
Remember, ATC can 'read' an approach to you, worst case. Still need gas to make it happen. And a piece of paper, quill, and ink well in the cockpit.
 
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