spiderweb
Final Approach
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2005
- Messages
- 9,488
- Display Name
Display name:
Ben
A GLORIOUS flight. How can I describe this? All the hard work that I put into getting the instrument rating came together. Flight plan filed, aircraft preflighted, I am up and away and head literally in the clouds. I gently guide the bird through the vectors ATC gives me, traversing some light rain showers while climbing steadily to altitude. Then, WHAM!!! Brilliant, scintillating sunlight streams into the cabin and I'm suddenly out of the clouds and skimming their tops. The air is so smooth--it doesn't even feel like I am moving. There are only scattered wisps of cloud above me, and a roiling sea of white and grey below. This must be what it is like to go to heaven. I level off and set the autopilot so I can survey this brilliant picture. I am going to put my Instrument Rating to use again, because I will have to make an ILS approach to Winchester, Virginia. With everything set and double-checked, ATC finally clears me for the approach, and I turn on course to intercept the needles on the instrument which will guide me safely down to the runway.
Within seconds of reducing power, I am back in the clouds. The world is getting greyer. As I continue on down, I note the I am ever so slightly high on the glideslope needle, so I gently correct with perhaps an ounce of pressure on the yoke. Before reaching the the final approach fix, I am out of the clouds with the runway dead ahead in good visibility. I cancel my IFR flight plan and make a very nice landing. The way home is no less beautiful, and perhaps pressing my luck, I decide to practice landings. I try everything--short field landings, soft-field landings, simulated engine-out landings, no-flaps--everything. It just gets better and better. I decide that the upcoming landing will be the last for the day. Somehow, I just know this one is going to be the best yet. Everything seems so slow and relaxed. Sure enough, the touchdown is so soft I decide the I must surely be blessed!
Within seconds of reducing power, I am back in the clouds. The world is getting greyer. As I continue on down, I note the I am ever so slightly high on the glideslope needle, so I gently correct with perhaps an ounce of pressure on the yoke. Before reaching the the final approach fix, I am out of the clouds with the runway dead ahead in good visibility. I cancel my IFR flight plan and make a very nice landing. The way home is no less beautiful, and perhaps pressing my luck, I decide to practice landings. I try everything--short field landings, soft-field landings, simulated engine-out landings, no-flaps--everything. It just gets better and better. I decide that the upcoming landing will be the last for the day. Somehow, I just know this one is going to be the best yet. Everything seems so slow and relaxed. Sure enough, the touchdown is so soft I decide the I must surely be blessed!
