Aaaaah-ctual

flyingcheesehead

flyingcheesehead

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
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24,256
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UQACY, WI
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iMooniac
It looked like the near-perfect fun-IFR scenario: OVC007, tops at 4,000, no indication of any icing, and my trainee and I getting back to town just early enough to climb on top and enjoy the sunset while millions of ground pounders below us trudged through their crappy gray day. :D

I filed to DBQ at 6000 and back at 5000. Why Dubuque? Why, because they had the crappiest weather of course! M1/4SM and OVC001. :goofy:

Unfortunately, the line guys hadn't fueled the plane last time they put it away and so I had to wait a bit for the fuel truck and that blew away our chances of seeing the sunset. Oh well... We strapped in and got going.

We were in and out of the tops at 6000 and the temp was +4. At one point we were able to see a lone star peeking through a layer above us.

Chi-center put us on vectors for the ILS 36. Dubuque was still reporting OVC001 but visibility had improved to 3 miles. Center asked a Navajo, also inbound to DBQ, for "minimum practical airspeed" and asked me to speed up. Then he ended up leaving me at 4000 until he cleared me for the approach about 2.5 from the marker so I had to drop like a rock to hit the glideslope. Below 3000 we hit moderate turbulence and had to fight it the whole way in. After I contacted tower still fully expecting to have to miss the approach, he gave us some welcome news! "Current weather observation shows 300 foot overcast." We actually broke out at about 250 AGL, which elicited the desired response from my trainee: "Coooooool." :)

Then I taxied back, picked up my clearance back home, and we waited on the taxiway to watch the Navajo pop out and land. A quick check of the obstacle departure procedure, and we were back in the clag for a quick trip home at 155 knots GS and hand flown the whole way. (I clicked the autopilot on on the way down to brief the approach.)

Ceilings were around 1400 AGL on the way back in, giving us enough time to see the city lights for a bit on the way down.

2.1 total, 1.6 actual, and two approaches. Fun fun! :goofy:
 
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That is awesome! I still catch myself saying "coooool" when popping out on an approach. I guess I'm just a newbie. :)

According to the WX, we might have a slightly "cooooool" moment going down to Alabama for turkey-day tomorrow.

Did you get a video?!?!
 
Chris -
If you're going to be stopping around JWN for fuel, let me know and I'll meet you at the airport and take you and the Mrs. for supper.
 
kevin47881 said:
Chris -
If you're going to be stopping around JWN for fuel, let me know and I'll meet you at the airport and take you and the Mrs. for supper.
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Thanks for the offer. If it were just Rachel and I, I would be sure to make a stop to take you up on it. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we will be traveling en-mass with the other 4 in the Jones clan in a Cherokee-6.

Next time, though!
 
awesome kent, when pete told me wisconsin was better than ILS minimums i wondered if you were going to go flying :)
 
CJones said:
Did you get a video?!?!
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Not this time, but I do have video of an ILS into GRB down to 300 feet from last winter.

I also forgot to mention that I picked up carb ice both ways... Gained 4" MP when I applied heat on the way down.
 
tonycondon said:
awesome kent, when pete told me wisconsin was better than ILS minimums i wondered if you were going to go flying :)
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Heh... Yeah, I kinda go looking for trouble don't I? I've had the rating for a year and a half and that was at least my 4th ILS to 300 feet or less sans instructor. I also have about 5% of my total flight time in actual IMC.

Hoods suck! :yes:
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Hoods suck! :yes:
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They do! A couple of weeks ago I was trying to get into Timmerman on the LOC approach. Only saw the runway for a brief period of time as I passed the missed. First time I had to go missed in actual which was a bit of an eye opener. I have done 1 ILS to minimums and that was real cool too!

WX here was 1/4-1SM OVC003 I really wanted to go flying but could not legally get up and off my field nor land back at it.
 
Popping out of the clouds and flying instrument time for real is much more fun. :) When we flew the Navajo to Princeton on Monday we popped out about 1000' AGL. While I didn't say anything since I didn't want to be a distraction, the proper "Coooooooool" went through my head. Doubly so since the town was all lit up at night. :) When the airport was covered in fog (the ONLY area we could see that had any fog over it) and no ILS, we diverted to Trenton, which had lower ceilings but an ILS. I love the runway lights for an ILS. :yes:

Flying back to IPT we took the ILS approach to runway 27, and he pointed out just how accurate the localizer was, to within the width of the runway. There we first popped out probably about 1000' AGL, but we then went through a few more clouds since we stayed on the glide slope. Really, really cool. :)

I'm looking forward to getting started working on instrument flying... all in due course... PPL first. ;)
 
When you're trying to get back home when you weren't expecting IMC or the ice you are picking up on your wings, that "cooooooooool" becomes "wheeeeeeeeeeeeeew" when you break out at minimums. The fun was was last year for Wings. Severe turbulence, IMC, ice, minimums, missed. Oh, and with terrain around that was higher than the airport.
 
Ed, you have some sort of sick distorted reality concerning "fun"
 
flyingcheesehead said:
We actually broke out at about 250 AGL, which elicited the desired response from my trainee: "Coooooool." :)
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Kent -- Is this your truck driving trainee? You're full service! I expect you'll be out on a boat somewhere this evening!

Sam
 
Skypilotcfii said:
Those Carb Ice Alarms that use a photo cel and mirror mounted in the Carburetor with an alarm inside cabin really saved my rear a few times. If you gained 4 inches you probably needed Heat sooner.
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Yeah, probably. Woulda caught it in cruise via mp or airspeed, but it happened on the initial letdown. I pulled back to roughly 16" mp but looked back to the flight instruments before the mp needle stopped moving. When I leveled off at 4000 I went back to adjust it to 16" and it was at 14, but I figured it was due to my not focusing on the gauge when I originally pulled power. A minute or two later I was 50 feet low and a bit slower, and back down to 15". Pulled the heat and it sucked down a slug of ice and went back up to 18-19".
 
smigaldi said:
They do! A couple of weeks ago I was trying to get into Timmerman on the LOC approach. Only saw the runway for a brief period of time as I passed the missed. First time I had to go missed in actual which was a bit of an eye opener.
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Good job! A few years back a jet based there saw the runway after the MAP, tried to put it down, and slid off the end of the runway into the mud which caused the nose gear to collapse. Oops.

WX here was 1/4-1SM OVC003 I really wanted to go flying but could not legally get up and off my field nor land back at it.
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There are certainly advantages to having 3 ILS approaches at your home base. :yes:
 
Sam Doolittle said:
Kent -- Is this your truck driving trainee? You're full service! I expect you'll be out on a boat somewhere this evening!
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:rofl:

Yep, my driving trainee... I always like to take them flying, especially the good ones. This guy's not only doing great in the truck, he used to like flying r/c planes and he even took an intro flight once. Since he's going to be making a lot more money than he ever has before, I figure I need to make sure he gets REALLY interested in flying. :D :yes:
 
smigaldi said:
WX here was 1/4-1SM OVC003 I really wanted to go flying but could not legally get up and off my field nor land back at it.
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[emphasis mine]
I'd certainly agree if you said "safely" or were part 135, but as a part 91, my understanding is that the takeoff minimums were advisory! (That said, where are you going to go if you take off with those weather conditions and have an issue on takeoff? So I'm not disagreeing with your decision!)
 
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