flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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