Clark1961
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2008
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So yesterday was just a bit overcast around Denver and out on the plains. Great day to go aviate, no? Planned a short flight out to AKO and back so should get two approaches and about an hour of actual IMC with 300 ft ceilings in Denver and higher out on the plains.
Get things sorted out and launch - yep, sure enough the ceiling is at 300 ft, wunnerful. Drive over towards AKO at 9,000 with no problems other than the view out the windows really sucks. Descend on command to 7,000 and things start icing up. Not good at all. Tell center that AKO won't work and we're climbing and going to GLD cause it's lots warmer to the east.
On the way to GLD I remember that someone mentioned tops at 10,500 so I requested and got 11,000. Climbed to 11,000 and still have the lousy view out the window. Not good. 'II sez the wings are icing again. Yup, about a quarter inch on the OAT probe already. Tell center we need to go back down again. Didn't bother telling them the tops weren't as advertised.
Finally get to GLD and the ceiling is about 2,000 agl so canceled IFR with field in sight. Got some gas, coffee and cinnamon rolls then ponder weather. Decided to dogleg southwest to HGO on way back to Denver since it's warmer to the south. Filed via DUATS with plan to pick-up clearance in the air. 'II has doubts 'cause he's never picked up a clearance that way. I've never picked up a clearance that way either but I trust in the fact that ignorance is the mother of adventure and I've seen it done on TV (or something) so away we go.
Get airborne again, get clearance after some discussion with center. There was a radar outage in the area and the controller was a bit flustered. Had to request squawk after being given clearance. Anyway, it all worked out. Went up to 12,000 toward HGO with tops between 10,500 and 11,000. It was just a bit sunny up there - hopefully the picture attachment works.
Everything is fine and dandy and we got a short-cut vector to Denver. Got switched over to approach and it's suddenly clear that things are just a bit busy. Listened to approach lecture some poor Cessna driver that approach was busy, remain VFR, they'd get to them when they could and don't bother calling again. After that little to-do, we got instructions to descend and vectors toward the localizer.
Things were getting really busy and it was interesting to hear three controllers working the same frequency. So I was just cruising along watching things develop and listening to all the airliners doing their thing. Eventually, I sort of caught on that approach had forgotten about me and that I'd probably better do something. As soon as the localizer needle twitched and I was ready to key the mic some airliner and one of the controllers start exchanging family history and favorite recipes (or something like that). Anyway, they talked long enough for me to go completely through the localizer. Crap. The controller finally cut the gabfest off and I wasted no time letting them know I was now west of the 35 localizer and westbound toward the approaches to DEN (I was fairly certain they didn't want me blowing through the approaches and they are only a couple miles away). Well that got the controller's full attention and I got a 900 wpm vector back to the localizer and clearance for the approach.
After all that the ILS was just a tad sloppy. I blame the crosswind so that's what it had to be. I did manage to find the runway, ceiling at 600, and land. The 'II did have to go pee while I refueled so I'll claim that I scared the **** out of 'im.
All in all about 3 hours of IFR/IMC, all without bumping into anything, no foggles required, and no reports or phone calls to ATC requested (so far).
Get things sorted out and launch - yep, sure enough the ceiling is at 300 ft, wunnerful. Drive over towards AKO at 9,000 with no problems other than the view out the windows really sucks. Descend on command to 7,000 and things start icing up. Not good at all. Tell center that AKO won't work and we're climbing and going to GLD cause it's lots warmer to the east.
On the way to GLD I remember that someone mentioned tops at 10,500 so I requested and got 11,000. Climbed to 11,000 and still have the lousy view out the window. Not good. 'II sez the wings are icing again. Yup, about a quarter inch on the OAT probe already. Tell center we need to go back down again. Didn't bother telling them the tops weren't as advertised.
Finally get to GLD and the ceiling is about 2,000 agl so canceled IFR with field in sight. Got some gas, coffee and cinnamon rolls then ponder weather. Decided to dogleg southwest to HGO on way back to Denver since it's warmer to the south. Filed via DUATS with plan to pick-up clearance in the air. 'II has doubts 'cause he's never picked up a clearance that way. I've never picked up a clearance that way either but I trust in the fact that ignorance is the mother of adventure and I've seen it done on TV (or something) so away we go.
Get airborne again, get clearance after some discussion with center. There was a radar outage in the area and the controller was a bit flustered. Had to request squawk after being given clearance. Anyway, it all worked out. Went up to 12,000 toward HGO with tops between 10,500 and 11,000. It was just a bit sunny up there - hopefully the picture attachment works.
Everything is fine and dandy and we got a short-cut vector to Denver. Got switched over to approach and it's suddenly clear that things are just a bit busy. Listened to approach lecture some poor Cessna driver that approach was busy, remain VFR, they'd get to them when they could and don't bother calling again. After that little to-do, we got instructions to descend and vectors toward the localizer.
Things were getting really busy and it was interesting to hear three controllers working the same frequency. So I was just cruising along watching things develop and listening to all the airliners doing their thing. Eventually, I sort of caught on that approach had forgotten about me and that I'd probably better do something. As soon as the localizer needle twitched and I was ready to key the mic some airliner and one of the controllers start exchanging family history and favorite recipes (or something like that). Anyway, they talked long enough for me to go completely through the localizer. Crap. The controller finally cut the gabfest off and I wasted no time letting them know I was now west of the 35 localizer and westbound toward the approaches to DEN (I was fairly certain they didn't want me blowing through the approaches and they are only a couple miles away). Well that got the controller's full attention and I got a 900 wpm vector back to the localizer and clearance for the approach.
After all that the ILS was just a tad sloppy. I blame the crosswind so that's what it had to be. I did manage to find the runway, ceiling at 600, and land. The 'II did have to go pee while I refueled so I'll claim that I scared the **** out of 'im.
All in all about 3 hours of IFR/IMC, all without bumping into anything, no foggles required, and no reports or phone calls to ATC requested (so far).
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