Good day for IFR and PoA

[tonycondon]

Today I had Chris Jones fly me to Le Mars, IA, The Ice Cream capital of the World. Ceilings were about 1000 OVC at departure and destination. We started out on top but after the first 30 miles or so were in the soup until breaking out on approach at Le Mars. There James Dean met us with his Saratoga. He needed an IPC so we filed and ran down to Sioux City (SUX!) for an ILS and VOR approach, and a hold over the VOR, then back to Le Mars for a GPS approach. Most of it was in IMC so good practice for James. He has a VERY nice airplane and one heck of an IFR platform, that is only going to get better. Then Chris brought me back to Ames. At 5000 feet we were in solid IMC the whole way until descending into Ames for the visual. Fun was had by all. Chris and I met Matt Michael back at his hangar, he was draining some "gas" out of the flybaby. It was pure black, not sure how the engine ran on it, but it did. Says something about those old Continentals, I guess. I will get some pictures and a video of Chris and I's approach into Le Mars up soon, but I gotta go dancing tonight!

 

[bkreager]

Good write up Tony, I was in Chariton giving plane rides all day. It cleared off down there aorund 10, but then clouded back up about 4. Don't go too crazy dancin the night away

 

[tonycondon]

were they skydiving there? I thought Chris and I heard a skydiving call on Des Moines approach as we were coming into ames

 

[James_Dean]

My thanks go out to Chris and Tony.

Tony is a great CFI and I appreciated his time and instruction. I won't spoil the fun for anyone else, but be careful for certain "distractions" he uses on his students. Let's just say that it was a good thing that it wasn't raining harder, or chris would've needed dry clothes.


Chris has a RV-6, none of this quick build stuff - they did it from scratch and it is absolutely beautiful. I think more everyday that the experimental aircraft will have a big part in keeping GA. I hope that Chris is able to make a return trip on a nicer day so he can give me a ride.

I had a wonderful day. Got in some good actual time, met two fine aviators, and didn't end up inverted.


James Dean

 

[CJones]

Chris has a RV-6, none of this quick build stuff - they did it from scratch and it is absolutely beautiful. I think more everyday that the experimental aircraft will have a big part in keeping GA. I hope that Chris is able to make a return trip on a nicer day so he can give me a ride.
James Dean

*ahem* it is a RV-7A... But the mis-identification is frequent.

Great to finally meet James. I will definitely make a return trip to the area - if nothing else, just to drive the courtesy cars! ha!

-Chris

 

[tonycondon]

and the pictures...

first is Chris and I on top of the layer, soon we were in it
Second is some areas built up higher than others, pretty cool looking
third is chris' sweet IFR panel
Then me and James in his Saratoga
And the Tankers the national Guard flies at KSUX

got to work on shrinking down the video of our approach into lemars, its at 30 MB now!

 

[EdFred]

I was going to try stay current on Saturday because it was about 010OVC. Glad I didn't. A tornado came through about 3 miles south of my house.

 

[tonycondon]

yikes!

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

and the pictures...

first is Chris and I on top of the layer, soon we were in it
Second is some areas built up higher than others, pretty cool looking
third is chris' sweet IFR panel
Then me and James in his Saratoga
And the Tankers the national Guard flies at KSUX

got to work on shrinking down the video of our approach into lemars, its at 30 MB now!

Nice write-up Tony and very cool panel in PIX #3, that's the way they should be, a well balanced combo of the traditional guages and new glass.

 

[CJones]

Nice write-up Tony and very cool panel in PIX #3, that's the way they should be, a well balanced combo of the traditional guages and new glass.

That's what I thought!

The only problem with the 'glass' is that when it fails (as Tony decided to do on a nice gusty night VOR approach) I loose AI and DG. RV's are a handful in strong with with nothing but turn indicator for bank reference. The GOOD thing, though is that the autopilot runs off of its own solid state gyro, so push-come-to-shove, I push a button and *snap* wings level. Also, the AI/DG combo has a backup battery with ~2hrs of life - not to mention that we (by experience) found out that I can run all radios, nav lights, strobes on the main battery for ~1 hr before voltage gets too low to run things.

I'm finding things I want to add or 'tweak' but all-in-all, I like the setup.

-Chris

 

[tonycondon]

true chris, but remember if you have a total electrical crapola, you will lose the autopilot too.

ahhh more partial panel to come...

 

[James_Dean]

*ahem* it is a RV-7A... But the mis-identification is frequent.

Great to finally meet James. I will definitely make a return trip to the area - if nothing else, just to drive the courtesy cars! ha!

-Chris

Sorry Chris about the misidentification. You're welcome anytime to come up to reduce the life of those tires.

James Dean

 

[bkreager]

were they skydiving there? I thought Chris and I heard a skydiving call on Des Moines approach as we were coming into ames

Yeah, there were two planes from Skydive Iowa there. Everyone was going at a constant rate until maybe 4, when there was some scud forming/rolling in.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

The only problem with the 'glass' is that when it fails (as Tony decided to do on a nice gusty night VOR approach) I loose AI and DG.

Chris, that's no worse than any old airplane losing the vacuum pump. It'll be a handful at first, but with practice it'll seem like nothing.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

true chris, but remember if you have a total electrical crapola, you will lose the autopilot too.

ahhh more partial panel to come...

So Tony, do you do traditional partial panel or are you as evil as my CFII? After using all of his instrument covers and the little soap holders, he had a pad of post-it notes. He's not one for just doing the minimums! I actually almost got comfortable with flying on nothing but airspeed and mag compass. Oh, and did I mention the partial-panel unusual attitudes in actual IMC?

Sounds like overkill, but it had a couple of excellent effects. First, single failures don't freak me out, and I got in the habit of using every possible resource (and having it set up). "Okay, we're PT outbound, FAF is at 5.2 DME but my DME's about to fail so I'd better tune DLL for the cross radial..."

Second, being able to see only a single reference at a time really helped me learn the subtle indications that each instrument can provide. Until then, I really never looked at the airspeed indicator. When the ASI became my sole reference for pitch, I was able to see useful information from it. When I got the full panel back, it was like day VFR! I even noticed a pitch deviation when I was looking at the ASI full panel, caught and corrected it, and had maybe 10 feet of altitude deviation rather than the 40 plus I'd have had before that. It also proved its value later on that same flight when I noticed that I was two knots slower but still at the same pitch and altitude. I reached over for the carb heat and the engine ate a big hunk of ice and I got my two knots back.

So, you ready for that yet Chris? You know, I should go get another IFR workout here soon...

 

[tonycondon]

i havent gotten that crazy yet kent...

 

[tonycondon]

and i uploaded the video to YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JUWe3W0rDk


Unfortunately my camera was focused on the raindrops forming on the windshield and not the ground, so you cant really see the runway when we broke out, but it was there, I promise!

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

and i uploaded the video to YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JUWe3W0rDk


Unfortunately my camera was focused on the raindrops forming on the windshield and not the ground, so you cant really see the runway when we broke out, but it was there, I promise!

Nice video, thanks.
Some cameras have a manual button that you can leave focused on infinity for these situations.

 

[tonycondon]

ya my "video camera" is really just a digital camera that can do video. consequently i have no idea how to operate it beyond pressing record. will look into it though dave

 

[Chip Sylverne]

I dunno about unusual attitude, partial panel in actual IMC. Why not go ahead and windmill the prop too, just for good measure.
Good training is good training but geez, there's also too much of a good thing.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I dunno about unusual attitude, partial panel in actual IMC. Why not go ahead and windmill the prop too, just for good measure.
Good training is good training but geez, there's also too much of a good thing.

It's not like it was our first flight together or anything. Obviously he had enough confidence in me to believe I'd recover properly (and quickly, we were on his ticket after all! ), and enough confidence in himself to not let it go too far.

Also, obviously you can't get super-unusual when you're on an IFR flight plan and have to stay within +- 100 feet. It was quite benign compared to the usual halfway-through-wingover attitudes I'd get under the hood in VMC.

 

[jdwatson]

My motto is: Too much of a good thing is not enough.

 

[ApacheBob]

Would any of you Iowa pilots like to help with the Coast-to-coast chain on Saturday? We need someone to take Rob! to Hays, Kansas in the morning. Dean and I have been trying to find a Kansas pilot to make the connection from Pittsburg, Kansas. But Dogman, Rudy and Diana are not available.
If I cannot find a connection with Dean at Pittsburg, I will fly Rob! to Hays by myself. That is really farther than I wanted to go. If I could fly midway across Iowa and drop Rob! off, that would be wonderful.
If you are interested in helping, please respond to the Coast-to-Coast for FREE chain. Thanks.
ApacheBob