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Final Approach
I was undecided whether to go flying at all today and discussed the matter with my CFII. He reminded me that the prerequisite for IFR flight in near-freezing temps is to have the "golden out". If I get in the clouds and start picking up ice, what is my out? Reported bases were about 1600 MSL, MVA near KVLL is somewhere around 2300 MSL. I can't just descend IFR out of it without flying an approach. So what do I do? But the inversion began around 2500 feet and temps were well above freezing by 3000, so as long as I could still climb, I should be good as long as there is no SLD. And no SLD was forecast. So I filed... to KPTK, which is about 13 nm from home base, and requested 3000.
Things got interesting very quickly.
Once airborne I noticed the bases were lower than reported, around 1400. Even before getting fully in the clag I noticed a whitish spot on my left wing, on the red paint about 1/4 of the way out from the root. It seemed to get more solid once I was at about 2200. The OAT read 0C. I started to get nervous. Was it ice, or just a dense spot of moisture? Things began to happen very quickly, departure turned me north and offered me the LOC BC 27L, I said I wanted the RNAV because reported bases were about 500 AGL at KPTK, which sounded iffy, and the RNAV has a LPV DA of 200. They agreed, turned me east and cleared me direct KUHNA, the IAF on the south side of the "T". At this point I was trying to let the A/P fly so that I could devote more brain cells to figuring out if I was really seeing ice, which I would then have reported to ATC. By the time I was up to 3000 though, I noticed beads of water streaming from the area. The OAT now read 3C. I heaved a sigh of relief. Now everything was happening very quickly as I said, and before I knew it the A/P took me right through KUHNA. In hindsight I should have expected this as its GPSS steering is not aggressive enough to follow a 90 degree turn very well. At the time though, I thought the A/P had failed, so I disengaged it and hand flew it from there. I half expected ATC to say something, but apparently I recovered quickly enough, and once established inbound from GUZVY toward the FAC I flew a pretty good approach and broke out about 150-200 feet above DA. The bases were ragged, the windshield was wet, and I had to strain to see the REILS and the runway lights (I think the rabbit was going too, but I could barely see it), but they were clearly there with room to spare. Once I was on the ground and parked I glanced at that spot on the wing from my seat, and it still looked whitish, with lots of water beads around it. From outside the airplane, it was clearly liquid.
At KPTK I bought some charts, told the owner of the FBO about my maybe trace ice "encounter" and listened to a couple of stories about really bad ice. After that experience I was on the verge of leaving the airplane and calling my CFII to pick me up. But the AWOS at KVLL told of a ceiling varying between 800 and 1000 AGL, with surface temps of 7C. Surely even if I picked up a trace, it would be melted by the time I landed. So I got back in the airplane and called up Ground to pick up my clearance.
A slight glitch at this point, as they had no record of my flight plan in the system. Grrr. Foreflight said it had been filed, and it was about 15 minutes after my proposed departure time. Luckily ATC was able to put me in the system for that short flight back to KVLL, and I was off.
I was a lot less nervous on the way back! I didn't even look at the wings, there wasn't time. Over to departure, what approach do you want? the RNAV 9, okay, cleared direct CELUB. The controller was busy and blew me through CELUB before clearing me for the approach. Now comes the part where I got really upset with the newly redesigned RNAV 9 (which is also the ONLY available approach into KVLL because the PSI VORTAC is OTS indefinitely). The old version of the RNAV was a classic "T" shape with IAFs on the ends of the crossbar, and an IF/IAF at the crossing point. The new approach has just a straight-in course with a HILPT at the sole IAF, CELUB. There is also a TAA with a NoPT zone if you're coming anywhere from the west half-circle centered at CELUB. I was coming almost straight from the north but slightly to the west, in the NoPT zone, so I asked the controller whether I was cleared straight-in, and he said yes. But... the 480 doesn't know about NoPT zones in TAAs. It knows only about NoPT legs. It will sequence to the hold unless you do something, like Direct-select-Flyleg. I used to think that would be no big deal even though I tried to avoid having to do it when it was still possible to just fly a NoPT leg. Now there is no way around it and I really hate it, especially when the controller takes me PAST the fix where I was supposed to turn inbound.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. I flew another good approach. Winds were 300 at 7, BKN008 OVC012. The field is at 727 MSL. My plan was to circle to land 27 if I was comfortably in the clear at circling MDA (1400), otherwise land straight in. I was still in the ragged bases even at the stepdown altitude of 1360, so straight in it was. Again the windshield was wet, in-flight vis from there was not great (I guessed about 3 SM, though reported as 10) and I was about 1.5 out and close to the straight-in MDA before I saw the runway. I pulled into the runup area and quickly shut down and called DTW App to cancel IFR in case someone else was waiting to get in or out.
So ended my first solo IMC experience. My takeaways are as follows:
1. I am even more afraid of ice than I thought. I fixated on that spot and relied too much on the A/P, getting behind the plane and letting it blow me past KUHNA before turning. Fixation is bad. I need to fly the plane first and foremost.
2. Remember the plan, remember your outs. I was there because the layer where icing might be possible was thin. I should have remembered that and focused on evaluating whether the plan was still good. It's one thing to be aware of the possibility of ice, but I need to focus on flying the plane.
3. If I have to do a flyleg to bypass a HILPT, get it set up well in advance. I was a little behind the plane at that point. It should only be three keystrokes.
4. I must be jaded or something, because I felt absolutely nothing when the runway appeared before me out of the clag. I knew it was there because the gauges told me so. The only question was whether I would see it before I had to miss.
5. On the plus side, I flew my first solo IMC flight, and it was true "hard" IFR, with two approaches almost to minimums... definitely loggable. I can really do this!!
Overall I give myself a B- on this one. I did okay, but I need to do better.
Things got interesting very quickly.
Once airborne I noticed the bases were lower than reported, around 1400. Even before getting fully in the clag I noticed a whitish spot on my left wing, on the red paint about 1/4 of the way out from the root. It seemed to get more solid once I was at about 2200. The OAT read 0C. I started to get nervous. Was it ice, or just a dense spot of moisture? Things began to happen very quickly, departure turned me north and offered me the LOC BC 27L, I said I wanted the RNAV because reported bases were about 500 AGL at KPTK, which sounded iffy, and the RNAV has a LPV DA of 200. They agreed, turned me east and cleared me direct KUHNA, the IAF on the south side of the "T". At this point I was trying to let the A/P fly so that I could devote more brain cells to figuring out if I was really seeing ice, which I would then have reported to ATC. By the time I was up to 3000 though, I noticed beads of water streaming from the area. The OAT now read 3C. I heaved a sigh of relief. Now everything was happening very quickly as I said, and before I knew it the A/P took me right through KUHNA. In hindsight I should have expected this as its GPSS steering is not aggressive enough to follow a 90 degree turn very well. At the time though, I thought the A/P had failed, so I disengaged it and hand flew it from there. I half expected ATC to say something, but apparently I recovered quickly enough, and once established inbound from GUZVY toward the FAC I flew a pretty good approach and broke out about 150-200 feet above DA. The bases were ragged, the windshield was wet, and I had to strain to see the REILS and the runway lights (I think the rabbit was going too, but I could barely see it), but they were clearly there with room to spare. Once I was on the ground and parked I glanced at that spot on the wing from my seat, and it still looked whitish, with lots of water beads around it. From outside the airplane, it was clearly liquid.
At KPTK I bought some charts, told the owner of the FBO about my maybe trace ice "encounter" and listened to a couple of stories about really bad ice. After that experience I was on the verge of leaving the airplane and calling my CFII to pick me up. But the AWOS at KVLL told of a ceiling varying between 800 and 1000 AGL, with surface temps of 7C. Surely even if I picked up a trace, it would be melted by the time I landed. So I got back in the airplane and called up Ground to pick up my clearance.
A slight glitch at this point, as they had no record of my flight plan in the system. Grrr. Foreflight said it had been filed, and it was about 15 minutes after my proposed departure time. Luckily ATC was able to put me in the system for that short flight back to KVLL, and I was off.
I was a lot less nervous on the way back! I didn't even look at the wings, there wasn't time. Over to departure, what approach do you want? the RNAV 9, okay, cleared direct CELUB. The controller was busy and blew me through CELUB before clearing me for the approach. Now comes the part where I got really upset with the newly redesigned RNAV 9 (which is also the ONLY available approach into KVLL because the PSI VORTAC is OTS indefinitely). The old version of the RNAV was a classic "T" shape with IAFs on the ends of the crossbar, and an IF/IAF at the crossing point. The new approach has just a straight-in course with a HILPT at the sole IAF, CELUB. There is also a TAA with a NoPT zone if you're coming anywhere from the west half-circle centered at CELUB. I was coming almost straight from the north but slightly to the west, in the NoPT zone, so I asked the controller whether I was cleared straight-in, and he said yes. But... the 480 doesn't know about NoPT zones in TAAs. It knows only about NoPT legs. It will sequence to the hold unless you do something, like Direct-select-Flyleg. I used to think that would be no big deal even though I tried to avoid having to do it when it was still possible to just fly a NoPT leg. Now there is no way around it and I really hate it, especially when the controller takes me PAST the fix where I was supposed to turn inbound.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. I flew another good approach. Winds were 300 at 7, BKN008 OVC012. The field is at 727 MSL. My plan was to circle to land 27 if I was comfortably in the clear at circling MDA (1400), otherwise land straight in. I was still in the ragged bases even at the stepdown altitude of 1360, so straight in it was. Again the windshield was wet, in-flight vis from there was not great (I guessed about 3 SM, though reported as 10) and I was about 1.5 out and close to the straight-in MDA before I saw the runway. I pulled into the runup area and quickly shut down and called DTW App to cancel IFR in case someone else was waiting to get in or out.
So ended my first solo IMC experience. My takeaways are as follows:
1. I am even more afraid of ice than I thought. I fixated on that spot and relied too much on the A/P, getting behind the plane and letting it blow me past KUHNA before turning. Fixation is bad. I need to fly the plane first and foremost.
2. Remember the plan, remember your outs. I was there because the layer where icing might be possible was thin. I should have remembered that and focused on evaluating whether the plan was still good. It's one thing to be aware of the possibility of ice, but I need to focus on flying the plane.
3. If I have to do a flyleg to bypass a HILPT, get it set up well in advance. I was a little behind the plane at that point. It should only be three keystrokes.
4. I must be jaded or something, because I felt absolutely nothing when the runway appeared before me out of the clag. I knew it was there because the gauges told me so. The only question was whether I would see it before I had to miss.
5. On the plus side, I flew my first solo IMC flight, and it was true "hard" IFR, with two approaches almost to minimums... definitely loggable. I can really do this!!
Overall I give myself a B- on this one. I did okay, but I need to do better.
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