<grumble grumble>

DavidWhite

DavidWhite

Final Approach
Joined
Apr 19, 2011
Messages
7,151
Location
Olympic Peninsula
Display Name
Display name:
DW
My instrument currency runs out next Wednesday, so I stayed up late to fly some approaches into the morning fog. I filed down to SAT and flew the ILS 12R and of course it's clear and a million right now. I'm sitting in Million Air right now waiting for some kind of ceiling......if I don't get one I'm going to be upset. I'll wait here for awhile, and will drink their coffee and eat their donuts. I need to recoup my money from the $7/gallon top off. (Even though it was only 4 gallons, if I didn't buy gas I would have to pay a landing fee) :rolleyes:

<grumble grumble>
 
I'll third that emotion: <grumble grumble>
 
David I've always found that doing an IPC is actually less expensive and more educational than doing the six in six etc.
 
AdamZ said:
David I've always found that doing an IPC is actually less expensive and more educational than doing the six in six etc.
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Agreed, but then I get my IPCs free and most of the time not in my plane but one with an even cooler panel (I did do my last one in my 310 though). :D:D:D

(Thanks Av...;)) Reminds me, I'm due for an IPC though I wonder why I bother considering it's pretty much the only IFR flying I do. I did manage to do one approach and departure through the marine layer while I was in CA last year though.

I can't remember the last time I maintained IFR currency flying in the soup. Mostly because I don't like spending all that money and time to look at the inside of clouds but also because what we get in the big clouds where I tend to live isn't something I want to be flying into, as for little clouds, they're easy enough to avoid when you're underneath or in VMC between them. These are the times that I keep my IR current for, when I have to fly up between the big clouds and I don't have adequate VFR cloud clearances, I file IFR and basically fly from "deviation for weather approved" to "deviation for weather approved" along pathways between the clouds, only penetrating briefly light clouds with smooth sides (already played out all it's energy). Most of the time though I just take FF and stay under. Around here it's actually more reliable for me to head out out for the rest of the US along the beach and on the deck as it gets me through when airliners are waiting it out.
 
All the clouds are where I'm not. I'm back at skyport, I'm going to do some groveling when the instructors get here to see if they will let me use the sim.
 
Roy said I could use the sim and he would ride with me after he finishes with his student, so I went home to take a shower. San Marcos is now IFR at 800 OVC
:mad::mad::mad:
:sad::mad:
 
"First World Problems" -> "Instrument Pilot Problems"
 
I've logged 8.7 hours of actual in the last two months.. na na boo boo

I had to work for it though. Usually if there is any type of weather system around, some low ceilings can be found within an hour or so flight. The mountains are about 1hr west of here, and the coast is 1hr southeast.
 
David... Some advice for the future. When I lived in San Antonio, I went out one night to shoot practice approaches. Shot a couple at San Marcos, then headed back to Stinson as I realized ground fog was settling in fast. I barely got into Stinson.... By the time I got to my hangar, I couldn't see the tower beacon, and by the time I got the truck to the exit gate, it was hard to see 50 feet ahead. That was a span of 15-20 minutes. SAT and AUS had gone below normal ILS mins before I got home.

I learned a lot about weather planning that night..... IFR fuel reserves would not have been sufficient to fly beyond the ground fog, even though the departure forecast was better than 400 and 3 at SAT and AUS (my two alternates)

I do my currency by IPC now....
 
I dont do mine by IPC but I have been doing my six and a hold in a simulator with a CFI beating down on me. Much cheaper than shooting them with the foggles and a safety pilot.

At one time when I was regularly commuting between the SF Bay Area and the San Joaqin Valley I was always current. I normally had an approach into the marine layer in the Summer and the Valley fog in the Winter.
 
wsuffa said:
By the time I got to my hangar, I couldn't see the tower beacon, and by the time I got the truck to the exit gate, it was hard to see 50 feet ahead. That was a span of 15-20 minutes. SAT and AUS had gone below normal ILS mins before I got home.
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May I ask what the dew point split was before departure?
 
The solution to this is quite simple - just fly to Nebraska and we'll do an IPC.
 
Luckilly I have a few Safety pilots close, that are pretty flexible. I haven't done an IPC yet, maybe I will just do that. I have found currency challenging, and lately just getting any actual (more than just 3 minutes through a layer.)
 
Some years ago, Tony told me that he did an IPC every 6 months, even when he didn't need to. At the time, I thought that seemed unnecessary.

Now I'm flying charters and, guess what? I'm required to do what amounts to an IPC every 6 months. And I don't need it based on my 6/6.

As I have thought about it, Tony is right. The reality is that, even if you're doing an average of 1 instrument approach per month, that's not very much. Furthermore, most real life instrument approaches aren't nearly as difficult as one can be put through in an IPC. As long as I have to fly charter, I'll keep on going with my 6 month checks. Should the day come when I don't do that anymore, I'll make a point of actually going up for an IPC.
 
wsuffa said:
David... Some advice for the future. When I lived in San Antonio, I went out one night to shoot practice approaches. Shot a couple at San Marcos, then headed back to Stinson as I realized ground fog was settling in fast. I barely got into Stinson.... By the time I got to my hangar, I couldn't see the tower beacon, and by the time I got the truck to the exit gate, it was hard to see 50 feet ahead. That was a span of 15-20 minutes. SAT and AUS had gone below normal ILS mins before I got home.

I learned a lot about weather planning that night..... IFR fuel reserves would not have been sufficient to fly beyond the ground fog, even though the departure forecast was better than 400 and 3 at SAT and AUS (my two alternates)

I do my currency by IPC now....
Click to expand...
Been there and done that at the same airports... Very instructive!

Ryan
 
Luckily here in Oregon you can find IMC almost any time of the year. When summer gives me CAVU here on the east side of the Cascades I can count on a nice thick marine layer on the coast. :thumbsup:
 
Trying to stay Instrument current is a huge pain when it's not something you use very often. In fact, I'm out of currency right now. I'll probably get an IPC and start working on my CFII to get my instrument skills back.
 
I use my IR all the time, but rarely in weather that is bad enough for me to need to fly an approach. Quite often I use it to climb through a 3 or 4k overcast layer. I file almost everytime I go more than 50 miles.
 
DavidWhite said:
I use my IR all the time, but rarely in weather that is bad enough for me to need to fly an approach. Quite often I use it to climb through a 3 or 4k overcast layer. I file almost everytime I go more than 50 miles.
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The problem with NM is that it is pretty tough to catch any safe (no ice/no convective activity etc) actual IMC to go practice in. Also, it probably doesn't help that the only flying I'm doing is teaching primary and flying around in the clubs C150 Aerobat with a basic VFR stack.
 
Doggtyred said:
May I ask what the dew point split was before departure?
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I don't recall. Something that led me to believe I had plenty of time - like 4-5 degrees. Ground fog was not forecast, only low ceilings.

I did use my IR on a regular basis along the Gulf Coast on up to San Antonio and Austin. I recall on one day trip to New Orleans, I ended up shooting the ILS into KNEW, an instrument departure at mins back out of NEW, shooting the ILS to mins into Brazoria County with an instrument departure 10 minutes later (the plane behind me went missed), then the VOR approach back into Stinson.

Much different weather & weather planning than the midwest (where I learned to fly) and the east coast where I am now.
 
David,

Too bad you weren't at my home field that time Saturday Morning. You could have shot instrument approaches all day. We had a 700' ceiling and I was trying to get away VFR to go to a club fly in.:mad2: Finally gave up and drove. The fly in was a bust. Not too many people willing to scud run over there in their Cessna 140's.

SO, I turned into a Grump for the opposite reason.:lol:

It sounds like you and I are a little alike. Not basically patient people, but have acquired the necessary patience for aviation purposes.:D
 
wsuffa said:
David... Some advice for the future. When I lived in San Antonio, I went out one night to shoot practice approaches. Shot a couple at San Marcos, then headed back to Stinson as I realized ground fog was settling in fast. I barely got into Stinson.... By the time I got to my hangar, I couldn't see the tower beacon, and by the time I got the truck to the exit gate, it was hard to see 50 feet ahead. That was a span of 15-20 minutes. SAT and AUS had gone below normal ILS mins before I got home.

I learned a lot about weather planning that night..... IFR fuel reserves would not have been sufficient to fly beyond the ground fog, even though the departure forecast was better than 400 and 3 at SAT and AUS (my two alternates)

I do my currency by IPC now....
Click to expand...

Bill:

My standard mission is Dallas to Houston or central Texas (Austin or Fredericksburg). My IFR policy is that I always leave with at or near full fuel, and my filed alternate is almost always back home at KADS.

In addition, my "out" (you know, the one I could use when all hell breaks loose and, for example, I am on top of dense clouds and have no electrons left) is to fly west (literally, not figuratively) for a couple of hours. It is a rare pattern indeed that does not have clear skies or very high ceilings in west Texas, when the clouds are in play in central or north Texas.

YMMV, but I don't launch when conditions would not allow that sort of flexibility.

There was that time when we set out to T82 from Addison, T82 reporting 1400' broken at time of departure and the TAF for Junction (40 or so NM west, nearest TAF) calling for steady conditions; upon in-range, the AWOS was flopping between 700 and 800 overcast, and the GPS approach has 700' minimums. I went ahead and shot the approach, and was going for the gear and throttle at the MAP when we got the runway environment, chopped, dropped and landed without difficulty. In the time it took to retrieve the car and load up (ten minutes?), the ceiling dropped to 400 or so, and by the time we picked up the pizza (another 20 minutes or so), we were in dense fog, not a quarter-mile vis.

Since I had enough fuel to fly back and forth twice, with a reserve to boot, no real stress - I was perfectly prepared to just go back home - but I was glad to have all that gas riding along just in case.

Also, this was my first GPS approach to minimums at a field without approach lighting, and I was surprised at how tough it was to spot the field (it was dusk). Had I not been soundly familiar with the airport and its environment, I might well have missed it or, at the very least, recognized it too late to make an uneventful landing.

Lots to learn, and learning all the time. :D

---

Edit:

Junction was reporting clear the whole time, and Austin was high ceilings, over 1,000'. You just never know...
 
Henning said:
Not always as easy to find as one may believe.
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Then you aren't trying; or not doing it in a simple airplane :D I could have my pick of at least five safety pilots at any given time.
 
SCCutler said:
Bill:

My standard mission is Dallas to Houston or central Texas (Austin or Fredericksburg). My IFR policy is that I always leave with at or near full fuel, and my filed alternate is almost always back home at KADS.

In addition, my "out" (you know, the one I could use when all hell breaks loose and, for example, I am on top of dense clouds and have no electrons left) is to fly west (literally, not figuratively) for a couple of hours. It is a rare pattern indeed that does not have clear skies or very high ceilings in west Texas, when the clouds are in play in central or north Texas.

YMMV, but I don't launch when conditions would not allow that sort of flexibility.

There was that time when we set out to T82 from Addison, T82 reporting 1400' broken at time of departure and the TAF for Junction (40 or so NM west, nearest TAF) calling for steady conditions; upon in-range, the AWOS was flopping between 700 and 800 overcast, and the GPS approach has 700' minimums. I went ahead and shot the approach, and was going for the gear and throttle at the MAP when we got the runway environment, chopped, dropped and landed without difficulty. In the time it took to retrieve the car and load up (ten minutes?), the ceiling dropped to 400 or so, and by the time we picked up the pizza (another 20 minutes or so), we were in dense fog, not a quarter-mile vis.

Since I had enough fuel to fly back and forth twice, with a reserve to boot, no real stress - I was perfectly prepared to just go back home - but I was glad to have all that gas riding along just in case.

Also, this was my first GPS approach to minimums at a field without approach lighting, and I was surprised at how tough it was to spot the field (it was dusk). Had I not been soundly familiar with the airport and its environment, I might well have missed it or, at the very least, recognized it too late to make an uneventful landing.

Lots to learn, and learning all the time. :D

---

Edit:

Junction was reporting clear the whole time, and Austin was high ceilings, over 1,000'. You just never know...
Click to expand...

Agree, Spike. "Go West" was my policy, too - SJT or JCT were usually pretty good if everything else went down, FST was a deep backup. And always a lot more fuel than I needed at night. As I recall, the night in question I had something relatively important at work the next day, too.

Anyway, every flight is some kind of learning experience. That night just showed me how fast WX conditions could change despite the forecast.
 
alfadog said:
Then you aren't trying; or not doing it in a simple airplane :D I could have my pick of at least five safety pilots at any given time.
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Really? Lots of people think that till they need someone lol. Then all those people who said "oh yeah, anytime" are busy.
 
Let them continue, what they want to build we need desperately (no gap nationwide wireless 4G) they just have to do a better job and not interfere with othe vital systems.
 
Henning said:
Let them continue, what they want to build we need desperately (no gap nationwide wireless 4G) they just have to do a better job and not interfere with othe vital systems.
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Did you mean for this to be on the LightSquared thread?
 
Henning said:
Really? Lots of people think that till they need someone lol. Then all those people who said "oh yeah, anytime" are busy.
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Really? Sure. Provided I am flexible and why would I not be flexible if I am the one needing the favor. But if I want some hood time this weekend and am flexible about the day/time, yes I can find five takers that will any of them actually show up.

I would sit safety for you but I am not going to drive an hour each way to FXE unless there was something in it to sweeten the deal. Fly down to my home field and I will do it happily just to sit in the right seat. Can't help you in a twin yet, though.
 
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