Okay, sounds like this thread has turned into IFR storytime, which is great! So, here's one of my favorite IFR stories (it's been posted before, but it's a good one with some good lessons.)
The mission: Fly from home to Ames for one of the PoA gatherings that Tony hosted there.
The airplane: N3327M, a Piper Arrow III that I had about 50 hours in from when it was on the rental line at KMSN. It had been purchased by Kate's flight school, CAVU Aviation at the time, and was still for rent up at 79C or KGRB depending on the week. (It's now owned by one of Kate's students.) It was equipped with a KNS-80 RNAV as Nav1, but nothing else fancy.
I made and filed a flight plan as /I for a direct routing, which would take us from Madison to waypoints north of the DBQ VOR and south of the Waterloo VOR to KAMW, with KDSM as the alternate.
IIRC the weather forecast was calling for about a 1000-foot overcast in the area upon our arrival. Weather in the Madison area was broken to overcast at around 1500 AGL, with maybe 5-6 miles visibility underneath.
Kate had flown the plane from 79C down to C29 to meet me, and had put about 45 minutes on it. I was gonna be PIC for the C29-KAMW leg. We discussed fuel briefly, and though the plane holds 72 gallons (which is around 7 hours) of fuel, we didn't have a weight and balance issue so I went back to the old adage of "the only time you can have too much fuel is when you're on fire" and decided to top it off anyway.
We hopped in and took off, punched into the clouds and were between layers in cruise. The sun was already down (it was around this time of year, about 3 years ago) so even without being *in* a cloud, it was actual IMC the whole way - Flight by reference to instruments alone.
I tuned into the Ames AWOS about 50-60 miles out and was surprised to hear it reporting a one HUNDRED foot overcast, instead of the expected one THOUSAND foot overcast. So I picked up the ATIS out of Des Moines about 30 miles to the south, where they were saying it was 9,000 scattered. Hmm... Bad AWOS? I went with that theory and decided to shoot the approach anyway and see what we got.
Ames METAR from when we shot the approach: KAMW 310453Z AUTO 10009G15KT 1SM BR OVC001 14/13 A2997 RMK AO2 SLP145 T01390133
Down we went... Never even got ground contact. I later learned that Tony, Jesse, and Tristan were sitting on the taxiway watching and saw our landing light glowing in the muck before hearing the engine roar to life as we went missed.
Des Moines was reporting OVC060 and 10SM, and I called Des Moines approach to report the miss. They put us on vectors for the ILS 13 into KDSM. Tony also contacted them via the RTR frequency at Ames to let them know he'd heard us go missed and would drive to Des Moines to pick us up, or wherever we could get in. (A nice touch to prevent any get-there-itis - Thanks, Tony.
)
Weather at DSM when we went missed at Ames, Information Foxtrot, KDSM 310454Z 09007KT 10SM FEW065 BKN090 OVC150 16/14 A2995. Piece of cake.
When we reached our assigned altitude of 3,000: "Des Moines information Golf now current, wind 090 at 10 knots, visibility 7, scattered at 500, overcast niner thousand." Okay, we should still make that.
Just a few minutes later... "Des Moines information Hotel now current, wind 090 at 10, visibility 2 miles, ceiling broken 500. Arrow 27M, turn left heading 150, maintain 2,600 until established, cleared ILS 13 approach."
Now I'm getting a bit more nervous, as the weather at Des Moines is dropping like an anvil in a cartoon.
However, I felt really good about one decision I'd made. Topping off the plane at C29 meant that we had enough fuel to fly all the way home, into KMSN if necessary, still with an OK reserve. That was one of the most important lessons: In IFR, fuel = options. So you say your bladder won't make it three hours, but your plane holds 6 or 7 hours of fuel? Top it off anyway - You can pee your pants if you need to, but you'll be alive. I think this is part of why I *really* like having the 6+ hours of fuel available in the 182 these days, and 4 hours just doesn't sound like enough fuel!
We intercept the localizer and truck along to the glideslope. It's showing 2600 at the marker, just as it should good, and down we go. "Des Moines Information India now current, wind 090 at 9,
visibility 2, Overcast 300 feet." "Arrow 27M, contact tower."
So, we ducked back into the bottom layer of clag at about 2500. It was VERY bumpy, unlike the rest of the flight. I had to fight it the whole way down. Bank angles of around 20 degrees due to turbulence. After wrestling the plane down the approach for a few minutes, I spotted the rabbit at about 160 feet above minimums. I made the worst landing I've ever had in a Piper (THUMP!), taxied off the runway, and took a deep breath. When we got to the FBO and shut down and opened the door, I finally relaxed...
I love IFR.