SkyHog
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2005
- Messages
- 18,431
- Location
- Castle Rock, CO
- Display Name
Display name:
Everything Offends Me
Today was the best flight I've ever had. I've had more meaningful, but none as fun.
I decided to rent the Arrow again, there's just something right about retracting the gear of an airplane after rotation. For some reason, it feels better to me when doing instrument work. But before I got to the airport, I purchased a Low Enroute Chart...why? I'll explain in a bit. We met in the office to talk about the upcoming flight and checked the weather.
Weather was gorgeous today. Not a cloud in the sky around Albuquerque. But it was decided, lesson 2 was going to be my IFR Cross Country flight. My CFII said I am confident enough, and skillful enough to handle it, and hey, I'm not going to argue with a cross country flight! So we planned a flight to Durango, KDRO together, downloaded some plates for a few approaches, and he gave me a form, told me to fill it out, and call in the flight plan to FSS.
As I worked my way through the plan, I realized how cool that was going to be, especially when I heard "Broken, 6000" at Durango...I might actually get some Actual!!
So - the planned route to Durango was ABQ V68 RSK V421 DRO at 12,000ft, then we'd do the ILS, go missed, and do the GPS and come back to KABQ for a VOR approach.
We took off into some pretty nasty enroute turbulence, which made flying accurately a PITA, but we did ok. A few bumps here and there kinda gave me the leans, but I was able to trust my instruments and proceed. We were given Direct Rattlesnake VOR about 30 miles out of Albuquerque, which took most of the flightplan out of the equation.
A bit north of Rattlesnake, as we were cleared direct to DRO VOR, the CFII says "Go ahead and take off the hood, you'll want to see this." As I did, I saw looming, beautifully serene clouds in front of us.
"Remember, don't watch us enter the clouds, just focus on the instruments."
And I did. And it was glorious! It was nice and smooth inside the clouds, aside from one little bump (and by little, it was actually a huge bump, lol). I did get the leans at one point, but I said, out loud "I am straight and level, I am straight and level!" and the CFII said "Yes, you are," trying to reassure me.
We went in and out of clouds for a bit, and then finally went into a big cloud for most of the rest of the trip. We were given vectors to HINDY, which is the IF for the ILS Runway 3 approach. Apparently, btw, they just changed the runway numbers at Durango, for those of you that go there frequently.
As we were descending, we popped out fairly early and he had me put the hood back on for the rest of the descent to the DH. Just before we did, we noticed a small amount of frost had built up on the leading edges of the wings. After hitting the DH, we both decided we needed a break, so we actually fullstopped it and discussed our next course of action. We canceled on the ramp with Center, and then taxied to the FBO and walked around for a bit.
After a nice little break, we headed back up, departed runway 21 and flew the GPS RW 3 approach. GPS approaches are freaking cake, there's almost no skill involved. Just fly a course and maintain a heading...maybe drop some altitude here and there. We followed the published missed procedure and headed back to Albuquerque.
The rest of the flight is boring. No more actual, all hood time, and the VOR RW 8 approach to KABQ. We landed, taxied back and were done, just before nightfall.
What a wonderful day. I don't know why Flightaware only caught the leg up to DRO, but it is the first time I have a flight on Flight Aware.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N32492
Funny enough, seeing that, we were listed as a PA44/G. We were actually a P28R/G, and Albuquerque Approach kept calling us Seminole. Albuquerque Center called us "Dakota" and Denver Center called us "Experimental." Coming back, Denver Center and Albuquerque Center called us "Seminole" and Albuquerque Approach FINALLY got it right and called us "Arrow."
Lovely!!
Breakdown:
KABQ-KDRO-KABQ
Total Time: 3.5 hrs
Simulated Instrument: 2.9 hrs.
Actual Instrument 0.5 hrs.
I'm so beat.
I decided to rent the Arrow again, there's just something right about retracting the gear of an airplane after rotation. For some reason, it feels better to me when doing instrument work. But before I got to the airport, I purchased a Low Enroute Chart...why? I'll explain in a bit. We met in the office to talk about the upcoming flight and checked the weather.
Weather was gorgeous today. Not a cloud in the sky around Albuquerque. But it was decided, lesson 2 was going to be my IFR Cross Country flight. My CFII said I am confident enough, and skillful enough to handle it, and hey, I'm not going to argue with a cross country flight! So we planned a flight to Durango, KDRO together, downloaded some plates for a few approaches, and he gave me a form, told me to fill it out, and call in the flight plan to FSS.
As I worked my way through the plan, I realized how cool that was going to be, especially when I heard "Broken, 6000" at Durango...I might actually get some Actual!!
So - the planned route to Durango was ABQ V68 RSK V421 DRO at 12,000ft, then we'd do the ILS, go missed, and do the GPS and come back to KABQ for a VOR approach.
We took off into some pretty nasty enroute turbulence, which made flying accurately a PITA, but we did ok. A few bumps here and there kinda gave me the leans, but I was able to trust my instruments and proceed. We were given Direct Rattlesnake VOR about 30 miles out of Albuquerque, which took most of the flightplan out of the equation.
A bit north of Rattlesnake, as we were cleared direct to DRO VOR, the CFII says "Go ahead and take off the hood, you'll want to see this." As I did, I saw looming, beautifully serene clouds in front of us.
"Remember, don't watch us enter the clouds, just focus on the instruments."
And I did. And it was glorious! It was nice and smooth inside the clouds, aside from one little bump (and by little, it was actually a huge bump, lol). I did get the leans at one point, but I said, out loud "I am straight and level, I am straight and level!" and the CFII said "Yes, you are," trying to reassure me.
We went in and out of clouds for a bit, and then finally went into a big cloud for most of the rest of the trip. We were given vectors to HINDY, which is the IF for the ILS Runway 3 approach. Apparently, btw, they just changed the runway numbers at Durango, for those of you that go there frequently.
As we were descending, we popped out fairly early and he had me put the hood back on for the rest of the descent to the DH. Just before we did, we noticed a small amount of frost had built up on the leading edges of the wings. After hitting the DH, we both decided we needed a break, so we actually fullstopped it and discussed our next course of action. We canceled on the ramp with Center, and then taxied to the FBO and walked around for a bit.
After a nice little break, we headed back up, departed runway 21 and flew the GPS RW 3 approach. GPS approaches are freaking cake, there's almost no skill involved. Just fly a course and maintain a heading...maybe drop some altitude here and there. We followed the published missed procedure and headed back to Albuquerque.
The rest of the flight is boring. No more actual, all hood time, and the VOR RW 8 approach to KABQ. We landed, taxied back and were done, just before nightfall.
What a wonderful day. I don't know why Flightaware only caught the leg up to DRO, but it is the first time I have a flight on Flight Aware.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N32492
Funny enough, seeing that, we were listed as a PA44/G. We were actually a P28R/G, and Albuquerque Approach kept calling us Seminole. Albuquerque Center called us "Dakota" and Denver Center called us "Experimental." Coming back, Denver Center and Albuquerque Center called us "Seminole" and Albuquerque Approach FINALLY got it right and called us "Arrow."
Lovely!!
Breakdown:
KABQ-KDRO-KABQ
Total Time: 3.5 hrs
Simulated Instrument: 2.9 hrs.
Actual Instrument 0.5 hrs.
I'm so beat.
