grattonja
Line Up and Wait
"instrument airplane"
I followed Ben's weather review with interest because I too was looking at a flight on Saturday. My flight was much easier though. My wife, still an IR student, needed to get from LNS to Pottstown Limerick (PTW) for a 99s meeting. Saturday morning out, Saturday pm back. Really a very little and minor hop.
Except for the weather. I knew it was going to be perfectly dreadful IMC, but how bad? Well, you all saw what we had over the weekend. Low ceilings, rain, but no ice, not down low anyway, and no boomers. Maybe some turbulence. The only TAF that concerned me was the windshear at MDT. That would not be fun.
LNS is a Loc8 only right now, with OK but not great mins. PTW has a Loc approach as well as GPS and VOR. Also not gret mins. However, RDG is the alternate on both trips, and it has two ILS approaches. With ceilings not forecast to be below 400 feet at any time, I know I am virtually guaranteed to get into RDG.
So we launched. The enroute to PTW was a wild ride. That wind sheer was right at 3K feet, right where we were. I was getting 30 degrees of sheer over about a 60 degree range. I would just about get the needle centered and the wind would shift, we'd lose altitude and I'd go off heading. It was bad enough so that I finally gave Reading Approach a pirep. (That and I wanted to make sure they were still with me, there was no one talking at all).
We shot the GPS 10 into PTW. Not the best mins but it gave me straight in for the runway that I needed. If we had to go missed (a real possibility with the airport reporting a steady 600 to 800 foot ceiling at the time) we could try the Loc28 with circle to land. At least the approach went well. When we dropped down to 2500 feet, the wind sheer abated and I wasn't fighting nearly as hard to get the needle to stay in the center.
When we got to mins, we could see down. Janet was excited about that. But we couldn't see anything but white forward. We were probably 1/2 miles from the missed when, suddenly, the white just disappeared and there was a runway and taxiway right in front of me! Pull the black knob all the way out, nose up to 80 knots, dump the rest of the flaps, and slip like heck to get down onto the glideslope! We were that close and I wasn't going missed. I straightened up over the numbers and made an absolute greaser of a landing, just flew it right on and it stopped almost immediately. Just perfect.
The meeting was as exciting as meetings always are. The briefers thought the weather would get better. It didn't. It got worse. At least the wind sheer abated. Flying back to LNS with calm wind, I was able to absolutely center the GPS needle and keep it there. One or two degrees of correction, etc.
Abeam LNS, we really started to get rained on. Janet has never had the pleasure of skyhawk wing root rain before. She was not happy with the "free bath" at all. We got vectors for the Loc8, and it absolutely poured on us outbound. ATIS was calling it 800 OVC but they needed to run a special.
We flew the loc down to mins as quickly as I could get the plane down there. At this point, we could only occasionally see the ground, we were really still pretty firmly in the clouds. The VOR DME 8 has slightly better mins, and I was mentally preparing to go missed and try that. I thought then that 100 feet would help. Also, my altimeter and VSI were acting up. I think they were getting a bit of water flow over them. About halfway down the approach, I pulled on ALT static and that seemed to help.
On the loc approach into LNS, there is a big square white roofed building to the right of short final. I was sure glad to see that. It tells me I am where I need to be and helps me to look for the approach lights. We were maybe 3/4 mile from going missed when the rabbit appears right in front of me, right where it should be. I get maybe half the runway at the same time. Enough vis to land. Again, nose up, power off, full flaps, and slip down.
This landing was a bounce, but it was clean and we got off at the usual taxiway.
1.8 hours. 1.7 in actual. 2 approaches, both right down to minimums. Experience, priceless.
But... I would not have gone on a long trip in this weather. And a long trip in that wind sheer would have s--ked. You made the right choice for your journey, Ben.
These were my first REAL approaches down to mins. It was SO COOL! Janet is really pumped to finish her IR, and I am ready to go again.
Sorry this is so long.
Jim G
I followed Ben's weather review with interest because I too was looking at a flight on Saturday. My flight was much easier though. My wife, still an IR student, needed to get from LNS to Pottstown Limerick (PTW) for a 99s meeting. Saturday morning out, Saturday pm back. Really a very little and minor hop.
Except for the weather. I knew it was going to be perfectly dreadful IMC, but how bad? Well, you all saw what we had over the weekend. Low ceilings, rain, but no ice, not down low anyway, and no boomers. Maybe some turbulence. The only TAF that concerned me was the windshear at MDT. That would not be fun.
LNS is a Loc8 only right now, with OK but not great mins. PTW has a Loc approach as well as GPS and VOR. Also not gret mins. However, RDG is the alternate on both trips, and it has two ILS approaches. With ceilings not forecast to be below 400 feet at any time, I know I am virtually guaranteed to get into RDG.
So we launched. The enroute to PTW was a wild ride. That wind sheer was right at 3K feet, right where we were. I was getting 30 degrees of sheer over about a 60 degree range. I would just about get the needle centered and the wind would shift, we'd lose altitude and I'd go off heading. It was bad enough so that I finally gave Reading Approach a pirep. (That and I wanted to make sure they were still with me, there was no one talking at all).
We shot the GPS 10 into PTW. Not the best mins but it gave me straight in for the runway that I needed. If we had to go missed (a real possibility with the airport reporting a steady 600 to 800 foot ceiling at the time) we could try the Loc28 with circle to land. At least the approach went well. When we dropped down to 2500 feet, the wind sheer abated and I wasn't fighting nearly as hard to get the needle to stay in the center.
When we got to mins, we could see down. Janet was excited about that. But we couldn't see anything but white forward. We were probably 1/2 miles from the missed when, suddenly, the white just disappeared and there was a runway and taxiway right in front of me! Pull the black knob all the way out, nose up to 80 knots, dump the rest of the flaps, and slip like heck to get down onto the glideslope! We were that close and I wasn't going missed. I straightened up over the numbers and made an absolute greaser of a landing, just flew it right on and it stopped almost immediately. Just perfect.
The meeting was as exciting as meetings always are. The briefers thought the weather would get better. It didn't. It got worse. At least the wind sheer abated. Flying back to LNS with calm wind, I was able to absolutely center the GPS needle and keep it there. One or two degrees of correction, etc.
Abeam LNS, we really started to get rained on. Janet has never had the pleasure of skyhawk wing root rain before. She was not happy with the "free bath" at all. We got vectors for the Loc8, and it absolutely poured on us outbound. ATIS was calling it 800 OVC but they needed to run a special.
We flew the loc down to mins as quickly as I could get the plane down there. At this point, we could only occasionally see the ground, we were really still pretty firmly in the clouds. The VOR DME 8 has slightly better mins, and I was mentally preparing to go missed and try that. I thought then that 100 feet would help. Also, my altimeter and VSI were acting up. I think they were getting a bit of water flow over them. About halfway down the approach, I pulled on ALT static and that seemed to help.
On the loc approach into LNS, there is a big square white roofed building to the right of short final. I was sure glad to see that. It tells me I am where I need to be and helps me to look for the approach lights. We were maybe 3/4 mile from going missed when the rabbit appears right in front of me, right where it should be. I get maybe half the runway at the same time. Enough vis to land. Again, nose up, power off, full flaps, and slip down.
This landing was a bounce, but it was clean and we got off at the usual taxiway.
1.8 hours. 1.7 in actual. 2 approaches, both right down to minimums. Experience, priceless.
But... I would not have gone on a long trip in this weather. And a long trip in that wind sheer would have s--ked. You made the right choice for your journey, Ben.
These were my first REAL approaches down to mins. It was SO COOL! Janet is really pumped to finish her IR, and I am ready to go again.
Sorry this is so long.
Jim G
