One with the Clouds

April 22, 2012

After a nice drive in the rain, I arrive at the airport eager to fly. I could see that the cloud layer was low, which meant I was about to get some actual instrument flying. I do the preflight inspection on the Cessna 172 that is new to our school. The plane is in tip top condition and just waiting to be flown. Mark meets me at the plane and we get our stuff organized. I call the local weather recording to find that the clouds are hanging out around 1500ft above the surface. I look at Mark with a smile and say, "well, it looks like we're going to have to file an IFR flight plan today!" After getting his nod of approval, I call Flight Service Station and give our information. We're ready to go.

The rain has tapered off and a small peek of the sun shined through the clouds. Mark and I looked at each other, then I made the comment, "no, no, sun go away... we want the clouds today!" Mark taxiis the plane to the runway while I set up the radios and GPS. After doing the run-up, I radio Clearance Delivery to get permission to take off and open our flight plan that was on file. After waiting for a few minutes, we got the approval from ATC. The plane lifts off the runway and we head north. The sky is full of fluffy gray clouds, and we're headed straight for them. I'm getting excited. No foggles needed today! I smile big as we enter the first round of clouds. It's just a broken layer of clouds, meaning that they only cover 5/8 to 7/8 of the sky. Complete overcast would be 8/8 coverage.

We pop out and see clouds all around, we some peeks of the ground. The sight was absolutely stunning. This is what instrument flying is all about. We continue to go in and out of the clouds while flying far enough north that we could turn around and follow the approach back home.

Video can be seen larger Here

ATC vectors us around to line us up for the VOR approach. I set up my instruments and wait to hear the magic words, "cleared for the approach." Not long after, the controller clears us. I start the descent and follow the needle on my instrument. We continue going in and out of the clouds and can't help but take pictures. We reach the next point on the approach and I am able to descend further. As we near the river, we exit the clouds. Mark makes me put on the foggles for the rest of the approach. Once we hit the missed approach point, I look up and see that I easily could make a safe landing.

We go around and fly back out north. This time we were going to do the GPS approach. The clouds are beginning to rise, so it took a little longer before we re-entered them. Eventually, we were flying near the tops of the clouds, which was a sight to behold.

The GPS approach went pretty well. I was a little off-course initially, but corrected quickly. Once down to the runway, I took my foggles off and Mark asked me if I'd be able to safely land. I was too high and too fast. My gut told me I would not be able to make it. Mark thought we could, so he took the controls and did a slip. This basically forces the plane to fly sideways to increase the descent rate without increasing speed. 

Image courtesy of airbum.com

However, the wind was behind us which gave us a strong tailwind. We got down to the runway nicely, but we were still much too fast. The wind was pushing us and if we had tried to land, we may have run off the runway. Mark calls a go-around, starts a climb, and then turns the controls over to me.

I flew us around to enter the traffic pattern for the correct runway. I was determined to have a beautiful landing. I slow us down, start descending and make my turns. Lower some flaps, add just a touch of power so we don't land short, then cut the power out to idle once at the runway. I gently bring it down, wait it out, and then let the wheels touch the paved runway beneath us. Success!