Filing IFR

June 27, 2012

I wake up much to early for my day off work. I have to plan my first instrument cross country trip to Greenville, IL. I locate my Low IFR chart. This looks much different than the VFR charts I'm used to. Using an IFR chart essentially shows the highways of the sky. These routes are called victor airways and are flown by instrument rated pilots. They are designated by a number following the letter V, such as V26. You navigate by using VOR stations and their radials. My chosen route was to be fly direct to the STL VOR, transition onto V14 by flying a radial of 076 degrees. This would take me to the Vandalia VOR, which sets me up perfectly to perform the VOR-A approach in runway 18 at Greenville airport.

After planning the route and doing fuel and wind calculations, I pack up my flight bag and head for the airport. I meet my instructor at 9:30am, do a preflight inspection on my plane, then go inside and discuss the plan with Mark. He likes my planning and gives me the ok to call the Flight Service Station to file the flight plan. This plan goes directly to the FAA so that ATC can use it. They generally include "basic information such as departure and arrival points, estimated time en route, alternate airports in case of bad weather, type of flight (whether instrument flight rules or visual flight rules), the pilot's information, number of people on board and information about the aircraft itself." -wikipedia.

Once filed, we head out to the airplane and set up for departure. Mark taxiis the plane to the runway while I get together my paperwork, set radio frequencies and listen to the weather. After a successful run-up, Mark lets me take command of the radio and call up STL Clearance Delivery. These are the controllers who will be giving me information regarding my departure. My instructions are simple, and easily remembered if you write them down by using the acronym of CRAFT; clearance, route, altitude, frequency, transponder. My instructions are: C- cleared to Greenville, R- as filed, A- 2500' expect 5000' in 10 minutes, F- 124.2, T- 4630. We don't hear the controller say the typical, "hold for release" meaning we can't takeoff until he finds a place for us in traffic. Since we didn't hear those three words, Mark assumed that we were good to go.

We takeoff and contact ATC. Very quickly the controller responds, "I did not release you for departure, next time please wait until I give you the clearance." I look at Mark as he smirks a nice choice of words. He apologizes to the controller and has me turn onto the new course that the controller assigns. I'm now wearing my foggles. The first part of our requested route has changed due to the early departure. We will now be flying this:

The controller now passes us over to STL Approach. She has us fly nearly directly over the Alton airport at 4000'. Not much time later, we're cleared to fly at our cruising altitude of 5000' and onto V14. Soon after that, she forwards us to KC Center. They control a much broader area of airspace than STL. I make a radio call to KC Center to give them my altitude. We'll be in contact with them until we arrive at Greenville.

While enroute, I look over my approach plate for Greenville and brief the approach to Mark. Everything is looking good. We arrive at the Vandalia VOR and the controller clears us to carry out the approach. I set up the instruments... all except one, the main OBS, which is what you use for a VOR approach. Mark notices that we're off course and quickly realizes what I had forgot to set. It was too late to have a successful approach, so we cancel the IFR flight plan and finish under VFR. Mark plays the role of the controller and has me fly back out to the Vandalia VOR station. Lets try this again.

Everything looks good. I fly the inbound heading of 209 degrees and stay at 2200'. Once at the final approach fix, I slow us down, drop a notch of flaps, and descend to 1060'. We reach the missed approach point so I take off my foggles and look outside. The airport is right there, off to my right. I set us up to land on Runway 18.

After a successful landing, we taxi back to the start of the runway and call KC Center. They will open our IFR flight plan for the trip back home, and give us our clearance to depart. After three attempts at contacting them with no answer, Mark says we can just depart VFR and call them once airborne.

We takeoff and head west. At approximately 1000' I call KC Center again. Success, they answer! The controller sets us on course, however it's different that what we filed. I guess it just didn't work for him and the current air traffic situation. This is normal. We eventually get passed over to STL Approach and they have us fly over the Alton airport at 4000' on our way back home. We're now 20 minutes away and can close our IFR flight plan. Their assistance is no longer needed since we can fly it VFR.

We don't have time to perform a GPS approach into our airport so we just enter the pattern and land the plane. I logged 2.1 hours of cross country time today. It was a fun, challenging, and hot lesson.

Next up, a flight to Quincy, IL!

Stage 2 Check

June 22, 2012

After two hours of my stage check examiner quizzing me on the ground, and two hours of proving my abilities in the airplane, I am happy to report that...


I'M FINISHED WITH STAGE 2!!! 


I start the final, 3rd stage, next week!


Flight Log to Date:
Hours flown: 124.3

Finishing Stage 2

June 15, 2012

Today I'm hoping to show Mark, my CFII, that I can do approaches and holds without the help of an instructor. I can feel my nerves kicking in as Mark says that he's just going to sit back and be quiet as much as possible. This is essentially a mock checkride and my performance is all on me.

The winds are blowing from the southeast at around 15kts. There's no runway that will make this takeoff easy. I can choose the east runway or the south runway, but I'm going to have a crosswind regardless. I choose the south runway because it's longer. I line up on the centerline, check the windsock one more time and prepare for takeoff. My hand pushes the throttle all the way in, the engine comes to life, and we begin to roll down the runway. The wind is trying to take over; slowing trying to push me to the right. At 60kts I begin to lift off. The wind is strong, stronger than I thought. I make control adjustments to keep us flying straight. At 200ft above the ground, we seem to be flying sideways. I could tell this was going to be an interesting flight.

We depart the area northbound over the river. We didn't need to talk to STL Approach today, so Mark played the roll of the controller. He vectored me out far enough that I could do the GPS approach into our airport. He left me alone to see if I could set up the GPS with the approach correctly. I did. Next, I read my approach plates which tell me my next step. I descend down to the stated altitude then look at the GPS.

Photo from sportys.com

If you look at the photo, the purple line indicates the approach course and the airplane is my current location. On the right side it shows my destination, the direction in which I need to fly to get there, my distance from it, and my ground speed (the speed I'd be going if I were in a car). On the left side are my radio frequencies.

I followed the approach perfectly down to the runway, then Mark told me to go missed. He asks me to follow the missed approach procedure that takes me out to the holding pattern. Prior to entering the pattern, which is shown on the GPS, I determine which entry is most appropriate. I choose a teardrop entry. Upon reaching the holding fix (an exact point on a map), I make my 30 degree turn to the left and continue flying for one minute. Next, I make my turn back inbound and fly towards the fix.

Scottsasha.com/aviation

I follow through my my 5 T's: Turn, Time, Twist, Throttle, Talk:

"Taught to generations of instrument students, it details the actions to take at various points in an approach or entry into holding.

• Turn – turn to the desired heading. You may need to turn to an intercept heading to get on the desired radial or bearing. 
• Time – start your timer, if needed. 
• Twist – twist the OBS (Omnidirectional Bearing Selector, an aircraft navigation instrument) to the proper setting, either required radial or the reciprocal to eliminate reverse sensing. 
• Throttle – reduce your airspeed 
• Talk – if asked to report, do so." -   simfliteminnesota.blogspot.com

After I correctly circle the holding pattern, Mark tells me to set up for the VOR approach we're doing next. I tune to the VOR frequency, identify the Morse code to ensure that it's working, then start flying towards it. I review the approach plate, and once Mark gives the pretend clearance for the approach, I decend down to the 2,300ft it initially requires. As I continue on, I follow the instructions which takes us directly to the runway. YAY! Mark asks me if I could safely land the plane once I took off the foggles. I was a little high, and close, so I said no. Mark says, "I have the controls" and slips us down to the runway. I chuckle and watch with a smile. We still had a crosswind, so he lands appropriately. Woo that was fun!

We park the plane and go inside. The AC is immediately welcoming. We sit down and review the lesson, the Mark says that I approved to take the much anticipated Stage 2 Check. Once I complete that, we will have a few lessons before doing the 250NM cross country flight. He also said there's less than 10 lessons left of my instrument training. AHHH!!

Review

June 6, 2012

I arrive at the airport on a beautiful, cool, calm morning. The airplane has been calling my name for days, so I'm quick to perform my preflight inspection. I'm back in my favorite C172.

I meet up with my instructor, Mark. He refers to our syllabus and lets me know what the plan for today is. Holds, holds, holds, and some approaches. The school's Chief CFI said that Alton's NDB approach was back up and running again. It's a type of approach that's rare to find, which means I've never been able to do one. Mark said we would give it a shot.

We depart from Runway 9 and head northeast. We tune to the NDB frequency and watch the instrument to determine if it's in service. After five minutes of it not working, Mark cancels the plan and tells me to fly to Spirit Airport instead. Due to the last minute change, I had to quickly reprogram the radio frequencies. After listening to Spirit's weather, I contact STL Approach and give them my intentions.

The controller vectors around to set us up for the ILS 8R. As we get closer, we're told that he needs to give aircraft separation between us and another plane inbound. He gives them the right of way and makes us wait. The controller had basically made up a holding pattern for us, but instead of us doing it without help, he gave us the turn by turn directions. Finally after what seemed like 10 minutes, he gets us on course for the approach. I haven't done an approach in a while, so I was hoping I'd do it right.

I interpret the instrument to guide me straight to the runway. I was a little late on starting my descent, but when I was at the missed approach point, I looked up and it was spot on. I gave myself a pat on the back and started my climb. We notify Approach that we went missed and want vectors to set us up for an approach back into our home airport. He tells us to climb to 3,500ft and cleared to enter Bravo airspace.

His instructions take us right towards Lambert Airport. Flying here always feels like a forbidden place. It gets my adrenaline pumping. While en route, the controller contacts us, "6-5-1-Niner-1, ummm I just wanted to let you know that there will be two F16s taking off from Lambert shortly and will be headed straight out." I jumped with excitement. Mark took notice and told me I could take my foggles off to watch the show.

Once we passed Lambert, we were directed to fly into Illinois. We kept a north heading while waiting for the controller to give us our next set of directions. He was supposed to set us up for an approach into St. Charles. He comes back on over the radio and tells us that he was flying us in the wrong direction. We had 15 minutes left of our lesson, which didn't give us enough time to practice holds or even the approach. We canceled with ATC and flew straight home. I let Mark do the landing today... just because.

Since we ran out of time, I need to go back up again to finish what we couldn't get to. Then I hope to get the signoff for the Stage 2 Check.