Instrument Lesson 2

Today I had my second instrument lesson. I've had trouble getting a plane. It's usually necessary to reserve a plane two weeks out because that's as early as the scheduler will allow and the weekends are usually booked within a few hours. So I reserved a plane two weeks ago and was disappointed to see that the winds were in the teens, gusting in the low twenties. But the wind was from the west, aligned with the runway, and I had an instructor with me, so off we went. But first, when I drove up, I saw the plane I reserved taxiing out for take-off. Because of the wind there were cancellations today so we switched to another plane that was sitting on the ramp. The one I originally reserved came rushing in just as we were starting up to leave. I think they were rushing to get it back for my reservation, albeit late. We took off to the west, a direction I've only gone once. I went under the hood right away and struggled to hold altitude and heading in turbulence. After a while, we started a vertical-S maneuver. Starting on a north heading at 3000 feet, I did a descending turn to 2000, reversing the turn once reaching a south heading, climbing back to 3000 once reaching 2000, then repeating the turns, but descending to 2100, then climbing to 2900, etc. I think I got better as I went along, but for the first time in my training, I got airsick. We stopped the vertical-S and proceeded to do the ILS 23 approach to Frederick. The glideslope was out of service, so we had to do a localizer approach, followed by a circle-to-land on runway 30. Surprisingly, after such a long time since my last flight, I still managed a pretty good landing in gusting winds. I was grateful for a few minutes on the ground while we taxied back for takeoff. I took the foggles off just as we approached Frederick and I left them off for the rest of the flight. We took off and did the RNAV 10 approach to Tipton with the foggles off because I still wasn't feeling well. Another circle-to-land; I brought it down to land in a crosswind and gusts, but again well-done. Overall, I struggled with headings and altitudes the whole way. I'll blame some of it on the turbulence, some on lack of currency, some on just needing a lot of practice. It didn't help that the GPS didn't work for the first half of the flight - it suddenly came on in flight.

Instrument Lesson

I've been attempting to have an instrument lesson for quite a while. Weather, airplane availability, and other issues kept getting in the way. Today I finally had the lesson on a hot sunny day. Here's what I remember:

Takeoff from KFME, under the hood almost immediately. Direct to KCGE, navigating via GPS. Lots of turbulence made it difficult to hold altitude and heading. Instructor set up GPS and worked the radio.

Activated GPS approach for KCGE runway 34. Flew over at 3000, turned outbound, descending to 1850, procedure turn course reversal (that I flew badly), inbound descending to 500, quick look out from under the foggles to show me that I could have executed a normal landing, and we went missed. Climbed to 1600, right hand turns, one circuit around the hold, and then we proceeded to RIKME at 2000.

Crossed RIKME at 2000, turned outbound on the hold, inbound leg proceded on the ILS approach for runway 4 at KESN. I got established on the localizer and mostly held it, captured the glideslope and mostly held it, and at 600 feet I took the foggles off and executed the circle to land procedure, turning to the right, staying at or below 600, flying over the approach end of runway 15, right traffic to land on 22, which was the active runway.

Touch and go, west bound turn, back under the hood, climbed to 3000, direct to KFME. Instructor gave vectors to downwind, brought it in for an ugly landing with a lot of crosswind and drift and float.

So two landings, nearly 2 hours under the hood. I feld like I was chasing the needles all day and I must have been making lots of S-turns. Instructor said I did well for a first lesson, but he's always positive and supportive.

I think I'll wait a month or so, do some simulator practice, and try again with another lesson.