Flying IFR - Lesson 10 - Approaches, Now With A Circle To Landing Feeling

I met up with Kevin at N5337F this morning.  It was going to be a hot one, but only scattered clouds were forecast at 4-5,000 feet which was nice after all the low overcast and storms the past few days.

We would be flying first to lapeer to do the VOR A approach with a full circle to land, followed by the ILS 27 at FLint and then the Localizer backcourse at Pontiac and finally ending with the RNAV 27 at Pontiac.

So I got the procedure loaded in, and pulled up and checked the plate for D95's VOR A approach.

Took off and was passed to Detroit approach and then Great Lakes Approach and setup for the VOR A to Lapeer.

Flew it and it wasn't bad at all.  The circle to land was interesting as you're at a lower than typical traffic pattern height throughout the process which does look and feel different.  I did a nice landing on Runway 18. For whatever reason, I always do good landing at Lapeer.

Then up again and right on to Flint's 27 ILS approach which came up real fast.  I was getting behind fast too.  But I got it going and did stayed on the glidepath but was having some difficulty staying on the localizer due to some wind but got it figured out.  Not the best I've ever done, but not bad, ending in a solid missed approach and a climb to 2,500 with a right turn.

Then to the localizer back course, which as the name suggests is the opposite of the front course.  Clever these naming conventions.  We did the full approach including the procedure turn.  Was behind the curve on that one too, especially figuring out the procedure turn, but did it ok with a very nice approach at the end.

The RNAV 27L was sublime perfection by comparison.  I got vectored out to LEHRA and was then on top of things and ahead of the aircraft and the approach for the entire approach.  With LPV guidance I rode that approach from the final approach fix to landing like it was on rails, perfect vertical and horizontal alignment the whole way with a perfect landing.  Kevin was very pleased with how I did on that one, and I was rather happy myself as that one just clicked and flowed perfectly.  A very positive ending to a lesson.

Had a good debrief and he stated we would now do a circle to land on every lesson with approaches to get used to doing those. We went over the approach plates he noted I did great on the RNAV 27L, and that was the lesson.

That's 2.1, 1.5 simulated instrument,  4 approaches, and two very nice landings.