Flying IFR - Lesson 41 - Well That Just Sucked Rocks

So this afternoon at 3:30 was the mock pre-checkride checkride.

Winds out of the South east 11-21 knots would make it sporty.

Took off in N5337F from Runway 9L at Pontiac. 

Since winds were southeast, that eliminated using the Troy RNAV 9 circle 27 so we did the examiner's other favored checkride practice route.  Off to do the Flint ILS 9 followed by Flint VOR 18 circle to 9 and then Pontiac's RNAV 9.

Straightforward enough, and it gives you more time to setup and get ready for the approach on the way to Flint compared to the very few short minutes you have before getting on the approach to Troy.

Well yes, but not so much. It really did not go well.

The ride started smooth and then hit some moderate turbulence as I flew close by Flint, pressure actually dropped quite a bit and wind-shear and winds from the south were gusting to 18-28 knots. Lots of fun - not - just trying to keep things steady, and yes we both caught air and got bopped out of our seats a few times.  Yes, yay seat-belts.

As a result, during the hold and turn in on the ILS 9 approach, I got blown way off which made catching the localizer kinda hard.  Never had that happen before, so it sucked.  Finally got established and flew a decent approach with one helluva crab angle the whole damn way. Not a good start at all and not nearly good enough.

Then I did the VOR 18 to 27 partial panel. Getting vectored and established onto the VOR with limited instruments was a royal pain, especially while getting bounced around all over the place, it was so bad I had to get vectored onto it again as I was just getting hammered by the wind and turbulence.

Reasonable enough approach and circle etc once established, but still not good enough on the initial approach.

Then back to Pontiac with a change to do the ILS 9 as the instructor wanted me to do another hold.  Went better this time and got the hold ok with massive wind correction.  Had a crazy intercept angle of 180 degrees for a localizer on the 95 degree line due to the wind - that's rather huge with a wild crab angle where the plane is flying one direction but pointed in another.

Crazy crosswind but actually got it down and flew it in like it was on rails and did a very good landing.  It really was a smooth crosswind landing which surprised everyone on board.

That's 1.9 with 1.5 simulated, two holds, 3 approaches and going nowhere near good enough to get to a real check ride. Just when you think you've got it down and can do this, you can't.

We will see if I can redeem myself tomorrow.