Flying IFR - Lesson 49 - Real IMC

Got stuck with N1689H yet again.  Seat was f-ed up as usual low and liked to release backwards, mis-rigged with a neat left-turning tendency, et al.

On the upside if I can fly this miserable bat rastard of a plane I suppose I can do anything.

Filed an IFR Flight plan PTK-FNY-VLL-PTK. 

Overcast at 1,700 with some light precip so real IMC it would be.

Climbed to 3,000 on takeoff and into the soup we went. Then got told by Detroit Approach to climb to 4,000 and within a few minutes by Great Lakes Approach to go back to 3,000.  Very quickly we were in the clouds and stayed there.

Found in-flight in IMC the turn coordinator was not coordinating properly, so had to ignore it and use the attitude indicator instead for rate of turn indications.  Fun.

I was rather calm in IMC today which was good.  

Worked hard on keeping the instrument scan up and the plane under control and overall I did pretty well and better than the last few hops. Much better control and scan and thus more relaxed being in complete soup.

Did the VOR 36 Circle to 27 at Flint.  Was a bit too tight on the circle but overall ok and have to make sure to catch the minimums and then not climb above it.  Good approach overall, though but I need to descend a bit faster which was a bit of a challenge.

Then on to Troy (VLL) for the RNAV circle 9 to 28. 

I tried the "don't descend from circling minimums until final" and it did not work.

Trying to not descend until within 30 degrees of the runway and I was 700 feet up and needed to drop 1000 fpm plus to bring it in. Not exactly a normal maneuver. Instructor was like "What are you doing?" and I said Tom on prior flight said no descent from circle minimums until within 30 degrees of the runway.  Rocky said that's not correct.

In short doing that, you're gonna eat up most of the runway at best and have to go missed at worst.

So, as to the circling minimums, latest consensus is you can and probably do need to come down once you can make a descent to landing using normal maneuvers, have the appropriate flight vis and able to ID the runway environment.  So after the flight Rocky asked 5 other isntructors who were at the room and per the instructors the latest consensus is no you don't wait to 30 degrees from the runways and yes you can go below circle minimums on the end of the downwind and base and pretty much have to do so to make a normal descent and it meets the regs.  Go figure. Would be nice if there was a clear answer.

On to Pontiac for the Backcourse 27L.  Did it very well but having both the front course showing on the HSI, and the reverse sensing on the VOR receiver got kinda confusing.  Approach was right on for all that, with a nice landing though.

That's 1.7 with 1.0 IMC; 2 holds; 3 approaches; and 1 nice landing.

Upside is today I feel I can actually do this. I had a really good scan going and kept the altitude mostly in check, decent on headings overall downside is it still needs to be tightened up.