Friday, August 06, 2021

Flying IFR - Lesson 18 - Cross County Approaches

Today I was with Kevin again and the weather was good but it promised to be a bumpy ride.

I filed an IFR flight plan to Jackson, and then after landing in Jackson from Jackson to Ann Arbor and then back to Pontiac.

I go the clearance, did the run-up on the ramp and then joined the gaggle to depart Runway 27R as 27L is still closed for construction.  I took off with the foggles on.

A little bumpy air and some gusts with a lot of haze, but no big deal.  I flew to Jackson and did the ILS 25 approach and landed nicely.

Then I did a taxi back to 25 and took off for Ann Arbor.  Given the air show this weekend, lots of interesting traffic was heard on the radio, including some B-25 Mitchell Bombers.  It must be rather cool when asked by Detroit Approach to say type and to get to respond "B-25".    More on the air show to come.

So we went on to Ann Arbor, diverting a bit for some parachute activity, and I did the VOR 24 and ending with a missed approach, never taking the foggles off.  I still need to work on my VOR approaches as I feel like I'm missing something, but we will keep on it.

Then off to Pontiac where I did the 27L RNAV which given the ILS and localizer is out due to the construction, the RNAV is the only approach they've got, well, and its opposite the RNAV 9.  Got vectored to the final approach fix after getting vectored around a bit for traffic and then in to land in rather gusty conditions.

Overall I'd say I'm getting better at it and it was a nice flight. The cross country nature gave a lot of time to have the approaches all loaded, planned out, and dialed in, so that went rather smoothly.

That's 2.4 with 2.0 simulated instrument, 3 approaches and 2 landings.