So today I was up with Rocky in N6288J.
Downside - 6288J lacks a Garmin 430W but has the newer touchscreen one without a NAV 1 radio, so I got to try to mess with that a bit.
More Downside: It was really rather windy and turbulent today, so a touchscreen really, really sucks for making selections - especially when you're not completely familiar with it as well.
Nothing like getting pushed side to side as well as getting lifted up on the regular to enjoy a flight.
Even more downside - The PTT switch on my yoke stopped working properly and was very intermittent even when being mashed down, so Rocky had to do all the radio work.
So yes, winds rocking from 200-240 at 16-22kts made for an interesting ride.
Went to 9G2 Linden and did the RNAV 27 and simulated a circle to 9 as we didn't want to be head on against local traffic as the wind was favoring 27 but the examiner will do a 27 circle to 9 at Linden now if the wind is blowing the other way,
Then to Troy, did a good approach but was getting constantly pushed around by the winds, very hard to drop altitude on the tight circle and the wind really pushed me over ,which sucks as you can't compensate as you're not allowed to be be more than a mile from the runway on the circle downwind or you fail. As such, on turning base I got pushed hard past the runway and had to gently come back. Not great and I said so and that I would be going around from that approach.
Then to Pontiac for the Localizer Backcourse 27L.
First one sucked so hard as I get constantly blown this way and that, very crappy conditions, so we decided to do it again. Partially the fault of Detorit Approach not quite vectoring me in right and then had dropped me way off the localizer and I had to fight hard to try and acquire it.
Second time was the charm, I rode it like it was on rails and down to a nice gusty crosswind landing.
Apparently, I redeemed myself sufficiently even with the prior mess-up that I will be getting the pre-checkride checkride soon once that can be arranged.
That's 1.9, 1.5 simulated instrument, 4 approaches, and 1 rather decent landing.
2 comments:
On a 650 you can use the knobs just like a 430.
The Garmin 355A only has one knob and figuring out what if anything pushing it is selecting at the time is a major PITA. Not to mention the menu is occiaisonally intuitive and sometimes not so much.
The 355 seems to be deliberately downgraded/feature reduced and has no NAV VHF radio mainly so it doesn't compete with the 650 and is a cheaper alternative.
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