Well, it's been interesting week out at the ole Raleigh East Flying Academy. My first adventure in the airplane with IFR training was on Tuesday:
W17 direct WENDI V45 WAYNE direct ISO direct BELGA direct W17,
with the NDB approach at Goldsboro, the VOR approach at Kinston, and the
ILS approach at Rocky Mount/Wilson.
It was all very new and pretty much on the overwhelming side. The
trip down to Goldsboro, and the app went fairly well. Upon reaching
minimum decent altitude (MDA) and
still about 1 mile from the runway, my flight instructor (M.R.)
says "look", and I tilted
my head back to look outside and lo and behold... there was an airport
right in front of me. It was the first thing I'd seen outside since
leaving Raleigh-East. Very satisfying. Well, then it was missed approach
(MAP) time which usually
would have taken us back to WAYNE. The ATC dude, however, told us to
proceed to Kinston. Keeping up with ATC, M.R., navigation, and desperately
trying not to stall the aircraft was really starting to take its toll about
this time. The approach at Kinston went pretty much ok, except I misunderstood
Kinston tower when they asked me to report Kinston inbound. I thought they
said report procedure turn inbound so as soon as I was pointed at the
airport I babbled, "5306E inbound." Well the tower didn't believe me
and asked me to verify I was over the VOR. Oops. Not a good way to
stay on the good side of ATC. After the MAP, (another ATC assigned
and unpublished MAP), Seymour Johnson said to proceed direct Rocky Mount/Wilson.
So I looked on my nav. log, saw the number 230, and proceeded on a
heading of 230. I'll pause a moment while all you aviation fans consider
the implications of heading 230 to get from Kinston to
Rocky Mount/Wilson.................
Oh, yea. After a few minutes, Seymour politely asked me if we were
on course to Rocky Mount/Wilson. "Oh, sure, sure, sure..", I said. The
fatigue was
really setting in now. M.R. just sat there like a bump on a log.
Eventually, I figured out that something was wrong, and M.R. had me peek
out from under the hood. We were just about on top of Seymour Johnson
Air Force Base.
Well, M.R. asked me if I'd had enough for one day, but I said of course
not. So off we went to Rocky Mount/Wilson (heading 360 now) for ILS fun.
The approach
was fairly adventurous there, with us on the ILS to runway 22 and some ole
jet feller on extended base to rwy 4. We got to minimums, the hood
came off, and we joined downwind about the time the jet was calling
2 mile base. We finally spotted him in time to avoid disaster, and
ended up doing a very messy touch and go. M.R. canceled IFR
(instrument flight rules flightplan), the hood
went back on, and M.R. played ATC all the way back to Raleigh-East, including
a simulated radar approach. The landing got out of control,
and we did a go around. I was pretty much destroyed after all that, and
we all decided that the cross country to Newport News
the coming Sunday was just a bit optimistic.
Summary for Tuesday:
Total - 2.3 hours
PIC - 2.3
Dual - 2.3
X/C - 2.3
Sim. - 2.0
Actual - 0.3
Lndgs - 2
Apps - 3 (1 NDB, 1 VOR, 1 ILS)
Wednesday turned out to be a little more productive. M.R. handled most
of the radio, and I shot 2 NDBs. The plan was:
W17 direct WENDI direct JNALL direct JAMBE direct W17
with NDB approaches at JNX (Johnston Co.) and W03 (Wilson Industrial).
We left Raleigh-East with marginal visibility and cloud bases around
2000 to 2500.
I got clearance in the air (circling Raleigh-East) and then we set off for
WENDI.
M.R. didn't give me the hood. It wasn't long before we were in actual.
The cloud layer was broken, bases at 2000, tops varying between 3500 and
5000. M.R. was on the radio, which made things MUCH easier for her
fledgling student feller. The NDB approach to JNX went as planned, the
airport coming into view with about 2 miles to go and still plenty of
time on the clock. We were at MDA at the time, so it all counts, even
without the hood. The MAP took us back on course for JAMBE. During the
procedure turn at W03, M.R. said, "look!." Which I did of course.
Lo and behold, there was an airport pretty much right under us. It wasn't
W03, though. It's a disturbing fact that the NDB for the W03 approach
(which is named JAMBE) is right on the field, and the outer marker
for the ILS to Rocky Mount/Wilson also happens to be JAMBE.
Thus, on the ILS to Rocky Mount/Wilson, you pass over the outer marker
right over W03, and on the procedure turn at W03, you pass right
over Rocky Mount/Wilson. Hmmmm. Anyway, the rest of the approach and
the MAP went pretty
well and then it was on to Raleigh-East via vectors from Wash Center and Raleigh
Approach. On the way back to Raleigh-East we were skimming in and out of the
cloud tops at 4000. Very pleasing. I discovered some interesting things
about flying in clouds. First, the ones I went through on Wednesday
kept making me climb. Even with reduced power and nose down. The other
thing is that for some reason, the right wing got heavy inside the clouds.
Hmmm. Well, we finally got back to Raleigh-East. No go around this time.
Summary for Wednesday:
Total - 1.5 hours
PIC - 0.4
Dual - 1.5
X/C - 0.0
Sim. - 0.0
Actual - 1.1
Lndgs - 1
Apps - 2 (2 NDB)
Then along came Friday. The plan was:
Raleigh-East direct RDU V136 FAY direct Raleigh-East
with VOR approaches at RDU and FAY, and maybe an intersection and/or NDB
hold on the way from FAY to Raleigh-East. We didn't fly the plan.
On the way out
of the office, I heard thunder. By the time I reached Raleigh-East, my
rear-view
mirror was looking VERY dark. M.R. said it was ok if we stayed 20 miles
away from the cell and maybe we could go to Fayetteville first, then
Raleigh-Durham after the
cell moved on. I tried to explain things like atmospheric instabilities
and such to her, but I think I got too geeky and lost her. I did convince
her to call flight service, and after that she went along with the
stay-on-the-ground theory.
Then we thought that we could at least fly the simulator,
but while we were setting it up, there was a clap of thunder. I told her
that was how I lost my PC so we unplugged the simulator. Plan C was
question and answer period with the instructor. Rapid fire quizzing is
closer to what really happened. Well, after not too long, the student
had just about enough and begged for mercy. That should have been the end
of the story, but it isn't. We went into the lobby area at the "Raleigh
East Flying Academy" (don't forget: this is a converted mobil-home)
and, since it was really pouring outside, (the term
is frog-strangler), I decided to hang around and yuk it up with all the
other pilot fellers and such. (Me, M.R., and about 4 or 5 other
CFIs) It was really coming down so somebody started making tornado jokes.
Big mistake. Somebody else told M.R. to call FSS and ask if there were
any tornados on the radar. Ha, ha. M.R. said there was no way she was
going to be on the phone during a thunderstorm. Then, all of a sudden...
Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed....