Instrument Cross Country
Friday the 13th. Perfect day for 300+ miles of flying, all under the hood.
To meet the requirements of the rating, the trip needs to be 250NM total, three legs, one leg over 100NM, and three different approaches. I planned a trip from Van Nuys (VNY) to San Diego-Montgomery Field (MYF) to Camarillo (CMA) back to Van Nuys. My goal was to stay ahead of the airplane at all times, so I created a nav log that included all the necessary frequencies, radials, timing, distances, etc, for each leg. I reviewed the route extensively the night before so I’d feel prepared.
We launched around 9:15. The clearance for the first leg was exactly what I’d filed – V186 V363 V25 MZB. A few vectors that actually shortened the route a bit, but other than that, there were no surprises. Trimmed the plane well, stayed ahead, never busted altitude, and maintained positional awareness. Shot the ILS at MYF, parked and grabbed a quick snack before heading back out.
The next leg wasn’t quite the same. I filed by phone from MYF, and got a completely different clearance from what I filed. My new clearance was vectors to OCN V23 LAX VNY. No problem. I’ll just have to handle it in flight. And I did. Stayed ahead, even dialed in radials for fixes I was simply crossing, in order to verify my position. Busted altitude once coming in towards final for CMA, but nothing horrible. I caught it quickly, corrected and that was that. The approach was tough. The VOR 26 at CMA is difficult to begin with – two step downs from 4400 to 2000 in a short distance make workload high. The winds were keeping me south of the final approach course, until we got closer, then they shifted and kept me north. This threw me. I didn’t manage speed very well, but I ended up just about where I should have been when took off the hood. Landed, and in for lunch.
Leaving there, we just got Tower Enroute back to VNY. Once we were talking to approach, we requested the LDA-C, which they gave us. I flew this one well too, with the only problem being that the #2 VOR head has a thing called ARC – Automatic Radial Centering. You just push the OBS in, and it centers the needle with a TO indication. Pull it, and it centers with a FROM. Pretty cool, eh? Not really. See, the problem is that if you’re not careful, you can inadvertently push it in, and it starts centering. You can’t stop it until it’s done. That happened TWICE while I was trying to dial in the radial that identified the FAF for the approach. VERY irritating. Circled for 16R, and came home.
Very educational, and a real confidence builder. I feel good about my skills now, and know I can handle the tasks associated with flying IFR without killing myself. So THAT’S good. 4.5 hours is all I need now. This will probably be 2 lessons with Kent to clean things up, a phase check with Gene Hudson (the same CFII that did my PP phase check). I’m going to take the written next Friday, so that will be done. Then a VFR flight to Vegas for the weekend. That will be nice, considering I haven’t flown while seeing OUTSIDE the plane for about 10 flights now. Then the checkride!