Check out my ILS landing today....

I tell you what.

There is NOTHING more satisfying than to take your child for their very first flight, and to watch their eyes positively pop wide open when the wheels depart the ground.

Such as it was for me and my daughter tonight.

Lexie, who's only 3, adopted her daddy's love of aviation while I was studying for my instrument rating.  She would curl up with me in my recliner and watch my Sporty's Instrument Pilot DVDs.  She even knows her phonetic alphabet better than she does the regular one!  Boy, won't that be a trip when she enters kindergarten and says "... X-Ray, Yankee, ZULU!" 

At any rate, I had planned to go out tonight to get some Night Stop and Goes before TKI shuts down for the fall for surface rehabilitation (the runway will be closed for about 2 months, and the Texins fleet will be relocated to Sherman, TX, which is about an hour away from me.)

She looked at me with big brown eyes and said, "Daddy, I want to go flying, too!!!"  I thought about it for a while, and decided that if one of her uncles (who are 12) would sit in the back with her, I could manage.

I half anticipated she'd freak out as we began to roll out, and was fully prepared to abort the takeoff.  But when I glanced over my shoulder after rotating and stabilzed climb, and saw her nose pressed to the rear window, and a big grin reflecting with each strobe flash, I knew we were golden. 

I did two stop and goes, then departed the pattern toward the city lights.  She was bedazzled.  I could hear her squealing "Look at that!!!" at just about every possible thing she saw.  We flew around Plano and Murphy for about 10 minutes, then headed back in for our final full stop.

When I turned off on the taxiway, she asked, "Daddy, can we take off again??"

She's hooked.  Just like her dad.  

I started to title this one "First IFR Cross Country," but of course, it wouldn't be, since I did several during the training.  But during those, I had an instructor aboard.  And this one wasn't solo, because I had two of my kids with me.  And, it's too long to call this entry "First IFR Cross Country as an Instrument Rated Pilot (But Not Solo.)"  Nuf said?

At any rate, I once again decided to fly up to Branson, MO over this long weekend, and this ~300nm flight was to be filed IFR, even though the weather outbound was VMC.

I filed:  ADS TEX9.MLC RZC HARKS PLK  (Addison Airport to Taney County Regional via Texoma9 Departure, McAllister Transition, to Razorback VOR, to HARKS intersection, Direct) at 7000 feet.  Had lots of vectoring out of the area (in fact, I never actually flew much of the departure route at all.)   Before reaching MLC, I was given "Direct..." all the way to the destination airport.  Ultimately, I was given a visual approach, with no vectors needed to find the airport.

We arrived about 30 minutes after sunset Friday Evening, making this my first nighttime arrival to PLK.  And as expected, since this was a holiday weekend, the field was CROWDED.  My dad arrived at the airport a while ahead of me to stake out a parking spot, one of only a handful remaining.  Two other birds arrived right after me, and probably filled them up.

We spent Saturday and Sunday in the area (including a trip back to the airport to pay for fuel and tiedowns) and left early Monday Morning.

The trip out was quite different weatherwise than in.  In fact, we were IMC due to poor visibility for the majority of the trip, including some clouds along the red river.

I had the wonderful opportunity to fly a C172SP with Garmin G1000 avionics for the first time yesterday, with an outfit called Lone Star Flyers, out of Addison Airport (ADS).

I came across this business searching the web for something totally unrelated, and while exploring, saw that they rent their airplanes to outsiders as long as the pilots are appropriately rated, and have a checkout flight with one of their instructors.

Given that the cost to rent their planes is about the same as what I pay at TFC, and given that Lone Star's planes are MUCH newer and better equipped, I decided I'd go ahead and take a checkride with them, if nothing else but to have a Plan B in my pocket if TFC's planes were unavailable.

One of the planes on their rental list is N18563, which has a G1000 panel.  For only $20/hr more than the standard SPs, I figured it'd be interesting to see how those avionics worked.  Plus, getting checked out in the G1000 is automatically good for checkout in the NON-G1000 planes (but, of course, not vice versa.)

So, I arranged to meet with one of their instructors at 7:30PM to get checked out.  Below are my impressions of the G1000.

We agreed that the flight should take plus under Simulated Instruments (what's the point of NOT doing that, if you expect to fly their equipment in IFR), with particular focus on using the Autopilot for the approaches, and the G1000 being just a "brief" highlight.

Before taking off, Torrey (the CFII) programmed the Integral GPS with DIRECT HQZ, and observed that the course line went through a corner of the floor of the DFW Class B.  We took off at 8:45ish, and headed EAST, hand flying to the north of the DIRECT route to avoid Class B corner.

The G1000 made this a peice of cake.  Since it knew our altitude, and given it was set to only showed the sectors of Class B that were active at our altitude, there was little involved in the navigation.  The MFD also had our heading shown using a typical HSI presentation, but also showed a nice little green dotted arrow pointing WELL off the left side of the nose, indicating our actual TRACK.  Of course, the wind was so strong (30kts) there was little doubt visually what the wind was doing, but up in the right hand corner of the screen, the actual winds were displayed!  Ordinarily, one would have to use the whiz-wheel or the GPS computer applications to calculate the winds aloft.  The G1000 does this in real time.

After a while, we were on our way direct to PQF (the NDB that represents the Initial and Final Approach Fixes for the ILS Runway 17 approach.)  All I had to do was keep the green arrow superimposed on the purple DIRECT COURSE line, and crosswinds were automatically compensated.  When we overflew the NDB, we turned outbound for the procedure turn, as the ILS Localizer display had become active.

Frequency selection was also a peice of cake.  I never mastered all the shortcut steps, but Torrey demonstrated that it took about 5 clicks and a few twirls of knobs to preload the frequencies for the CTAF and ILS into the standby frequency windows, and I then simply toggled them into the active.  All I had left to do was confirm against the approach plates that the frequencies were correct (the G1000 even decodes the IDENT for you by displaying the letters IHQZ next to the frequency!)

Once turning inbound on the procedure turn, Torrey showed me how to engage the Approach Mode of the autopilot (Altitude-> ARM.   Heading Mode->ACTIVATE.  Approach Mode->ARM) then took my hands and feet off the controls.

On intercepting the localizer, the plane gently banked into the approach course and absolutely NAILED the intercept.  We flew for about 4 or 5 more minutes until the Glideslope Bug came active, dropped down the rail, and BLINK, the AP announciated APPROACH, the trim wheel whirred to intercept the glideslope, and all I had to do was pull the throttle back to about 1900 RPM to avoid rocketing down the approach.

The "needles," (or bugs) never left center by more than a half dot at the most.  It was an impressively accurate descent, especially considering the roiling air going through a sheer boundary (30kts aloft, 10G15 on the ground).  When reaching DA, I looked up to see we were right down the centerline.  I was told to disconnect the AP and fly the rest of the way down by hand. 

If we had executed a MISSED, I could have set the GPS and Autopilot to fly the entire missed approach procedure, including the hold.  Now, of course, the Autopilot needs guidance, so it's not going to execute the missed unaided.  The PILOT must execute the missed, load the altitude and heading for the initial segments to get to the safe turning altitude, before engaging the GPS tracking, but it's still quite a burden saver.

On the way down, we got a TRAFFIC ALERT from the TCAS.  Another pilot was in the vicinity, and we allowed ourselves to get a bit close.  Nothing dangerous, mind you, but the TCAS function the G1000 was always watching and squawked "TRAFFIC.  TRAFFIC." into the intercom.  Looking at the map, we could see where to look.

After a touch and go, we headed further out of town and did some basic airwork (as part of the checkout regime) including Slow Flight, Stalls, emergency procs, etc. etc, then headed back into Addison.

Calling approach, we asked for vectors for the ILS.  All I had to do was twist a few knobs as new vectors were assigned, and in short order, we were once again attached to the localizer and glideslope all the way to the runway, disconnecting the AP when we were about 75 feet above the deck.

So, impressions flying IFR:  Piece of cake.  The information you get from the "Six Pack" are all there, and in a much more condensed area of space.  This makes scanning a dream, with less fatigue since ones eyes don't have to cover so much real-estate.  The instruments, being INSTANT reacting, can be a bit dodgy.  I found myself fighting the airspeed tape early on because the gusts were obvious.  All the other basics were intuitive.

The NAVIGATION was slightly more complex than just looking at two CDIs and a pair of needles, but not much more so.  I couldn't figure out if it was possible to view BOTH CDIs simultaneously, or just one.

All in all, it was awesome.  I can't wait to get more time in this plane.

It isn't every day that one gets to introduce youngsters to aviation, and today I had the opportunity to take my two nieces, ages of 8 and 12, along with their father (my brother-in-law) up on a quick out-and-back.

We took off from McKinney around 11:15AM or so, and flew northwest to Celina (so I could see if the man I pay to mow my property is actually doing it!), then south to Prosper Texas, over Deion Sanders' estate, then out to Lake Lavon, and back.  All told, we were airborne for a little over a half hour, which was apparently just the perfect duration, considering the light turbulence.

I think both gals had a good time; hopefully it's a memory that will stick with them for a good long while!

Got my Class III Medical renewed yesterday....

Looks like I'm good for another year!

You folks without waivers have no idea how good ya have it...

A year! Wow. So, what have I been doing in that time?  Well, if you've been reading the flight log, you'll know that I've been working on my instrument rating, had a child, broke my arms, and all kinds of other distracting things. But, no longer!

I earned my instrument ticket in June, and today was my first SOLO IFR flight in Actual Instrument Conditions (IMC).

The weather was perfect for the trek; a relatively low overcast (around 1100 to 2000 feet AGL) and no thunderstorms yet, so I booked a two hour block of time in 3NB, filed a Round Robin Flightplan between McKinney and Mesquite Metro.

The only weird aspect of this flight, I guess, was when the McKinney controller said, "733NB cleared to McKinney as filed. Fly runway heading, climb and maintain 2000..." Of course, I had filed for DESTINATION of TKI, but it's still weird hearing them clear you to where you're presently sitting...

So, I took off. 2000 wasn't good enough to get into the clouds, so I asked for higher and was given 3000. Into the clouds I went, and was handed off to the next controller. I intercepted the localizer fairly quickly (about 20 miles away) and, enjoying the LACK of view, was disappointed when I was cleared for the approach so soon, which implied that I needed to descend to the appropriate altitude to begin the approach. The next 15 minutes or so were all VMC, so the arrival wasn't very interesting...

I did a touch and go at Mesquite, called the approach controller back, and was given 3000 back to McKinney. To get a little more experience, I requested the FULL ILS at McKinney (which would include an outbound course, a time procedure turn, etc.) and was told it'd be doubtful given the amount of IFR arrivals at TKI that would conflict.

During the rest of the flight, the controller spent what seemed like 10 minutes trying to call an unresponsive airplane. Ultimately, he called ME and asked ME if I could call him. I tried, no success. I told the controller if he gave me relative positions, I'd keep my eyes out for him, in case there were problems. At this point, I started my approach at TKI, and the guy finally called the controller and anounced he'd lost his radios and was now on his handheld.

About 1/3 of the approach to TKI was made IMC, and the clouds broke around 1800, but the visibility was poor enough that the airport wasn't visible until about 5 miles away.

What a cool day!

I haven't yet "officially" started this training, as right now, it's all about acquiring the minimum experience required, which includes:

So, as you can tell, asside from just the total hours, the main things to accomplish are:

10 Hours in COMPLEX Aircraft (this would also yield the Complex ASEL Endorsement)

A Night VFR Flight of 2 hours and 100 nm away from the point of departure (shouldn't be too difficult.)

One LOOOONG SOLO Cross Country (I've ALMOST completed that several times!  But that last long-haul solo I took was only 208 nm distance to the longest leg.) The one time I did fly that long of a leg, was TKI-HRO-MLC-TKI (TKI-HRO=250.8nm!), but it wasn't SOLO since I had my kids with me.

Well, that was that!

Tonight was my (I HOPE!) Final instruction ride for the Instrument Rating.

We went out to practice some more steep turns, unusual attitudes, holds, compass turns, timed turns, and all the other things that have given me fits for the last year.

Amazingly, all went pretty well!

My checkride is scheduled for Thursday morning. I can't wait.

As I write this, my coffee table is strewn with all the preparatory materials for the exam (flight plans, logs, charts, books, etc. etc)

I can't wait to put this behind me. It's been almost a year to the day that I started this. What I hoped would only take four to six months turned into a year. Eeek. I hope not a day longer!!!

My checkride is scheduled for next Thursday! (That's June 14, if you're keeping score.)

So, I wanted to go out an do some "Spit and polish" work. We flew to Addison, this time stopping to see where the Designated Examiner's office was. On the way out, we did some steep turns, unusual attitudes, partial panel unusual attitudes, timed and compass turns (I really need to practice this!!), and did a VOR approach with a circle to land.

Aside from the fact that the DME is screwed up, I thing everything is ready to go!

One more practice flight on Tuesday evening, and then .....

Tonight I had a "Phase Check," with our chief flight instructor, Richard. I also wanted to learn the most efficient way to use the GPS to make approaches, and Richard is quite an expert at using the KLN-89b. We did several GPS approaches, some partial panel work, and finished off the evening with an ILS approach.

All went pretty well, considering that the winds were horrible and the air was roiled with turbulence. In fact, heading north, I broke my ground-speed record with just shy of 150 kts on the GPS (about a 50 kt tailwind.)

So now it's official. He says I'm ready for my FAA Check ride!

UGH UGH UGH!!!  Another long break. This time, my eldest daughter had a case of bronchopneumonia which had her hospitalized for over a week.

So, a little more brush up and practice was on the menu for tonight.

We flew to Addison to make an ILS approach there, and on the way out did some partial panel work, and did some holding.

Back at McKinney, we did a few more GPS approaches and called it a day.

The goal for tonight was to get more knowledge of the GPS installed in 3NB, and to practice a few GPS approaches. We were able to get three GPS approaches in, and practiced the missed approach for each set us up for the approach in the other direction, so somewhat efficient practice.

We spent a little over an hour and a half at this.

Finally!

Back in the air again... more than two months have elapsed since my last training flight, and it was a rather exciting afternoon, to say the least.

Our scheduled meet time was 4:30pm, and the skies over North Texas had begun to erupt with widely scattered showers and thunderstorms, with the bulk of the activity remaining well south of the area. Bob and I discussed the situation over the phone, and agreed that we could go ahead and meet at the airport, evaluate the situation, and likely go fly.

So, that's what we did. We took to the skies at about 5:00, with the agreement that, if any storms developed in the vicinity, we'd make our way back to the airport immediately. At the time, the only observed precipitation was off to the east of the airport, an area we would brush on departure out to the practice area.

As expected, heading northeast out of the field, we brushed the edge of a nice shower for about a minute, and headed further north to begin our work.

As this was a "refresher" flight, we worked on the basics. Partial panel turns, partial panel unusual attitude recoveries (fun!), radial tracking, and we started to work on a holding pattern. Outbound, inbound. Outbound, uh-oh...

"What do you mean you can't see the airport anymore, Bob?"

Sure enough, a quite a storm had erupted in the last two minute, dumping a rainshaft at least 4 miles across right between us and the airport. No option now doing the VOR/DME approach; ain't going into that rain!

So, we elected to fly to the Locator Outer Marker and fly the ILS in. Well, it was evident on the way in that the rain was getting closer .. closer ... and there's lightning in there. We had "adequate" visibility to maintain VFR, even in the rain. Tower says "Winds east at 8."

The crosswind was evident. In fact, MORE than evident. Likely much more than 8 knots.

Indeed, here's a SPECI METAR that was posted after our landing:

METAR KTKI 132253Z 21003KT 6SM VCTS -RA BKN018 BKN085 24/17 A3004 RMK AO2 PK WND 12026/2242 TSB25RAB43

Note the PK WND: The timestamp is about 2 minutes either side of when we landed. Out of the Southeast at 26 knots. That's about 30mph, folks... Almost double the max demonstrated crosswind! Now, I knew that it was likely to be gusty at the surface, so I elected to maintain about an 80kt approach as that offers much more control authority. My crosswind landing was fair to good, even though Bob couldn't keep his feet off the rudders trying to help me...

Glad I did. As it was, it was very difficult to taxi with my tail wanting to go to the west, and me wanting the NOSE to go west... We taxied verrry slowly back to the apron, and stayed in the plane with our feet on the brakes until the gushing rains abated about 10 minutes later.

So, before anyone gets too excited that we elected to fly, I haven't explained that we had plenty of options chosen for plans B and C (lots of other airports around), not the least of which had we been unable to land, circling a few miles north for 10 minutes would have resolved the weather. So, we weren't taking any undue risks... And, it's GREAT reality training.