Tuesday, September 4. 2007
Nice Long IFR Cross Country
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.
Coming into the DFW area, I came back to VMC when told to descend to 6,000. ATIS at ADS was reporting "Better than 5000, 5." The approach controller was giving me vectors.
He never told me to expect a certain approach. IE, never heard "Expect the ILS 15 approach at Addison," or, "Report field in site."
I DID receive, "Maintain best practical speed. Turn right heading 280 for the beginning of the ILS."
So, I'm flying merrily along on a heading of 280, 115kts IAS, altitude 2000, and hear "Turn left heading 180, maintain 2000 until established on the localizer, cleared ILS Runway 15 approach."
So, I start my turn. I'm maybe 1 mile outside the FAF, and the needle comes off the peg. Mind you, it's a 100 degree left turn for the vector, or a 130 degree turn for the inbound course, and the needle is moving fast. I'm also using a fully-coupled Autopilot, so of course, it overshoots the turn to 180 to try to re-intercept the localizer.
Then I hear:
"348ME, approach clearance canceled. Turn right heading 180."
"Right Turn, 180. Sorry, that turn was just too much too late."
"Oh, I could have sworn that a Cessna could turn faster than that..."
"I was on autopilot which uses standard rate turns. By the way, field in site. Request visual approach."
"Oh!! Okay, cleared visual approach runway 15. Contact tower on 126.0..."
I thought it very weird that they'd be vectoring me for the ILS when the visibility was VMC. I also found it surprising that they'd give me such a huge turn that close to the approach course...
Oh well... The flight was fun. Autopilots are AWESOME. 
