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.