November 2004
I finally got myself IFR current again, almost six months after my last hood work. That has a tendency to happen around here in the summer, as there’s little (or no) actual IFR to fly in, and there’s rarely any reason to fly in Class B airspace or on the coast, where there might be fog.
As usual, I spent several hours practicing in Microsoft Flight Simulator first, getting used to doing an IFR scan and reading approach plates. Once I was comfortable with those, it was time to get in the real airplane. The forecast for the next day looked good—cloudy (we were getting the edge of a tropical depression—formerly a hurricane—that came up from Mexico, and collided with a cold front coming down from the north), but with little turbulence.
I just got a new version of Jeppesen’s Jeppview/Flitedeck software with some clever charting options—including the ability to print customized IFR en-route maps in a “strip chart” format for a selected route and was anxious to try it. I also wanted to stop at several local airports to drop off copies of the Flyer magazines.
So I ran off custom charts and approach plates for a “round-robin” route: Modesto-Stockton-Oakdale-Castle-Tracy-Modesto. None of the legs would be over 20 minutes flying time, and I could expect to fly a variety of approaches (several of which I haven’t done in quite a while). Good practice for a trip I planned for the following weekend.
Got up Sunday AM, and gee it’s cloudy. We dawdled over breakfast and the Sunday paper—and gee, it looked more cloudy. Checked weather, and it was still forecast to stay VFR… though there were rain showers to the north and west. Got ourselves organized and ready to leave—and what should we find but wet streets. It had started raining!
By the time we got to the airport, it was raining steadily and looking decidedly unpleasant to the northwest (where Stockton is). So we decided to reverse the route, starting out southeast toward Castle, where the sky was decidedly lighter.
We flew over there, and got clearance for a practice ILS-DME approach on Runway 31. Wind was from the east, so I flew to circling minimums, then cut to the north and entered a left downwind for Runway 13. The main runway at Castle (built for B-47s, and extended for B-52s—as shown in the old, awful, movie “Bombers B-52”) is more than two miles long, so I did an early base turn and landed about halfway, making—I’m pleased to say—the first of five really nice landings.
We taxied to the FBO, shut down, walked in and gave the magazines to the guy at the desk. I used the bathroom (another good reason for a round robin, as opposed to just doing multiple approaches at Modesto), and we went back to the airplane, fired up and took off.
Given the weather we’d seen when we left, my plan was to run back to Modesto while looking the weather over to decided if we could visit the other locations. Of course, while we visited Castle, the ugly black clouds between Modesto and Stockton had moved—they were now between Modesto and Castle. It was getting decidedly marginal—difficult to maintain clearance from cloud bases at 2,500, and going to 3,000 (as required for the VOR approach I was planning) would put us in the soup.
Decision time: go down to stay VFR and scud-run, or get a for-real instrument clearance? As I see it, the whole purpose of flying IFR is to avoid scud-running, so turned to stay out of the clouds and called for a clearance. Got it, climbed to 3,000—which had us skimming just under the bases—and almost immediately flew into clear weather. Reported that, and put the foggles back on.
While I’m thinking of it—this was the first time I went out to do hood work with my new bifocals, which I got just before our trip to Africa in June. The combination is damn near unusable. The new frames aren’t really aviator-style. They’re thin, and extend down as far as the old ones. The “clip-n-flip” foggles I wear come down too low, and if I try to move them higher, they fall off. I did eventually find a way that sorta, kinda worked—and just left them like that.
Anyway, asked for and got a VOR-A approach at Modesto (I had to explain twice that’s what I wanted, and not the VOR-DME). This requires you to fly over the VOR in the middle of the field, then intercept a 105 degree radial outbound (east).
Then you can descend to 1,800 feet on that radial before executing a procedure turn—right to heading 150, fly for one minute, then do a left 180 to 330, and fly that until you intercept the 285 degree radial inbound, which basically points you back towards the airport. At that point, you do everything possible to descend (throttle back, lower the gear, flaps, etc.) as quickly as possible to 900 feet.
Hopefully you see the airport before passing the VOR again. The visibility limit is only 3/4 of a mile but from 900 feet that requires a real dive-bomb approach… I made it (though from Kate’s comments, wasn’t always aimed at the runway) and actually made a pretty good touch-and-go.
Then we did the slightly more refined VOR-DME approach. While holding over the VOR I took the opportunity to listen to Stockton’s weather, which sounded OK—and Kate said it looked better that way, so flew over and shot their VOR approach, landed, and parked at the Jet Center to drop off more magazines.
Got back in the airplane and decided to try Tracy, as the weather looked like it was clearing out that way—at least, that’s how it looked from the ground. In the air, it looked a little dark and forbidding.
Automatic weather showed a few clouds at 100 feet. Hmm—this might be a chance to practice a for-real missed approach! Again, it was a VOR approach, and the clearance from ATC was a simple “cleared for the approach”—no runway assignment. I’m not sure how long it’s been since I shot an approach to Tracy, but I’d forgotten about that. The approach doesn’t line you up with any runway (Tracy has three), it just drops you off about 700 AGL and one mile out to take your very best guess.
Automated weather had the wind from 110 degrees so I decided to use Runway 12, and found myself set up for a left base. Nobody else was in the pattern, and I didn’t see any 100-foot clouds (though there was a bunch of rain just west of the field). Landed, taxied to the Tracy Flight Center, dropped off more magazines and got a little wet as it was raining.
Back in the airplane, the weather looked VFR so long as we didn’t go any further west. Took off east on 12, and did an early left crosswind to avoid a rain shower. Put the foggles back on and let Kate give me directions to stay VFR. Leveled off at 2,000 feet and headed directly toward Modesto, planning to ask for an ILS—but Norcal Approach was so busy I never got my calls answered.
Decided to fly it on my own navigation, with Kate keeping us separated from other traffic (we had both Norcal approach and Modesto tower tuned, and would hear anyone they were vectoring). Descended to 1,500 feet to provide a little insurance in case anyone else was practicing in the same area (IFR airplanes in the area would be at 2,000 or 3,000 feet).
Flew in to 10 miles from Modesto VOR, then turned east and adjusted course to stay outside the Class D airspace, stayed on that heading until I passed the outer marker, then turned north.
Turned west (mentally vectoring myself to intercept the localizer) and called the tower to tell ’em I was on a nine-mile straight-in. Flew the approach down to about 600 AGL, then side-stepped for a greaser on 28L and put N16460 back in the hangar.
Total: 2.3 hours flying time, 1.5 hooded, 6 approaches plus holds.
I was now much more confident about flying to Santa Monica the following weekend (and San Diego a couple days later). Incidentally, the new version of JeppView/FliteDeck finally lets me use my Tablet PC as a full-fledged 12-inch diagonal color moving-map display—though it’s far from perfect (more on that next time). It’s kind of a kick to see your own position on the display as you taxi out!
John D. Ruley is an instrument-rated private pilot, and a freelance writer specializing in science and technology. He’s also a volunteer pilot for LIGA International (www.ligainternational.org), and past president of the Modesto Airport Pilot’s Association. You can write to John at jruley@ainet.com.
