Instrument Student's Log
Part Sixteen

Flights 29-32

Flight 29: Sat, Mar 22. (1.6 / 2.1 / 47.9)

Today I did the VOR and ILS approaches again and was told they were "ATP quality". Coming from an ATP, that was nice to hear (duh!).

Another good sign of progress was being able to do an NDB approach I hadn't tried before. I didn't know we were going to try that one- I hadn't even seen that plate before. It went fine for the first time. For now it looks like I have all the approaches down.

Flight 30: Sun, Mar 23. (1.5 / 2.1 / 49.4)

I worked on holding patterns today. I was given VOR radials to hold on which required various entry methods. Then I did the full ILS approach. (Usually we've done it with radar vectors.) On the way home we did some partial panel work.

Flight 31: Sat, Mar 29. (1.1 / 2.6 / 50.5)

I finally got to do a lesson in real instrument weather today. Lakeland was 2300 scattered, low enough to bring out the instrument crowd, but not enough to deter the usual weekend VFR traffic. The place was a zoo.

Our intent was to practice holding and an approach or two if we had time. (I misread the schedule and got to the airport late, so we had less time than usual before my instructor's next student was due.)

We got the holding we requested, and so did everybody else. At one point we were at 3000 feet with other airplanes holding over the same area at 2000, 4000, and 5000.

This was the first time I had held with other airplanes. It was also the first time I flew in clouds other than on cross country flights. I was hoping to get to fly an approach in it, but when we asked for one, we got convoluted holding instructions instead.

We were told to "hold as published" in an area where there is no published hold. They wanted us to hold on a certain radial, but said so in a way that even an ATP couldn't make sense of it. We got half an hour of IMC, so the lesson was worthwhile even though we didn't do an approach.

Flight 32: Sun, Mar 30. (1.5 / 2.6 / 52)

No IMC today, but it was a little bumpy. We went over almost everything that would be on the checkride. I did an ILS approach that was pretty good and a partial-panel VOR approach that was OK for a first try.

I need to review the procedures for compass turns, because I had trouble turning to the correct heading. I was also confused by a clearance: maintain 2500 feet but cleared for the approach. That seemed to be contradictory- how could I do an approach without descending?

The approach plate shows the minimum altitude to be 2000 after crossing the VOR. I thought that meant I was to get established outbound, then I could go down to 2000 feet. Apparently not, because I got down to 2300 and was told I was supposed to be at 2500, even though I was supposedly cleared for the approach. It still doesn't make sense to me.

Next we did an NDB approach which I messed up by not intercepting the bearing inbound. For some reason I was waiting for the ADF needle to point straight down before turning.

Another problem I had today was intersection holding. I flew out on one of the radials that defines the intersection, but I didn't know how to tell when I got there or when to turn.