While there haven’t been updates on my training, I’ve been flying on a fairly regular basis. So here’s an overview of what I remember from the last couple of flights.

[February 2, 2008] Flew down to Belen to fly the GPS 21 and VOR-A approaches at E80. Then returned to the Sunport for the ILS 8 approach. Two non-precision approaches, followed by a precision approach, not a bad day.

[February 9, 2008] Flew up to Santa Fe to do some approach work there. Filed IFR for the flight from KABQ to KSAF, which was a little interesting. Flew two ILS 2 SAF and two VOR 33 SAF approaches, then back to Albuquerque where we finished with the GPS 3 approach.

[February 29, 2008] My long IFR cross-country. Our route of flight was Albuquerque to Farmington to Gallup, then back to Albuquerque. We stopped in Gallup for a bit of fuel and to stretch our legs (the Liberty is not a fast bird). Flew the VOR/DME 7 approach into Farmington, and was a bit high at the missed approach point, which was caused by a delayed start to the descent due to some confusion on my part. At Gallup, flew the Localizer 6 approach, with a circle to land to runway 24 so that we caught a headwind instead of a tail wind. The final approach to 24 was pretty poor — it’s weird flying an approach that low to the ground and then having to make a complete turn from downwind to final. To finish the day, flew a GPS 3 into Albuquerque. I’m getting pretty good at flying the GPS 3 approach. The Farmington to Gallup and Gallup to Albuquerque legs (including approaches) were flown partial panel, with either the attitude indicator or heading indicator covered to simulate a failure.

[March 8, 2008] We took a break from flying approaches to work on maneuvers. Worked on steep turns and unusual attitude recovery, then some more partial panel work (including flying vectors without a heading indicator). My steep turns need some work — I was busting altitude low about 270 degrees into the turn, then recovering from that too aggressively and ending up a bit high. But I got better with each turn, so there’s hope.

[March 15, 2008] Back up to Santa Fe for more approach work. Flew almost the entire trip partial panel with the attitude indicator “failed”. Flew the GPS 2 SAF, two ILS 2 SAF, two VOR 33 SAF, and then back to Albuquerque for the GPS 3 ABQ with both the attitude and heading indicators failed.

[March 22, 2008] Started with some steep turns and unusual attitude recovery in the south practice area. The turns were much better than the last time we did maneuver work, which was good. No problem with unusual attitude recovery. We still had a bunch of time, so we did some more partial panel approach work. Flew the GPS 21 E80 approach partial panel to work on non-precision partial panel approaches (which is a requirement for the practical exam). We were going to work at the Sunport, but they were getting slammed, so we went over to Double Eagle for a couple of approaches. Started with the ILS 22 AEG approach, mainly to practice own-navigation approaches and make sure I could keep sharp on precision approaches. Then another partial panel non-precision approach with the GPS 22 AEG approach (again, full own-nav with procedure turn). By that point, Albuquerque had settled down enough that we could shoot some approaches back at the Sunport. Started with the VOR 8 ABQ approach for yet another partial panel non-precision approach. Then headed south to end the day with the GPS 3 ABQ approach, also partial panel, this time with both attitude and heading indicators failed. Due to traffic behind me, we got vectored really close to the final approach fix, about 5 miles from the end of the runway. Nailed the approach, made a semi-decent landing, and another 2.2 hours of instrument time in the books.

I’m up to 30 hours of simulated instrument time, so I’m 75% of the way through the main experience requirement of IFR training. I’ve also finished my IFR cross-country requirement. I need another 1.2 hours of cross-country flight time, but that should be pretty easy to accumulate. Worst case, go to Grants or Socorro to shoot a couple of approaches and make one of them a touch-n-go. Looks like I should be IFR certified in May. Yay.