This morning was the third instrument rating lesson. Originally, we were going to take Kyle out to dinner last night, so instead of scheduling for 7:00am like normal, I scheduled it for 11:00am. The plane was late getting back from a lesson, then needed some oil, so it was 11:40 before we could get the fan spinning. We did a 0/0 takeoff (meaning I was wearing the hood during the takeoff roll, able only to see the instrument panel. I had done two (maybe three) of these in the 152 back in B’ton and had no problem. I was really nervous this time, I think because I’m still getting used to the G1000 panel. I didn’t get well aligned with the runway and didn’t set the heading bug quite right, so it wasn’t my best work. I don’t particularly like sitting on the runway at a non-towered airport, but next time I’ll take my time getting lined up and should do considerably better.

Since it was mid-day by the time we started rolling, it was already pretty hot out there, and the heat of the day was causing some good thermals. It made it a little difficult to work on keeping level flight, especially in turns. We worked on constant rate descents and climbs, which went mildly ok — would have been considerably better if not for the thermals tossing us around. The bulk of the work was doing partial panel. First, we simulated a failure of the PFD (the screen in front of me), so I had to use the MFD (the screen on the right). No biggie — a bit of situational awareness lost because there’s no way to have the “6 pack” displayed with a moving map on the MFD (there is on the PFD, plus when the PFD has the 6 pack, the MFD is basically one huge moving map). Then we simulated losing the MFD as well, leaving me with compass, airspeed, backup attitude, and altimeter. None of which are in a reasonable locations for use in flight. We then did some turns based on the magnetic compass, both timed and compass reading. In the C-172, a 15 degree bank results in a 360 degree turn taking about 2 minutes. So a 90 degree heading turn with a 15 degree bank takes about 30 seconds. Only problem with that is that 1) the airplane timer is in the “failed” G1000 and 2) my watch has a polarized lens and my glasses are polarized and the position of my watch when holding the yoke makes it mostly unreadable.

The magnetic compass is a slightly entertaining because it isn’t smooth in its travel. When turning towards the South, it will precede the real heading. So if you want to roll out on a heading of 180, you have to wait until the compass reads 210 (for the continental US, anyway). The opposite is true for North — you have to roll out 30 degrees early. In both cases, once you roll wings level, the compass will swing to the proper heading and the world rights itself. Rolling out east or west is done without any extra math. All good entertaining fun that makes me happy that I almost always have a directional gyro that doesn’t have these problems.