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.

[yes, the entry is backdated to the end of the lesson. cope.]

This morning was my second instrument lesson. Friday’s weather was beautiful in the morning and choppy and hot in the afternoon. I was hoping to get the same thing this morning, and was lucky to be right. We took off on 22 and headed to the northwest practice area (just north of KAEG). Takeoff was a bit harrowing — I had the engine leaned a little too much and wasn’t making full power. I had a 100 foot/minute climb which is way low, but at least survivable. Scanning instruments, the EGT (exhaust gas temperature) was high, so richened the mixture and we were able to establish a good climb rate (600-800 foot/minute) at Vy. Much happier.

Instrument flight was uneventful – I was able to keep the plane mostly where it should be. I still drift a bit more than I’d like when I’m trying to deal with cockpit resources (like tuning and verifying the right VOR or ILS). We then came back to KAEG to do the ILS 22 approach. Until about .5 miles before the middle marker (about .5 mile from the end of the runway), I had it nailed. I started losing the glidescope (the vertical guidance) a bit, but was probably +/- 100′ or less and I could have gotten it back together. however, someone decided to start using runway 4 and everyone else switched just as quickly. The runway numbers are magnetic heading rounded to the nearest 10 degrees, with the last digit dropped. So I’m coming in on 22, people are departing on 4. Those good at math have probably figured out that planes were coming right at us. So we broke off the approach early and offset for traffic.

“breaking out of the clouds” (removing the view limiting device) at 300-400′ was an interesting experience. The ground looks *really* close and coming up faster. I had practiced a VOR approach at Bloomington and an ASR (airport surveillance radar) approach at Terre Haute, but both of those go missed at 1000′, so you’re still a long way from the ground when you “break out”. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but kind of weird.

We then spent some time doing touch and go landings so that I could get the feel of the 172 again. I finally got to the point where I was comfortable in the flare, but still was coming in high and fast. Each one was slightly better than the last, so I think there’s progress being made. It’s amazing how much different the sight picture out of the 172 is compared to the RV. And just as remarkable how much slower it comes out of the sky compared to the RV.

Next week is navigation, which should be fun.

I need to find cheaper hobbies. The next logical step after getting a private pilot license is either to get a bunch of endorsements (taildragger, high performance, complex, etc.) or an instrument rating. High performance around here means a T-41 or a 182RG. The T41 is a 172 with a huge engine and not that interesting. It goes slower and uses more gas than the RV-7. The 182RG is high performance and complex, but really expensive and anyone who rents one would want lots of hours before they’d let me go alone. The only taildragger for rent in all of central New Mexico is a Pitts at Bode, but it’s ungodly expensive and not a fun plane to fly straight and level. It is, however, an awesome plane to fly acro. It’s also $300+ an hour, so not in my price range. That left instrument training. Today was my first lesson. I’m training in a Cessna 172 with a Garmin G1000 glass panel.

We went up for about 1.2 hours, about 1.0 of which was under the hood (wearing one of these things, so all you can see is the panel, not the outside world). We worked on level flight, turns, climbing, descending, and turning to a heading. While I can do all this from muscle memory when I can see out the window, even in something as “quick” as an RV. But when the outside world goes bye-bye, all the normal clues to what is going on are gone. The scan for the G1000 is definitely easier than the scan in with steam gauges (we have to do 3 hours of instrument training for the private pilot), as everything is much closer. On the other hand, the G1000 requires a lot more focus than steam gauges for setup. It’s not just dial in a VOR and hope for the best, it’s add a flight plan, blah, blah, blah. Thankfully, most of the interaction is very similar to the GNS430 in 813T, so it wasn’t too bad. But I definitely need a couple more hours before I feel comfortable.

Next weekend, I have my second lesson. More getting the flow down and possibly a couple of ILS approaches at KAEG. So sometime this week I need to read up on ILS approaches. Hopefully, I can get Galen to safety pilot for me for a couple of flights this week to further practice. Even 0.1 or 0.2 hours of instrument flying will really help keeping me in shape. I hope :).