IFR training - getting the polish on

This weekend I flew two IFR sorties. On Friday I flew to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, then to PAE for a unconventional circling approach and back to Renton. On Saturday I flew to Port Angeles and back. Both times I was flying the Cessna 172S's. I flew 97PD with the altitude hold 2-axis autopilot on Friday and 435SP with the 1-axis (heading hold only) autopilot on Saturday.

I have decided to use these aircraft for my instrument check ride. Even though they differ in the capabilities of their autopilots, the rest of the instrument panel and other controls are identical. Having that kind of consistency is important, so that lessons I learned one day transfer over to the next day.

We decided to go to Friday Harbor, the main airport in the San Juan Islands in the Puget Sound. Friday Harbor is a popular destination for a lot of VFR flyers, being a great scenic spot within reach of the mainland. On a good VFR day the traffic congestion there has to be seen to be believed.

We did the RNAV (GPS) RWY 34 approach at Friday Harbor. I was doing ok with holding my height and track, but was missing the checks and the GPS manipulation cues. I had to be prompted by Howard to do the checks. Also I had some missteps in using the autopilot. I had to remember that it went into both roll (wings level) and vertical speed mode as soon as I put it on. So if I wanted it to hold wings level and an altitude I had to have it trimmed with zero vertical speed, or failing that immediately hit the ALT button to get it out of VS mode. Otherwise the autopilot keeps the airplane climbing/descending at whatever rate it had when the autopilot was first switched on.

Then Howard had me fly to Paine and do the VOR RWY 16R approach, with a circle to land. The circle to land is a little different because the VOR is between the two runways. At PAE there are two main runways - 16R/34L and 16L/34R. As can be seen from this airport diagram there is a significant difference between the two runways - 16R/34L is 11000 ft long and 16L/34R is 3000 ft long.

I tracked to the runway ok - and on reaching minimums (which for circling is 1100 ft) 1 mile out Howard let me go visual. The tower could give us any runway to land on at that point. The aircraft is only 500 ft above the ground at that point and one needs to be level flight. The tower gave us 34R and we had to set up really quickly and land.

In the other aircraft I have been flying (the retracts), BEFA and I have a policy of never doing touch-and-gos. I usually do "stop-and-gos" so that I have time to set the prop, flaps, cowl flaps, fuel, trim, carb heat and throttle (in a "U" flow in the 182RG) to go. With the 172S there are only the flaps and throttle to set to do a quick touch and go. I was reverting to old habits and trying to stop rather than do a touch and go. I was quickly cured of this by Howard emphasising that the runaway was short!

On Saturday I went to Port Angeles (KCLM). Before we left I had Howard walk me through the phases of an approach and what I had to get done where. The approach was broken down into the pre-initial approach fix, post-initial approach fix and then final approach fix. The pre-initial approach fix essentially got us ready for the approach with the avionics set, the comm radios set. On the post-initial approach fix the aircraft got its approach clearance and slowed down to its approach speed with the landing checklist done and on the final approach fix the emphasis was on getting the missed approach prepared for. Each segment had a descent and the height to descend needed to be accounted for.

We flew the RNAV (GPS) 8 approach into Port Angeles. The air was pretty turbulent with significant wind. I was able to maintain height and track pretty consistently. I learned the one needed to be trimmed to a certain pressure to keep the aircraft at an altitude, and in turbulence once the "center point" was found small pressures on the yoke kept the aircraft at the altitude. One could not expect to trim the aircraft at the altitude due to the updrafts and downdrafts, while at the same time the trim needed to be somewhere near what it should be so that an excessive force didn't need to be held.

Howard was happy with my performance and said that we needed to find time for my long cross country. For the first time he indicated that I might be able to take the checkride in June!