WHEN     : Thurdsay 19th August 1999
WHERE    : SPX - BPT - SPX in N1219F, a Cessna 172N
WHAT     : Approaches - ILS and gyro ASR. Night.
WHO      : Safety Pilot: John Sollinger
HOW LONG : 2.0 flight; 1.8 hood

   Once again, there's been a break in my training. The club has a catastrophic shortage of airplanes caused by bad cylinders (low compression). It would have to happen at the busiest time of the year! The Cessna 170 is back from its overhaul...but it isn't really an instrument platform. You could practise NDB and VOR approaches, but that's about it!

   So I got on the extremely busy schedule for the 172. The Arrow is away getting an overhaul, and the Warrior is awaiting its new cylinder, so I could only schedule one session this week. We left at dusk in the direction of Beaumont. I wanted to get some more 'talk to the controllers while we do this' kind of experience (it adds to the workload). It wasn't long before it was very dark. IFR gets much harder at night, believe me. The attitude flying part is the same (actually, under the hood, much more realistic since you don't get the sun shining on the panel), but the charts are much harder to read in the dull red light (particularly the small print). I called Beaumont approach over SMITH intersection. I like to call them up over a point like this rather than have to call up with some long spiel about which VOR radial and DME distance from BPT VOR that I'm tracking. I requested the ILS 12 then an ASR to 16. Approach told me that they'd have to get back to me about the ASR (if it gets busy, they might not have the time to do it). We got vectored for the ILS, and despite having not done any instrument work for three weeks, I made a good approach. I ended it with a touch and go landing. We were then vectored for the ASR approach. As its name suggests (Airport Surveillance Radar) this approach is guided by the controller.

   The controller vectored me to the appropriate place, and advised me of the MDA (560 feet). Then once on final, he would advise me "turn right to 185, correcting left of course" and other similar instructions to keep me on the final approach track. He also told me when to start my descent. At the MDA, I lifted the hood and once again made another touch and go. The approach was reasonably accurate (better than an NDB approach for sure!) and is a good one to use if your NAV gear fails, but you still have a COM radio (such as a handheld).

   I let John take over and fly an approach (his CFII checkride was coming up on Sunday - which he passed!) with me as safety pilot. We then flew home. It was fairly quiet by now, and we got flight following all the way back to Houston Gulf (it's not very often you get a handoff from Beaumont to Houston when VFR).

Conclusion

   The ASR approach was quite interesting. The workload for the pilot is not too high - you just need to hold a good heading and listen for the controller's instructions. You can do a gyro or non-gyro ASR - since this was my first, I decided to do it 'full panel'. Next time I go towards Beaumont, I may do a no-gyro ASR.