WEEK 1

WHEN     : Monday 22nd March 1999
WHERE    : SPX - SPX in N1219F, a Cessna 172N
WHAT     : Basic attitude instrument, ADF tracking, ILS approach
WHO      : Dual instruction with Lee Simmons
HOW LONG : 1.2 flight; 1.0 hood; 0.5 ground.

   It was time to get reacquainted with good old One Niner Fox. This aircraft is like an old friend. We went through many experiences together from the uplifting to the high-pucker-factor stuff. But now I haven't flown this plane in a short while. The door squeaks as if in greeting, and I lay my stuff out on the seat. A new device is present amongst my normal pile of flying stuff...a brand new Hoodlamb. It's time to learn instruments at last!

   After preflighting, Lee briefed me quickly in what we'd do. We'd just do some attitude instrument flying (basically flying headings and altitudes, making turns, climbs and descents on instruments), maybe get an ILS in and do some ADF tracking. The last one made me a little anxious. That little ADF needle wipes 50 IQ points off me as soon as I look at it! I climb in, and try to get used to sitting level on the ground after spending many a happy hour taxiing nose-up in the 170 I got my tailwheel signoff in, complete my Engine Start checklist and trundle off to runway 13.

   After taking off, Lee told me to go on instruments. I flip the Hoodlamb down, and now can see just the panel ahead. I stick a sectional chart in the corner of the window that's always visible to a hooded pilot who is flying a C172, and I was completely on instruments. Very quickly I was feeling quite behind the plane. I'd get my attitude sorted out, and the altitude would go to pot. Or get the altitude sorted out, and I'd begin a turn, and so on. I remembered Rod Machado's Instrument Pilot's Survival Guide instrument scan pages, and started to scan better, and soon I was under control, if feeling a little behind it still. Lee vectored me all over South East Texas, and I started to feel that I was catching on. He then sent me off to the ILS into Galveston. Since I didn't yet have approach plates, he just vectored me in and tuned the radios.

   Surprisingly, the ILS went pretty well. Although I tended to swerve drunkenly down the localizer, the glideslope stayed pretty much in place and I could have landed once Lee told me to look up at the decision height (207 ft. MSL). We did a missed approach, then...

   ...the dreaded ADF tracking!

   I actually suprised myself and didn't suffer brain-lock. It may have been fluke, or it may have been Microsoft Flight Simulator in conjunction with Machado's book paying off. Machado tells you "Remember - the needle always falls to the bottom of the instrument". If you just remember that (and the corollary - the tail always rises to the top) when trying to intercept an ADF "radial", you can work out where to point the plane to intercept. It works. This was the first time I didn't turn into a passenger whilst trying to figure out what the ADF was telling me. We intercepted a couple of inbound and outbound courses of the Galveston NDB, then went on to revise unusual attitudes.

   Lee had me create my own unusual attitudes. He told me to shut my eyes and attempt to do a 360. I could hear from the engine noise we weren't staying level. We got into some surprising attitudes, like turning completely the opposite direction from which I started, or in what I was convinced was a spiral dive that turned out to actually be a 45 degree banked climb. The attitude indicator (artificial horizon) is really useful in this respect.

   We went home and I made a pretty poor excuse for a landing since I forgot that you need a bit more backpressure on the yoke in a C172 compared to a C150 or C170...

Conclusion.

  The Hoodlamb is a really good hood. It attaches to your headset, and you can just flip it up or down at will. One of my friends at the club introduced me to it, and I bought one of my own. I can really recommend it.

  Machado's book has some really good information. The scan he shows worked for me, so did his advice about the ADF. If you want to get a copy, it's called Rod Machado's Instrument Pilot's Survival Manual, ISBN 0-9631229-0-8. It's written in a humourous style that I find more engaging than the usual rather dry instrument manuals.

  On the ILS, I need to use smaller corrections. I was over correcting, and that's what made for the rather winding path down the localizer. Lee told me to think 2 or 3 degree corrections max.


WHEN     : Thursday 25th March 1999
WHERE    : SPX - SPX in N1219F, a Cessna 172N
WHAT     : Basic attitude instrument, ILS approaches
WHO      : Dual instruction with Lee Simmons
HOW LONG : 1.1 flight; 0.9 hood; 0.4 ground.

  Today's session was really a reinforcement of Monday - some more attitude instrument flying (constant airspeed climbs, descents, straight and level, turns, steep turns) and some ILS approaches to try and fix it into my head the word 'Small corrections'. I now know whenever I do an ILS for real once I have my IR, I'll keep hearing Lee's voice saying 'Small corrections'. We did two ILS approaches into Galveston. Lee handled the communications, I was maxed out just trying to fly the approach! However, at least I didn't feel as far behind it as last time. I still suffered from the problem of trying to fix one thing and letting something else get away from me, so I still need some practise on the instrument scan...but that's not really surprising at this stage.

  Lee introduced me to steep turns under the hood. This was quite an interesting experience because as we rolled straight and level, my inner ear really played tricks with me, so I had to keep trying to ignore the erroneous information my own sense of balance was giving me! Actually, I found starting a descent gave me the 'leans' more than anything else. I remember noticing this when I did some earlier hoodwork. We also went over constant airspeed descents; we did an excercise where I'd slow to 90 knots, then find out how many RPM would give me a 500 FPM descent at 90 knots. Around 1800 RPM worked good for this aircraft. Lee said a good thing to do in any plane you got checked out in for instrument flight is to find out what power setting will give you a 500 FPM descent at the appropriate approach speed (90 knots for anything our club has right now, but that might change if we get a twin).

  After about an hour of this, we headed home. A Mooney did try and run us out of the pattern by doing a straight-in on 31 when we were preparing to turn base, so I slowflighted a while to extend downwind so we could get behind the errant Mooney. My instructor gave him a gentle telling off. To the Mooney pilot's credit, he didn't argue or answer back! I got my touch back with landing the 172, and made a very nice touchdown with the yoke in my lap which nicely rounded off the session.

Conclusion.

  I still need to work on my scan somewhat. It now works fine for straight and level and level turns, but I'm behind it on approaches. It was actually pretty turbulent on the approach into Galveston, so that added some extra work. It was good practise! On one of the approaches, Lee did something to push the workload up so I'd see how a scan needed to be increased at some points - he told me to fly the approach at 120 knots instead of 90. This means things happen faster (obviously) but now you have an added concern - not going into the yellow arc if the air's not smooth and trying to keep on the glideslope, because a 500 FPM descent will no longer cut it. I'll have to try these things out on Flight Simulator to get the procedures down right.

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