I originally posted this to rec.aviation.ifr. The story is of my slightly less than graceful arrival at Austin Bergstrom on a claggy day on Saturday 27th January, 2001. I post this hoping others can learn from my experience! Although it all turned out well in the end, it had the potential for disaster. And I filed an ASRS form about it too!

   The day started well enough. There was a stationary front in the Austin area, but it was pretty pleasant (although so humid the air was dripping) at home. I was meeting a friend in Austin who I hadn't seen for a while. I called the FSS in the morning to get a weather briefing and file a flight plan. It didn't look too bad - a bit claggy, low IFR (forecast ceilings in the Austin area were 600 ft), but the radar didn't indicate anything ominous, and it looked like it would otherwise be a smooth flight. I filed, and off I went. The Bonanza I was flying performed well, and soon I was climbing away from home on my IFR clearance, in CAVU conditions.

   The Bonanza is a nice flying plane, and I find it nice to fly in actual IFR conditions. This is a good thing, since about 30 miles outside of Austin, actual conditions were starting to appear. Houston Center handed me off to Austin Approach just after I entered IMC. I was vectored for the ILS 35R approach into Bergstrom. ATIS was reporting worse than forecast conditions - 300 ft ceilings, RVR of 4400 feet, in light rain.

   It was all going well as I was vectored to intercept the localizer. I've flown plenty of IFR trips recently, and I felt current and comfortable enough to do an ILS to minimums. It was all going well - no significant turbulence, just clouds and rain. Approach asked me to keep my speed up for a following jet, which I did.

   However, things stopped going right. As I joined the localizer, the glideslope remained flagged. I double checked the frequency dialed in, and idented the navaid again. It was right - either my GS receiver had died or the GS itself had died. Somewhere in all of this, I was handed off to Tower, and when I called Tower, I told the controller I wasn't getting the glideslope. Just as I was about to call a missed approach, the controller told me to miss, and did so. The controller asked two other aircraft (the one in front of me and the following jet) whether they were getting the GS. The preceeding jet said there were some deviations, but it was working. The following jet reported no problems at all. Tower asked if I wanted to try 35L, and I said "I'd like to do that". Tower also said that the GS was monitoring just fine too.

   As I followed my vectors, I was handed back to approach. In my mind I was trying to debug what was wrong with the glideslope. And fly the airplane. And talk to approach. I tuned the ILS for the 35L approach in order to try that next, as I had requested from tower.

   Austin Approach vectored me for the approach again. "2 miles from Creed, maintain 2500 until established, cleared ILS 35R", he said which I read back. I watched the ILS needles with some trepidation. The GS unflagged, and the localizer needle was in the expected place (still pegged at the left of the instrument).

Then approach said, "It looks like you're intercepting the 35L localizer, do you have the right frequency?"

Whaaa...? I thought. My intention was to fly the 35L approach. What's going on?

"Approach, that's affirm, I'm doing the 35L approach"
"OK, 2 miles from Booie, maintain 2500 until established, cleared for the ILS 35L approach"

   As I intercepted the localizer (and overshot it slightly), I noticed that I had never reduced the power. I was still in "fast jet following" mode so as I turned back to try and stay on the localizer, I was hurtling along at about 160 knots or so, instead of my customary 100. Now that would be OK if I was expecting to fly the approach fast, but I wasn't. My mind was in 100 knot mode. To make matters worse, the glideslope was now coming down and I was trying to follow it too. I realised I was going to have a spot of bother slowing to gear speed. The Bonanza likes to either slow down or go down, not both! I stayed a little high on the glideslope as I tried to get below gear speed. Finally I could drop the wheels, but in my speed fixation, had drifted a little (about two dots) off the localizer. Finally, after what seemed like frantic manoevering and ILS needles that looked a bit like a swordfight, I was back on the localizer and glideslope, with the wheels down and the checklists complete. Seconds later I broke out, and saw a sight I always love - the runway, lit up like a Christmas tree, right in front of me where it should be. It wasn't very long until I was in the flare and touching down.

So what went wrong here?
(1) Fixation. First, fixation on the initial GS problem, instead of getting down to the actual flying and slowing the plane for the second attempt.
(2) Miscommunication. Notice that the approach controller cleared me for 35R when I wanted to do 35L as I had said to the Tower? I should have told the approach controller of my plans. Even worse, I just read back his approach clearance for 35R without thinking (because I was fixated with making sure the GS came alive). It would have been totally my fault if this had lead to a loss of separation. As PIC, I'm the captain, and I'm responsible. It wouldn't have been ATC's fault had a loss of separation - or worse, a midair - had occurred.
(3) The second approach wasn't really stabilized. The fixation demon happened again, and I (successfully) attempted to salvage the approach. I should have called a miss on the second one, and tried again, this time at the right speed and no longer thinking about the errant GS.

I feel about the only things I did right on that approach was actually remember to put the wheels down and advance the prop control!

Fortunately, the flight back home that night went perfectly!