Lesson #20

Log Book - 5/13 C172 IA24 KAWG KIOW IA24 2 1.3

The day started off cloudy and rainy, a perfect IFR training day. I called Dale to ask about a possible change in our plans for today. We had talked about spending today doing partial panel work. While I know that I still need some work on that, I felt that was something that I could do on my long x/c that is scheduled in the next couple of weeks. With the low clouds that I saw this morning and were forecast for this afternoon, I figured it would be a splendid day to saddle up the Cessna and head down to Washington, IA (KAWG) to work on DME arc approaches. I filed the flight plan in the morning for a 5:15pm CDT departure. Our route would take us over the IOW VOR and then outbound on the R-142 to start the DME Arc. I arrived at the airport about 4:45 CDT and pulled the plane from the hangar. After filling the tanks and pre-flighting Dale and I were ready for departure. Unfortunately the weather had deteriorated to VFR, so obtaining my clearance on the ground before departure wasn’t necessary. 8^( After takeoff and turning our crosswind leg, I called CID DEP and picked up my clearance. I was cleared to IA24 via IOW KAWG IOW with approaches at both KAWG and KIOW. I donned the Foggles and started the trek. As we were flying towards IOW Dale and I discussed the procedure for flying the KAWG VOR/DME (Link located below) approach that includes a DME arc. At 26 miles, it is one of the widest DME arcs that I have ever seen. This makes for a good introductory to them as things won’t be moving as fast as they would on a shorter arc. We decided to do the R-142 as we were already on a heading of 150 to get to IOW VOR from GCAC. As we approached 25.5 miles on the DME, I had calculated the new heading that I would need to turn to and start the 5T acronym (turn-time-twist-throttle-talk). After the initial 90 degree turn and the twist of the OBS, the CDI centers it was again time to turn and twist. The strong wind out of the west really slowed down this approach which also made it easier as the workload wasn’t as fast. Using the turn and twist method kept me within a half mile of the 26 mile arc, well within standards, so I felt pretty good about the approach. After getting to the inbound portion of the approach, I started my descent and waited for the DME to count down to 15.3, which was the MAP. I called missed on the CTAF and started my climb back to the IOW VOR. After contacting CID APP I was given vectors for the KIOW VOR-A (Link located below) approach. I have done this approach several times and felt real comfortable with it. We contacted APP after executing the missed and Dale gave me vectors back to GCAC. Coming in from the southeast and given the fact that there weren’t any planes in the pattern, I did a straight in to RWY 33. The strong crosswinds gusts did their best to keep me from doing a great landing, but I did it anyway. 8^) We went back to the office and discussed the flight and what our next step will be. I have my written planned for the following Friday and Dale had planned to visit his daughter next week, so we decided that whatever time that I could be flying would be better spent hitting the books. My x/c country is planned for 5/24, so that might be my next session. I am hoping for crappy weather so that I can get some actual.

http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/AWG/IAP/VOR_DME+RWY+36/pdf
http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/IOW/IAP/VOR-A/pdf