Lesson #21

Log Book - 5/24 C172 IA24 KUIN KOTM KCID 3 3.2

Today I have my IFR X/country planned. I plan to fly IA24 to Quincy, IL, then over to Ottumwa, IA and finish off with an instrument approach at KCID. Given that we were going to depart early Monday morning, I went out to the airport and filled the tanks on the 172 Sunday evening. When I arrived Monday morning, I got the plane out of the hangar and was starting to pre-flight before Dale arrived. The weather was hot and humid and Dale and I discussed whether he would bring along his Garmin 496 with XM weather. The thought was to throw it in the back seat just in case. I had filed all 3 flights early that morning and the weather was clear so I took off and picked up my clearance airborne. My flight plan was filed as IOW V67 BRL V63 COBOD (flightware.com link located below) which would take us close to the VOR/DME 22 (Link located below) approach into Quincy. Things went well and the weather was much nicer at 5000’ with the temps below 70 and free of the high humidity. The flight went as planned and I wasn’t having any issues along the way. Dale even messed with my iPad and the SkyCharts Pro application that I had running on it. I was passed off to CHI CTR and then KC CTR before we started our approach. I had planned on flying the LOC/DME BC 22 approach but the LOC was NOTAM’d O/S (out of service) so I decided on flying the VOR approach. With the long x/c you need to fly 3 different approaches, so I had to be careful to not fly the same type of approach twice. Several of the runways at Quincy were closed for repair so we decided to do a low approach to the missed and start the next leg of our flight. I cancelled my IFR and told KC CTR that I would like to pick up my next clearance after going missed. They approved and told me to change to advisory. I made my callouts on the CTAF and then did the missed approach. After getting to about 1500’ AGL, I called KC CTR and they gave me my clearance to KOTM. We climbed out and started our trek to LOAMY V52 OTM (flightware.com link located below) to Ottumwa. The reason that I picked that airport is because I will most likely have my flight test done there as that is where the examiner is located. Given we were heading in from the SE, it would be best to ask for the ILS 31 (Link located below) approach as it would be a straight-in approach. The winds were 190/16G23 so the approach would be flown with the circle to land minimums. After being handed off to CHI CTR, I requested the ISL 31 approach and was given vectors for the final approach course. Everything on this flight went well too and I was getting very comfortable in the system. The only thing that I would have liked was for the weather to be actual. Oh well, you cannot have everything. 8^) The warm weather was wreaking havoc on the approach as we were bouncing all over the place. I have to be more cognizant of trusting the RPM setting and using the elevator trim for minor pitch changes. I was a little up and down on the GS, but the LOC was right on. I flew down to the circle to land minimums (1260’) and circled to RWY 22. It is required of me to land at one of the airports in order to log the time as x/c so we decided to land this time. While we were on the ground, I figured that I would put some fuel in the plane as well. 10 gallons was added as we waited in the FBO. We used the rest room, got something to drink and were ready to roll. I paid for the fuel and we headed out. My only mistake on the flight was my flight plan that I made for the next leg. I had filed RIDCO V294 CID (flightware.com link located below) and after talking about it with Dale, we had no real way of getting to RIDCO without vectors or an IFR certified GPS. The probable route was to fly direct CID which we did after I amended my flight plan with CHI CTR. The flight back to KCID was uneventful and I was given vectors for the LOC 9 (Link located below) approach. This worked out well, as the GS was O/S at CID as well. The winds were 170/17G25 and all of the commercial planes were landing on RWY 13. This setup an interesting scenario on final, as shortly after I contacted TWR I was told that I might have to break off the approach early due to inbound traffic on RWY 13. As I was just about to the LOC MDA (1200’) TWR told me to break off my approach, fly heading 120 and to contact DEP. Oh well, Dale had me take off the Foggles and take a look at where I was. That approach went well even with the extra commotion thrown in. We then flew back to IA24 and landed. After getting back to Green Castle, we discussed the flight and Dale pointed out that I really need to get better at trusting the RPM settings for the different approaches. I seem to keep my hand on the throttle and adjust more than necessary. That will be what I work on as I get ready for the check ride. Today’s flights got my Simulated IFR to 25.1 and Actual IFR to 5.8 for a total of 30.9 hours. I now have less than 10 hours to go before I have the required 40 hours necessary to take the test. I will probably need a few more than that, but time will tell. The landing at Green Castle also marked my 500th day time landing in my flying career. Man I cannot believe that I have landed a plane 500 times during the day. 8^)

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N7717U/history/20100524/1425Z/IA24/KUIN
http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/UIN/IAP/VOR_DME+RWY+22/pdf
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N7717U/history/20100524/1555Z/KUIN/KOTM
http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/OTM/IAP/ILS+RWY+31/pdf
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N7717U/history/20100524/1725Z/KOTM/KCID
http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/CID/IAP/ILS+OR+LOC+RWY+09/pdf