IFlyHooks

Congratulations to Joel! He’s now an instrument pilot. We had great fun flying together. And big thank you to Pat Brown . We appreciate you.

Another departure procedure post. This time, I’m departing Deer Valley (Phoenix) IFR with a Tower. I get the DVT3.PXR departure… see climbing instructions to intercept a VOR Radial, reach 4K’ before turning back direct VOR. This really busy airspace. Not gonna lie… reading this departure, as a Houston flatlander, I’m kinda like… hmm really? Surely they will give me vectors when I get airborne. Nope… didn’t even talk to me much. Just did ‘the thing’ as you can see. No big deal… just do what you know to do. Don’t let the VOR instructions intimidate you. I have many many hours but flying west lately, I’m finding new IFR experiences. Saw this warning sign in the lobby so obviously, they’ve had some issues with this. It’s ok to see something new(ish) and feel apprehension…just brief, use your knowledge, and execute.

Bill is now a private pilot! Congratulations! He is a natural and a pleasure to fly with. And thanks to Pat Brown who works so hard helping us mint new pilots!

I’ve always found the turboprop converted Bonanza a curious modification. I’ve enjoyed flying it for the owner who uses it to short-hop around Texas and it makes those kind of trips very fast with the benefit of turbine reliability. A great ride!

My students know that I want them to ‘consider’ if a ODP departure procedure is required as part of their preflight check. We are flat landers in radar environment here in Houston and it’s very easy to not appreciate and can get you in trouble when you fly elsewhere. Today I departed Taos NM, broken ceiling 4000’, pretty day. Picked up clearance on the phone, released to depart…. That’s it, no ‘fly runway heading… etc’. I had to look at the ODP which was ‘climbing rt turn to intercept 150R toTAS vortec thence…hold south…’. The risk here… you take off VMC thinking you’ll get approach on the radio/get in radar, you don’t because your in the mountains, you go IMC at 4000ft…. And now what! Mountains at 12k’ around you and you didn’t think about the ODP. And you’re in trouble. It is your responsibility to maintain terrain clearance on IFR departure. Don’t miss your ODP…

A good pilot is always learning. Flew to San Antonio (KSAT) yesterday. ATIS reporting ILS13R in use, I was getting vectors so I loaded the ILS Vectors To Final … my experience is ATC always sets me up for intercept. Then I hear ‘84X, maintain 4K’, direct ‘Queso’, cleared ILS13R approach. Huh? Queso, cleared? I scan my garmin, and don’t see Queso in the box. For a half second I considered manually loading the GPS waypoint Queso…but then I know better than to try to manually enter a way point into an approach (who hasn’t tried to find Oiler when cleared to intermediate fix at hooks?). Go back to my plate… there it is, a GPS waypoint on an ILS. So I find ‘queso’ transition on the garmin. Now for the autopilot… I set up VNAV for base leg decent, GP to get the glide slope and LOC. I see garmin has all that in white (look close) so I know that means Garmin is ‘arming’ those modes (indications in white)… I watch as the AP flies all the lateral and vertical perfectly thru VNAV descent on base and glide slope intercept. It even switched the CDI to LOC… for me.
I am very focused on AP modes particularly when the CDI gets cycled… out of order or fate fingered, AP’s go to roll mode… and you won’t notice if your not paying attention. Always teaching ‘check the scoreboard’ (AP annunciator) in your scan…

My student Jeff and I went up yesterday, some IFR, isolated rain showers, to fly the VOR A Huntsville approach. This approach includes the DME arc. Jeff got to see how to navigate weather under IFR, from a practical approach… and how we interact with ATC with changing weather. We got the published missed which included a hold as shown below. Very very taxing to fly by hand and this track is Facebook worthy. 😄

My office today….

Congratulations to Grant for soloing today! He’s a natural!
I’m always grateful for our DWH controllers who look after students and instructors alike on solo days.

Grant is working on his private so today we took advantage of IMC to give him his first experience flying in actual… he did great!