IFlyHooks

My instrument student got it all this morning in IMC… departed Hooks IMC to KLBX ILS..then…‘let’s stay south in this IMC… check out that DME arc on the VOR A at Calhoun County… take me there and fly it to Circle to Land… “, I said. Then RNAV at 11R. Then hooks RNAV 35. Picked up clearances at Clearance Delivery, called on the ground, then picked up in the air. He saw a lot today and did great!

Yesterday, my student Brent and I went hunting for clouds to get actual IMC practice. It lifted so no luck but we did find this sign (insert shameless political plug, please Like my page below 😀. If elected I promise $1/gallon avgas and lower airplane prices)

https://www.facebook.com/ChadDeggesforTomball

On rt downwind when I discover I need to be at Hobby.. they had to wait for a gap between southwest airline landing to get us in. Hobby is a good trip for my students.

A little single engine work....

Today’s flight...

Is Kevin Pate sleeping? He was aware it was my first multi engine turbine right seat flight....

Yesterday my instructor Zach Greene from United Flight Systems and I took advantage of the wide spread IMC in preparation for my CFII. He had me hand fly for 1.2 hours in actual; Full VOR-A at Navasota, down to minimums - unable to descend further, went missed to the published Hold, departed back to KDWH for the RNAV 35, Broke out at 900’.
I better appreciate what I will be asking new instrument students to learn. It’s an incredibly satisfying skill set to master. I still made little errors - forgot to start my clock at FAF (in case I lost DME - ugh) and failed to click the lights on navasota on that specific light controlled frequency even though I had briefed it earlier!

I have accumulated aver 150 hours of actual in 1800 hours of total time but it’s a skill that you never stop honing and Zach put me through the paces yesterday. I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences and sharing what Zach is teaching me with my my students.

What a fun day! November 2020 was Scott’s second flight lesson with me. Yesterday Scott flew 03V to New Orleans to come get me.
I dropped off a Baron E55 after annual for the owner and instead of flying commercial back, I asked Scott to come get me. There was a serious weather front (see IPad!) on our return and I was able to teach Scott how to manage that situation and safely complete the return mission. Then he flew the RNAV35L into KDWH... he’s ready to start instrument training!

I flew ILS into Hobbs which included the DME arc. I’ve got lots of experience in the radar environment in Houston but the Non-radar IMC flying held several teachable moments. I was asked to pick my initial approach fix, report my position several times, fly the dme arc... lots of good experience that I can pass on to my future instrument students.

When studying for your instrument rating, all those questions about MEA (min enroute altitude), MOCA, Victor airways with minimum crossing altitudes (MCA) seem mundane and perhaps academic especially for flatlanders like me based in Houston. Me and my college buddies are turning 50 this year so everyone wants to go to Red River, NM. One of them needs to be picked up in Alamosa, NM. In under three minutes, I found a route the Baron can fly by picking airways with MEA’s that work for me. Makes quick work of it.

Returned from KCLL at night after visiting my middle son at A&M and got my first night flight post updated panel... the bezel lights Temple put in were a nice addition.....so I powered back, turned the new AP on and enjoyed the view out the window.

We installed all the Garmin but still ‘cover it up’. Here, my primary student who is practicing landings gets a ‘no airspeed indicator’ landing... both AS and AI with speed tape get covered. He did great!

Ace, Paul and the rest of the guys at Temple Avionics did a fantastic job in transforming this 1975 172M. I flew it home last night and although I’m very familiar with Garmin, even I was surprised at the extent of the integration of all three GI-275’s, GTN650xi, Garmin 650xi, Flight stream 210, and Garmin Pilot.
This is a perfect a great platform for my students and anyone renting it and going cross country, particularly new instrument pilots who are experiencing various IMC conditions for the first time.

I’m a big fan of Temple Avionics which is no surprise to anyone but they did it again. On time, on budget. The man-hours required to complete these projects successfully with fully integrated avionics and get them configured is significant. Temple Avionics understands what it takes to do it correctly.

Www.Iflyhooks.com

New panel nearing completion.

Dropped in to see Ace at Temple Electronics. Test fit panel shown below, Autopilot servos in, engine monitoring probes and wires are in, wires run, new ELT...
I left the six pack configuration (with two GI275’s) because I found it to be helpful teaching new student pilots but added the HSI with autopilot for instrument students - we’ll fly actual IMC by hand and with autopilot for real world experience. I also put the full GI-275 engine monitor for teaching piston engine management techniques (lean of peak vs Rich of peak and how to trouble shoot a problem w the monitor). This is my third major panel upgrade with Temple Electronics over the last 10 years.

Returned from the New Mexico back country and got to fly the baron home... clear perfect weather...

Today we loaded our packs and flew 600NM to Raton, NM to hike Boy Scout Philmont Ranch for 12 days. I filed IFR to the 6400’ elevation airport in which I needed to clear some 8200’ rocks sticking up. I have many hours in the IFR environment but not many with MEA’s like this. I filed 12,000’ direct and received Leona 3 departure, Leona, Direct. I really wanted 8,000’ (tailwinds first 2/3rds but too low last bit of trip) but didn’t recall the specifics of how I should handle. I learned a few things and thought I’d share here.

Out of Houston, I requested 8000 in lieu if my planned 12,000. ATC asked ‘you want that as final instead of 12k?’, they asked. Frequency was quiet so I said ‘well, I like 8k for the next 400 miles but will need higher to clear the rocks. How do you prefer I handle this?’ He replied ‘give us 8k on your filing next time, they will get you higher as u get close’. I vaguely recall learning/reading this so I’ll look it up when I get a chance.

As it turns out, as I approached KRTN (and the rocks), ATC asked if I wanted 11k or 10k with a vector East. So I took 10 and approached KRTN. I was waiting for a descent from 10k from ATC but never got so I inquired and ATC says “can’t descend you below 10k, no radar’ oh! I said. I’m such a flat lander.

I flew to KTYR (kdwh->ktyr) last week in the B58 and thought I’d point out a few things. First, my students know I’m always saying ‘I’ll check the notams’ or ‘did you check the notams?’. My wise instructor once told me...’if you don’t check them, one day you’ll find your airport closed when you arrive. You’ll only do that once’. Ktyr had a lot to look at on notams.
Second, this was a typical IFR flight down to 900’. ATIS reported ‘RNAV approaches in use”. ATIS did not actually state which runway RNAV was in use. If you’re a new IFR pilot, this might surprise you because it’s not as common. Approach says to me ‘5kt, say approach request’. Ok, now what?
I’m headed due north (Houston to Tyler). Winds are 210 @13. Ceilings are 900 broken.

Option 1: RNAV 4, Circle to Land. Since I was approaching from the south, this would have been perfect because the RNAV 4 approach into ktyr is from the south. However, the circle to land minimum is 980 and I don’t use circle to land unless there is a wide margin between reported and actual (and then, only during the day).

Option 2: RNAV 22 LPV. This gets me to as low as 200’ but if I request this, ATC must direct me NW on a downwind past the final approach fix, before vectoring me to a base leg. Wind favored 22 but I also heard an American Airlines plane getting vectored to RNAV 22.

Option 3: RNAV 13. From my position, this approach offered a quicker turn to a right downwind vector and allowed ATC to sequence both me and AA at the same time (AA on 22 and me on 13). It gave me a crosswind landing but was well within my comfort zone.

I chose option 3 which gave me an efficient approach and quick taxi back to Johnson aviation on Alpha.

Bahamas: final leg and arrived late last night as the weather blew up. ATC modified my route to Leona VOR, then college station VOR.... their early plan was to take me SW, around the western edge and then East and ‘under’ to get me into hooks. It’s very important to remember.. You are PIC. Not them. They are working a lot of planes and they work really hard to get you to your destination airport. I didn’t like my fuel status had I gone west, then East, then failed to make it in to Hooks plus this storm was moving SW and very likely to swallow up Hooks. I told ATC I wanted to stay north of the SW moving storm to hold or land CXO. This gave me more than one ‘out’. I ended up landing cxo, taking some fuel, and 30 min later had an 8 min vfr flight into Hooks. ATC does not understand your preferences, motivations, flying status, experience in weather, fuel status. It is our job to communicate this to ATC particularly in developing difficult weather... don’t make them guess... they want to know what we ‘need’. Always be PIC.

Bahamas: every time I’ve come out to the plane I find this.... !

Our hangout for the day

Ok... so my primary student got his fourth lesson in the Bahamas in the baron. His parents live here and he was visiting by coincidence so... could not pass up a chance to teach Lesson 4 in my syllabus ‘flying in Bahamas’ 😂

Bahamas: When you fly IFR to Bahamas, it is no different than flying IFR in country. When you fly VFR, you’ll need to file a DVFR flight plan... again, nothing difficult, more on DVFR later. Either rule, you’ll be talking to ATC just like you do for flight following or when IFR. You’ll be with Miami Center until you near your Bahamas destination and you’ll be handed to Nassau Approach. You’ll be expected to cancel IFR or flight following when you want but probably before you get too low so you can go 1200 and talk on CTAF. Make calls... and land. Grab your luggage and head to customs. Fill out some forms (sample below) and pay your $58 (in my case). My rental car was waiting (Stanton will get you a car on Eleuthera). Now... just Remember to drive on the left side of the road! (Keep your stamped paperwork so you can fly inter-island)