Hey everyone I just wanted to say thank you for all of your congrats and wishes... I've been extremely busy since earning my instrument rating. I'm going to try my best to keep updating the site over the next week or so but if things continue along like yesterday did it may be a several days before I can find the time to update the site.
Yesterday was my first student/student cross country flight. Meaning no instructors. This phase lasts a max of 25 days but never takes that long. In about the period of 10 days I'll be racking up about 65 hours of cross country time toward my commercial certificate. Yesterday I woke up 8am drove an hour to Fulton Co airport to fly out with another cross country student. We were told by dispatch down in Jacksonville FL to fly to Panama City, FL from Atlanta. Once we got there we ate lunch and had to head east toward Craig Airport in Jacksonville. The second leg was insane... we cruised out at 7000 ft and the tail winds were 60 knots. It took us 90 minutes to travel 230 miles. We were cruised out 140 knots indicated and our ground speed was 200 knots.
From Jacksonville we headed home and I got back to my apartment at 10pm. A very long and tiring day... It looks like that's the standard for the next 10 days. Again I'll try to take some great photos and movies and keep you all updated during these next few days.
Ben, I saw your comment asking me to explain a full SDF approach with a partial panel circle to land and a published missed. The best I can do right now, given that I don't have much time is tell you that an SDF is a nonstandard localizer type guidance system. It has greater lateral limits than a regular localizer. Either 6 or 12 degrees versus the standard 3 degrees. So the horizontal guidance is less precise also the SDF can be off center from the runway up to 3 degrees so it may not be a perfect line up. Partial panel means that the examiner will cover up certain instruments to simulate losing them in flight. You must continue to shoot the approach without the use of those instruments (i.e. attitude indicator and heading indicator/HSI) . Circle to land means that once you have the field in sight at your minimum decision altitude, if the winds are favoring landing on the the opposite runway you can circle around the airport at no more than a given distance based on your category of aircraft and land on the opposite runway heading. Published missed means that you will be following the missed approach procedures that are printed on the approach plate that you are using to shoot the approach. Sometime when you go missed ATC will just vector you toward your alternate rather than have you hold as per the published missed approach procedure on the plate. But for evaluation purposes during training and the Instrument checkride they want to see you follow the published procedure.
Gotta run guys.... Heading to Panama City AGAIN... bye
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Wow, it does sound very tiring indeed, but I know how much you love to fly and how much this means to you, but above all, safety is number one (of coure you know this), so get plenty of rest, eat well, and don't worry about keeping up with your blog daily. Whenever tou have extra time to write to tell us about your experiences, we appreciate.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work and be safe! M & D
Yes, taking time for yourself when you need to rest and recharge is vital.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you are doing what you love and loving what you do.
Blessings;
Carol