Ifr Screenshots? Vor Approach To Nelson

[nalbers]

I was parked at Blenheim yesterday morning, and the weather was a bit cloudy, so I decided to do some IFR practise: Omaka to Nelson with a full VOR approach to runway 02 to finish.

Why is this in the screenshots forum? Judge for yourselves...

Getting pretty cloudy round the tops...


Trusting the approach plates have gotten the heights right can be a bit scary if you keep seeing glimpses of peaks in front of you!


And next to you too!


On the 15 NM DME turn. And no, I can't see very much at all out of the front window. Real pilots, please don't laugh at the figures, this is the first time I've tried this! Funny thing though: I was tuned into the tower frequency and could hear the tower warn a NZ link flight about me. I was in thick cloud and the link pilot reported traffic in sight! He must have had radar vision! I couldn't see a thing!
Pop quizz: from the figures, where am I? Hint: I have the radial set to cross the next reference radial from the chart.


Yay! Safely decended out of the clouds, and the airport is right where it should be!


Looking good on approach.


On finals. Even managed to fly a proper glide slope, which is not how I usually do it when hand flying I can tell you!


Parked at the hanger.


I'll keep on saying this: FSX + the VLC makes for some really scenic flights, even in conditions where you can't see properly! And flying full IFR approaches is a lot of fun!

[Ian Warren]

Niels , with Dave,s recent Lake Matheson , i took off in the other direction in search for the lake , using maps .. your right its brilliant

[nalbers]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Jan 26 2011, 10:04 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Niels , with Dave,s recent Lake Matheson , i took off in the other direction in search for the lake , using maps .. your right its brilliant

What I really loved about this flight is that I had almost no visibility to the front, but could still see little jewels of scenery out of the side windows looking down. And the thrill factor involved was sizeable: Would I get it right, had I read the chart properly, was that shadow in the clouds in front of me only a shadow or was I about to plough into the side of a mountain? And then looking back at the flight analysis window it turned out that I had made a fairly decent DME arc.

I just found an old post by nzav8tor, his DME tutorial, and it turns out I used pretty much the same procedure, and that "by the book" I had in fact stayed within the proper parameters: never more than 1 NM from the 15 NM arc. Go me! Not too shabby for a first attempt.

[deeknow]

QUOTE (nalbers @ Jan 26 2011, 09:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Pop quizz: from the figures, where am I? Hint: I have the radial set to cross the next reference radial from the chart

I'd say your about half way between the 135 and 165 radials, more or less due south of the airfield, heading clockwise on the DME arc, judging by your height.
Great pics, and nice to present them with a real world story like this, neat idea, keep em coming

[nalbers]

QUOTE (deeknow @ Jan 26 2011, 10:26 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd say your about half way between the 135 and 165 radials, more or less due south of the airfield, heading clockwise on the DME arc, judging by your height.
Great pics, and nice to present them with a real world story like this, neat idea, keep em coming

BING!
Give the man a prize! Pretty much dead on. Or at least, that's where I thought I was when I took the shot. I may have been mistaken

And as to the story, it always comes first, and the shots follow if I remember to hit V when something interesting is happening.

At the moment I'm trying to fly a circuit of the south island from airfield to airfield, always using real weather and on actual local time. Which is actually pretty easy for me, since living in the Netherlands means it's always conveniently early in the morning in NZ when I have time to fly (mid-evening in Holland). Of course using real weather means I sometimes have to change plans to match the conditions. Earlier this week I was flying a piper cub from Hanmer to Kaikoura, and there was low cloud and rain all along the coast. Decending into the murk in a VFR only plane was white knuckle time! I'd never have done that in real life, I can tell you that! Hence my swap to IFR yesterday. No rain, but WAY too many clouds for my liking.

[deeknow]

QUOTE (nalbers @ Jan 26 2011, 11:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

At the moment I'm trying to fly a circuit of the south island from airfield to airfield, always using real weather and on actual local time. Which is actually pretty easy for me, since living in the Netherlands means it's always conveniently early in the morning in NZ when I have time to fly

Isnt flight-sim a wonderful thing, there you are half way round the world and flying real world procedures here in little ole New Zealand.

[SA227]

Crikey if that's your first attempt at a VOR approach via the arc then it was a top effort...well done

[nalbers]

QUOTE (SA227 @ Jan 27 2011, 07:29 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Crikey if that's your first attempt at a VOR approach via the arc then it was a top effort...well done

Is it technically cheating if you use the autopilot to maintain a heading and altitude while you concentrate on getting a position fix and tweak the heading/altitude to match? Because that's how I did it. Lacking a co-pilot to fly the plane, and not having 4 arms and two heads. I switched over to full manual as soon as I had the runway in sight.

[captainherc]

Great shots and GO you on first IFR approach. I hold a single engine instrument rating and when flying single pilot it is very common practice to use the AP. Do not think it a let down. Manual fly decent attude and AP for hdg etc. Makes life easy and safer, as apart from maintaining Hdg it keeps wings level etc so helps if getting the LEANS etc. Keep up the good work.
Adrian.

[Splitpin]

Great series Nalbers......keep them coming

[SA227]

QUOTE

Is it technically cheating if you use the autopilot to maintain a heading and altitude while you concentrate on getting a position fix and tweak the heading/altitude to match? Because that's how I did it. Lacking a co-pilot to fly the plane, and not having 4 arms and two heads.[/quote]

Not at all, in fact I'll give you extra points for good airmanship using the autopilot.