Ron did it!!

Margy Natalie wrote:
As of this morning Ron Natalie is an instrument rated pilot!! I guess
all those impromptu extra vacation days due to haze are over :-). This
is great!

Ok, for those of you that have asked. Here are the details. As Margy
said we had a Knights of the Vine Black Tie wine tasting dinner the
night before the ride so I conked out when I got back from our
celebratory lunch.

Most of you know I've been flying for 25+ years and hanging out here
and in Oshkosh. Since we've bought the Navion I've racked up hundreds
of hours of cross-country time. I've read extensively on just about
every aspect of aviation and hung out in aviation forums since the
old CompuServe AVSIG and this group was "net.aviation." I have been
through the instrument ground school (formally) and then also did the
King course. I've taken and let lapse the instrument written in the
past. I've started instrument training a couple of times before but
never proceeded much over basic aircraft control before time issues
got in the way.

Well finally ENOUGH. I called up Professional Instrument Courses and
enrolled in one of the 10-day courses. I then got out my copy of the
Gleim software and started refreshing for the written. PIC sent me a
list of things to make sure I had (FAR/AIM, Plates, etc...) in advance.
They also sent me a copy of Peter Dogan's book which I already had but
it was revised over the one I had to be in the "GPS era."

About one week out the instructor, Phil Maywald, calls and we discuss
our initial arrangments. The sticking point is that my plane is an
hour away from my house and that's a bit much to drive to switch between
their simulator and the plane. One option is to move the plane up to
Dulles (near my house) and Margy makes a deal with the FBO to do that.
However, we decide we'll just do the first day in my hangar at Culpeper
and will meet there Friday morning at 8AM. He also asks if I have the
GNS480 simulator available on a PC and I said I did have it on my
laptop and he said we'd use that as well.

T-2: Wednesday I head over to Manassas Aviation and take my written, 93%.

Day 1, Friday morning, I get to Culpeper early with a table in my truck
and set it up in the hangar before going over to the FBO to meet Phil.
We start by going over the course workbook/syllabus. There are eight
or so units. Each night I'll read one and do the exercises and then
we'll go over them the next day. We then uncrate the simulator, an
old ATC 610. This thing is sort of a historic piece but it works fine
for what we are going to use it for. The first order of business is
to learn that the "Primary/Supporting" business is not the PIC way.
Instead we learn Command and Performance. This makes a lot of sense.
We also work through power and attitude settings for several phases
of flight (Climb, Enroute, Enroute Descent, Approach Level, Approach
Descent) and fill out a little "cheat card." After practicing this
for a few minutes we head over to lunch. After lunch, we pull the
plane out and after some initial hood work (turns to headings etc)
we work out the same numbers for my airplane. The cheat card is now
stuck in my side wall. I'm wrung out after only about 2 hours of
flying so we call it an evening.

Day 2: No flying scheduled today all ground school/simulator work.
Phil brings the simulator over to my house. We pretty much work
through the basic instrument approach stuff, procedure turns, on
the simulator. We also do the same thing "mashing buttons," as
Phil likes to say, on the GNS480 simulator. I'm quite impressed
how well Phil knows the 480.

Day 3: More ground school. Do holds and DME arcs on the simulator
and the 480. Then fly some full approaches of various sorts on
both devices. Phil at this point says I'm perhaps the only
student he has had that he thought he was holding back because
most of the ground school "book work" I had wired already. I told
him that his pacing seemed fine to me and that I was getting new
info interspersed with stuff I knew already. Still we end up a
day ahead of schedule.

Day 4: Back to the airport. At this point he feels we probably
will not need the simulator anymore (although he has it with him
we do not unpack it from the crate). We head off towards Louisa
and do some basic airwork and start flying approaches. My head
is swimming, not so much with the aircraft handling, but just in
the shear load of figuring out what is going on. Phil prompts
me with hints. We come back for lunch and go out in the
afternoon for some more practice. Phil asks where I want to go
on my XC and I say Statesville, NC (since that is going to be a
regular flight for Margy and me). He says to plan a flight for
homework using the Airways going down to the ILS IAF there and
then do Direct to ROA and then back to CJR.

Day 5: More approaches. Things are getting more straight forward
for me now. Partial panel work both on approaches and unusual
attitudes. Steep turns (not my forte). Afterwards we go over
my XC planning.

Day 6: IFR cross country. Call for the weather and file the plan in
Phil's name. Fire up and deal with the balky GCO to get our clearance.
The controller really needs to learn how to say something every few
seconds if he's going to stop talking because the GCO seems to hang up
every time he stops talking for more than about 10 seconds. After
two calls we get our ammended clearance (the first four or five fixes
are completely different from what was filed). I key these in to the
480 (I have to tell you the 480 is distinctly set up for this unlike
the other Garmin units). Again the GCO proves balky so being severe
clear, we launch VFR planning to hold at our first fix until we can
get the IFR clearance over the radio. Potomac answers soon enough
and gives us a new routing. Oddly, it's exactly the one I originally
filed. I don't understand the ATC computers.

Now on the way down to SVH I've got the thing on autopilot. They
let us go direct to the IAF for the approach and with more button
mashing I send the autopilot there. Phil doesn't tell me otherwise
so on the procedure turn inbound I couple up the autopilot and let
it capture the LOC and the GS. Phil tells me to take the goggles
off and hover over the red button until he tells me to. We let
it fly well over the threshold before I punch the button and land.
We have lunch and then fly over to ROA. Phil says that it was
nice and smooth at SVH with the autopilot, but now it's time to
hand fly it (and it's gusty). After several approaches there
we head over to Culpeper expecting to fly the GPS B approach which
ATC has no knolwedge of. We just cancel IFR and fly it ourselves.


Day 7: IFR finish up. Fly DME arcs, partial panel stuff, more
steep turns. My Checkride is scheduled for Sunday morning at
Shenandoah so we head over there to do approaches and do all
three they have (including flying the ILS as a LOC only).
When we stop for lunch we run into the examiner. He asks
what I have for avionics (GPS, no ADF) and says fine we'll
do the ILS, LOC, and GPS approaches all there and the GPS
is the one we'll do partial panel. I ask if he wants me to
plan a flight in advance and he says to do one to Norfolk.
I ask his weight for the W&B. After lunch more approaches
and steep turns. My performance is not as good as the morning.
Phil says in general I've been fading in the afternoon. He
had contemplated moving my Checkride to Saturday but the
examiner is not available before 1PM, so we'll just leave it
Sunday morning.

Day 8: Simulated IFR checkride day. We do the flying part
first. Go over to SHD. Take off, fly the departure procedure
(which involves holding at the compass locator). Fly all the
approaches, do partial panel work and steep turns. All fine,
head back to CJR. Perhaps I can do this. We spend the
afternoon working on the application, and cranking through
a simulated oral. Phil signs me off for my checkride. After
putting the plane away I noticed the nose gear looks a little
soft and I had put my gauge to it and it was low. I make a
note to pump it up later. When I get back after the oral,
the thing is flatter than a pancake. Fortunately Kevin Woodside
is still there and finds the valve core is bad (evidentally my
putting the guage to it was the last straw) and we fix that.

Day 9: Day off.. I head over to CJR for the prupose of:
1. making sure the tire is still round, 2. clean off the
faces of the GPS and MX20. Several days of pointing
at things and button mashing has left it pretty smudged
up. Bright sun on the smudges makes it hard to read.
Phil had told me not to do any studying the night before
but to read a book he gives me: Forsyth's The Shepard
(it's short). On the fly leaves all Phil's former
students have left a short note and signed it. I do the
same.

Try to nap a little in the afternoon knowing we are
going to dinner later. Check the weather which looks
abysmal.

Day 10: Up at 5:30. The weather doesn't look too bad
other than windy. Head out to the airport. Meet Phil.
Fly over to SHD flying the GPS approach in. We're there
early but a minute or two after 9, the examiner rolls
in. He shows up and we head off over to an office to
do the oral. After checking the application and the fee
we start. The oral pretty much goes as Phil has briefed
it.

"You've got your instrument ticket...what do you need to
go flying IFR today". Go over certificates, currency,
etc... Then talk about the aircraft, show him the
inspections required in the logs. Then talk about
the flight plan. Alternate requirements, what are
alternate minimums, how do I find them, what are the
minimums if we actually go there. Talk about radio
failure rules. Talk about obstacle DP's.

We go over and he asks me to check the weather on the
terminal in the FBO.. I extract answers to the questions
he asks. He then tells me to go show him a preflight
and I get questions on instruments, pitot/static failure
etc. We hop in and fire up. He says we'll fly out
via the departure procedure and do the hold at the OM
as published which is also the IAF for the ILS approach.
We'll go from there and to the ILS as LOC. Do the missed
and go do some airwork on the way to the GPS approach,
go missed from there and turn around and do the ILS.

My entry to the hold isn't wrong but it's real sloppy
as I do not intiially compensate for the 40 knot winds.
I do better on the second outbound leg. He clears
me for the approach. I tell him I'm going to extend
the outbound time and the outbound procedure turn time (both of
which are heading into the wind) because of the wind and
that there will be no problem staying with 10NM. He
approves. Fly the LOC down to the MDA but well before
the MAP he vectors me off to the side of the field
and then tells me to intercept some radial off the
MOL VOR.

He then tells me to continue flying but close my
eyes. He gives me some turns and such with my eyes
closed and then to open up and recover. This is
really spooky but I suppose very realistic spatial
disorientation practice. The last one of these
is quite extended and I'm beginning to get spooked
about what the aircraft might be doing before he
lets me recover. Of course during this time the
stickies have come out and we're partial panel.
He clears me direct to the GPS IAF and approach.
He suggests I can try this with the autopilot and
we do that but it's so gusty that the thing is
S turning all over the place trying to keep up and
he says never mind, hand fly it. I do this
reasonably. GPS makes partial panel approaches
almost a non-event.

On the missed from that approach he gives me vectors
to final on the ILS. This I fly fine down to near
the DH where he tells me to pull off the goggles,
continue to the DH but then climb back up and circle
to the other runway (since we're still got a hefty
tail wind). Land, taxi in. Checkride over.

Phil grabs pictures of me shaking the examiners hand
in front of the plane. We go in and I trade in my
old certificate for a handwritten one that adds
Instrument Airplane to it.

Phil asks if he can fly the Navion back to Culpeper
and of course I have no complaints.