CFII-ing

Today was a perfect instrument training day. Crystal was reporting 1,400 broken, 1,900 overcast with good visibilities below so I filed IFR and introduced my instrument student to the inside of the clouds.

Since it was his first time in actual IMC and we'd only flown once before (where he did an outstanding job under the Foggles) I kept it simple. We filed Crystal to the St. Cloud VOR, back to the OLLEE intersection, good ol' Gopher VOR and Crystal. (Check us out on FlightAware. )

It worked out perfectly and he did a fine job keeping us greasy side down and more or less on course. We were in IMC shortly after takeoff and stayed in the clouds until ATC cleared us up to 5,000 about 15 miles southeast of St. Cloud and we popped up between layers.

That didn't last long and over St. Cloud we were back in the soup. We'd occasionally pop out back between layers but basically we didn't see anything from about two minutes after takeoff until a few minutes before touchdown.

We'd briefed the GPS 14L approach into Crystal on the ground so I talked him through it as he flew it and we broke out at about 1,200 feet AGL with the runway about three miles ahead of us, right where it was supposed to be. We landed straight in and parked.

Teaching in actual IMC is tough. It's a delicate balance between letting your student make some mistakes long enough for them to recognize the problem and jumping in to correct things before your altitude or heading gets too far off.

It's also an absolute blast.

The flying itself is great fun, but the sense of accomplishment my student felt when we were back on the ground was the real payoff. He thought it was about the coolest thing he'd ever done and I was just happy to have been there for it.

Vertigo sucks

I've experienced vertigo a few times, but usually only for a few seconds.

The other day on our last training flight I wound up with a nasty case that took a few minutes to overcome.

We were knocking along in and out of IMC on the way back to AEL when my instructor covered the attitude and heading indicators. Normally that's not a big deal.

Anyhow, we had been flying along partial panel for probably 10 minutes when a very inexperienced-sounding center controller asked us our position from the Mason City VOR.

Since we'd left Mason City about 40 minutes earlier to fly an approach at Forest City, IA, flown the NDB approach there, flown the missed and had been cleared direct to the Albert Lea VOR the MCW VOR was a distant memory.

We looked at each other and said in unison “What the F...?” Then keyed the mic and told center to standby.

Just what I needed: A bizarro request from center partial panel in IMC.

I dug out the approach plate for MCW, found the VOR frequency, tuned it in to the number two nav, figured out what radial we were on then picked up the DME.

By this time, center was talking to a few other airplanes in quick succession so we just hung out. Eventually the controller called back and repeated the request and by now we had an answer.

She turned us over the Rochester Approach who gave us vectors for the VOR-34 back into AEL. After a few minutes of vectoring I looked down to check my approach chart and brief the approach.

When I looked back up and realized I had no idea where wings level was.

I tried to level the wings on the turn coordinator but kept over-correcting in the light turbulence. That just made things worse. I managed to keep out altitude more or less nailed, so I knew my pitch attitude was ok but I was having a devil of a time setting the wings level and keeping them there.

Eventually my instructor reminded me to get back on our heading, to which I could only reply: “Dude, I have no idea where wings level is. As soon as I figure that out I'll worry about my heading.”

A few seconds later the vertigo passed and I at least knew where wings level was again. Of course, by then I had no idea which way we were headed and the compass was bouncing and swinging around.

About this time Rochester Approach called and politely asked just where the hell we were going, to which I didn't have a particularly good answer. They kindly suggested a right turn to intercept the final approach course and a minute later the needle came alive and we flew the approach and found the runway, right where it was supposed to be.

It was a good learning experience but one I'm not eager to repeat.

First off, I should have just told the center controller our position relative to the Albert Lea VOR to see if that would work. Something along the lines of “Beats me, but we're 22 DME on the 210 radial off of Albert Lea. If you want me to figure it from Mason City I'll need to call you back in a couple of minutes” probably would have gotten the message across.

Second, doing partial panel training in actual conditions isn't such a hot idea. It's not the potential loss of control that's the issue (just uncover the attitude and heading indicators if things stop making sense) but the chance for violating your clearance is just too high.

Third, the more I think about it the more I think it's a good idea to file an ASRS report. We obviously violated our clearance when RST approach had to re-vector us on to the final approach course.

And fourth, vertigo sucks. But you already knew that.

The Double “I”

I just got back from three long days of training in Albert Lea adding a second “I” to my CFI certificate. I'm now an official CFII, which means I can teach instrument students.

The CFII was interesting. It's not nearly as involved as the initial CFI, but it was still a bunch of work. I'd spent about a week preparing so I arrived with all of my lesson plans prepared, which made things easier.

We spent the first morning teaching the pitot-static system then jumped in the Frasca for an evaluation of my instrument skills. I'd flown a sim about a month before and logged about half an hour of instrument time a few days earlier so I was current and reasonably proficient.

The weather around AEL was lousy but there was no convective activity or icing so it was perfect instrument training weather. We jumped into the World's Worst 172 and flew some approaches.

That didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. The 172 had a horrible squeal over the intercom that got worse instead of better as we flow along. The ADF only worked part of the time and the other navigation radios were marginal.

I was flying from the right side of course with the squeal driving me insane and doing a horrible job holding my heading. Eventually it got so bad I just unplugged the microphone side of my headset which fixed the problem but meant I couldn't talk. So when I wanted to say something I'd shove the microphone into the jack, talk then unplug again.

We wound up flying an approach to just above minimums to get back into AEL and as we shut down both decided we were done flying the 172.

Monday was below minimums at AEL much of the day so we just did ground and a simulator sesson. Tuesday was more ground and simulator then we jumped in Warrior and flew some approaches.

I'd never flown a Warrior before so it was a little bizarre to get in a different airplane type and be in the clouds about 45 seconds after takeoff. On instruments it was like anything else: Move the controls to get the instruments where they belonged.

The flying was a blast, almost always in actual conditions with low ceilings and lousy visibilities. I hadn't spent a lot of time in actual conditions, so it was great experience.

Our second flight went much better and my heading demons were gone. We scheduled the checkride for a Thursday morning. On Wednesday I showed up to finish up some paperwork and prep for the oral when the examiner called and asked how soon we could get to Maple Lake.

We banged out the 8710 form, did a pre-flight and fueled a Warrior and were on our way in about 45 minutes.

The checkride itself was a piece of cake. I presented a board lesson on holds, described the compass and compass turns, listed the required equipment for IFR, talked GPS theory for about three minutes then answered a bunch of standard instrument-rating questions.

We got in the airplane, I went under the foggles (the weather was beautiful for the first time in four days) and my examiner vectored me for the ILS-31 at St. Cloud. The ILS was nearly perfect, we went missed and he covered up the attitude and heading indicators.

We'd done a bunch of partial panel work in the Frasca (and more than I would have liked in the airplane under actual conditions) so I was pretty solid on it.

We flew some compass turns, did some unusual attitudes then started the dreaded VOR-A approach back into Maple Lake.

The VOR-A into MGG is a pain with everything working in the airplane. The difficulty is that the final approach fix is 27 miles from the Darwin VOR and the missed approach point is at 22 miles. If you're off by one dot, or don't have the OBS set exactly, you can miss the airport by a mile or more.

Even if you fly it perfectly, the approach brings you in at an angle that makes it tough to find the runway because it's slightly lower than the terrain between you and the airport. (By slightly, I mean about 10 feet, but if you're a few miles out and at the MDA it's tricky to spot.)

Partial panel it's just that much tougher. With a single navigation radio and no DME or GPS it's a bastard.

My examiner took away my DME, then my second nav radio and asked me to hold at Yazma, the final approach fix.

That left me switching frequencies between the Darwin VOR, which defines the final approach course, and the St. Cloud VOR, which can be used to identify Yazma.

The partial-panel hold with a single navigation radio worked out just fine and we flew the approach. I switched radios just in time to see the crossing radial from St. Cloud center, verifying that I was at the final approach fix, started timing and started down.

I managed to keep the needle centered, timed it pretty well and when I finally looked outside we were in the traffic pattern.

I made a lousy landing and we were done.

That's good because I'm starting an instrument rating with a guy next week. I can't wait. Flying instruments is a blast and I can't wait to start teaching it.

It begins, slowly

After five weeks of taking care of stuff I'd been neglecting during training, it's time to start instructing.

I hadn't flown in over a month, which was fine, but I was really starting to get the itch to get going on the whole instruction thing. Luckily for me I managed to land some business.

I started with a primary student on Monday, which was a blast. We'd flown together a fair bit before I got my CFI so I had a good idea where to begin. He handled the takeoff, we went out and did some slow flight, which he flew plus/minus about six feet then worked on some stalls.

We're scheduled to fly twice a week, so it will be a good, consistent training program.

I also picked up an instrument student, which is slightly bizarre since I haven't finished my CFII yet.

We talked about it and I explained that I needed to finish up the CFII first and I'd totally understand if he decided to work with a different instructor who had done a few instrument ratings before. Turns out, he's happy to work with me and I'm thrilled to have an instrument student.

So I spent all week working up lesson plans and studying then it's down to southern Minnesota to hammer away at the CFII.

There's some time pressure in play since I'm scheduled to start flying with my instrument guy twice a week starting in two weeks. Gonna be a stressful week or so.

I also did my first Flight Review today, which was interesting. We spent a fair amount of the ground portion talking about personal minimums and aeronautical decision making, which was a good use of the time.

My flight review guy was very current and had been flying frequently so the regulatory review went quickly.

The weather was ugly by the time we finished up our ground (700-900 foot ceilings and some convection around) so we postponed the flight portion until later in the day. Even then, the weather wasn't great but it was good enough and he was eager to fly a few approaches so we headed up to Cambridge for an NDB approach then back to Crystal for the VOR-A that I know by heart since I've flown it at least 20 times.

After that I gave him a gear emergency, we did a short-field landing and short-field takeoff and it was clear that he was safe and proficient so I signed him off for another two years.

I would have liked to have done the more traditional slow-flight, stalls, steep turns for airwork but the ceilings just weren't working out. It's interesting how much you can learn about a pilot's skill level after even a few minutes.

This guy did a fine job, especially managing the 182RG. Flying a complex, high performance airplane precisely IFR is about as good as it gets for us GA types and it was fun to watch.

As it turned out, we really worked on the things that were the most valuable to him so I hope it was a valuable session.

I now have a whopping 2.8 hours of instruction given, which is 2.8 hours more than I had at the start of the week.

Signing other pilot's logbooks is a bit strange but I at least have my certificate number memorized so I don't need to fumble through my wallet and look like the total amateur I am.

Now I need to pick up a few more students, flight reviews and aircraft checkouts. The CFII is going to be a good thing, because I love flying instruments and the chance to teach it is really exciting.