If the first two weeks have taught me anything, it’s that I’m in for a lot of writing this semester. A presentation on an airliner for my transport category aircraft course, a 2,000 word paper for long-range navigation, a several-hundred-page course binder for the instrument instructor ground school, and ongoing assignments for crew resource management. Long story short – expect less frequent updates here; yes, even less than now. I’ll be focusing on my instrument instructor course, probably trying to write about procedures and approaches in the same way John does at his great Aviation Mentor journal.

So, starting off on that note, I spent monday afternoon flying the simulator portion of my Instrument Proficiency Check. I hadn’t done any hood or actual instrument work for nearly six months, and my currency was actually set to expire in another few weeks, so Chris (my CFII) and I went into it from the briefings expecting two sim lessons before the IPC signoff.

Instead, the flight went really smoothly. The simulator was positioned at Grand Forks (GFK), and on departure I was cleared to start the VOR/DME approach, arcing north. DME arcs are interesting, because the approach involves flying at a given radius from the VOR navaid for about 90° of the circle before flying direct to the VOR and completing the approach. After shooting the arc, I went missed to the GPS, which also went well – several turns in holding, then a lost comms scenario.

One of the keys to successfully handling a lost communications situation is trying other frequencies – often it can be due to a low altitude or interference – and, if comms aren’t restored, squawking 7600 on the transponder. Once that’s done and the instructions are completed or EFC time is hit, shooting the approach is just like any other. The final approach was the ILS into GFK, and even though Frasca makes awful flight training devices shooting the approach in the sim went fairly well once I convinced it to start a descent. IPC passed!

I’m looking forward to this course a lot. I really enjoy instrument flight; successfully shooting an approach to minimums is one of the most satisfying things you can do in an airplane, even if it’s one of the more stressful. Working in the Avidyne glass-cockpit Warriors this semester will be a new experience, and almost certainly a lot of fun.