There are some delightful moments in life, yes truly delightful. What’s more than taking advantage of bad weather to experience ultimate fun?
Thursday night, I was coming back from a Hustle party when I noticed on the Internet that they were forecasting aweful weather for both Friday and Saturday. Ding ding… I took my phone and reserved a Cessna. After all this is the right time to practice some instrument flying and shoot a few instrument approaches...
Last time I filed an instrument flight plan was in May when I was doing my training in Mississippi. I have never flown IFR around Atlanta before, nor have I flown in really-bad actual instrument meteorological conditions.
So I was absolutely excited and when I woke up Friday morning it was over the top. Low clouds, overcast layers as low as 500ft and mist. Even the top of the mighty Bank of America tower was imerged in a low clouds layer. Sure that sounded exciting so I packed my stuff and off to Marta.
Upon reaching the airport, I checked one last time the weather and started doing the preflight. Well 500ft ceiling is enough to practice a few ILS (Instrument Landing System) approaches. Lawrenceville was forecasting 800ft ceiling in mist which should even be enough for non precision approaches such as a LOC (Localizer) or NDB (Non Directionnal Beacon) approach.
Half an hour later, I took of from Dekalb-Peachtree Airport and just a few seconds later we were in the soup. Climbing to 4000ft, we eventually reached the top of the overcast layer which must have been around 3900ft. Skimming along the top of an overcast layer in clear blue sky, how exciting. I guess that’s what made me fall in love with airplane. That’s the magic of flight.
Soon enough, we were descending to shoot an ILS approach at Gwinett County Lawrenceville Airport (LZU). And here comes another sight that is truly amazing. Having been in clouds for about 20 minutes, having only seen plain white and raindrops on the windshield, the sight of the runway lights suddenly appearing right in front of the aircraft while breaking out of a 600ft-high overcast layer has simply no equivalent I can think of. And I am not bragging, I honestly think there is no ‘ersatz’ to that. Along with this memorable experience comes an immensely profound sense of achievement. It is hard to explain because after all it is just plain maths. Still there is this touch of magic to it.
Anyway, after a touch we continued with non-precision approaches as the ceiling was clearing a bit. First a NDB approach with a holding pattern and finally a localizer approach. Around 12:30pm, it was about time to head back to Atlanta as I was supposed to go to my Advanced Dynamic Class at Georgia Tech at 2pm sharp. Return trip was uneventful with a cruise entirely in the soup followed by an ILS approach at Dekalb Peachtree Airport (PDK). This time, we broke out of the clouds at 1500ft above ground.
Touchdown was a few minutes after 1pm. Headwinds and funny radar vectoring during our return trip did not really helped us ... I reached Georgia Tech at 2:15pm…well too bad for the flight mechanics class... Guess I’ll have to catch it later…
Part of the flight that was under radar coverage
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N6204F
Thursday night, I was coming back from a Hustle party when I noticed on the Internet that they were forecasting aweful weather for both Friday and Saturday. Ding ding… I took my phone and reserved a Cessna. After all this is the right time to practice some instrument flying and shoot a few instrument approaches...
Last time I filed an instrument flight plan was in May when I was doing my training in Mississippi. I have never flown IFR around Atlanta before, nor have I flown in really-bad actual instrument meteorological conditions.
So I was absolutely excited and when I woke up Friday morning it was over the top. Low clouds, overcast layers as low as 500ft and mist. Even the top of the mighty Bank of America tower was imerged in a low clouds layer. Sure that sounded exciting so I packed my stuff and off to Marta.
Upon reaching the airport, I checked one last time the weather and started doing the preflight. Well 500ft ceiling is enough to practice a few ILS (Instrument Landing System) approaches. Lawrenceville was forecasting 800ft ceiling in mist which should even be enough for non precision approaches such as a LOC (Localizer) or NDB (Non Directionnal Beacon) approach.
Half an hour later, I took of from Dekalb-Peachtree Airport and just a few seconds later we were in the soup. Climbing to 4000ft, we eventually reached the top of the overcast layer which must have been around 3900ft. Skimming along the top of an overcast layer in clear blue sky, how exciting. I guess that’s what made me fall in love with airplane. That’s the magic of flight.
Soon enough, we were descending to shoot an ILS approach at Gwinett County Lawrenceville Airport (LZU). And here comes another sight that is truly amazing. Having been in clouds for about 20 minutes, having only seen plain white and raindrops on the windshield, the sight of the runway lights suddenly appearing right in front of the aircraft while breaking out of a 600ft-high overcast layer has simply no equivalent I can think of. And I am not bragging, I honestly think there is no ‘ersatz’ to that. Along with this memorable experience comes an immensely profound sense of achievement. It is hard to explain because after all it is just plain maths. Still there is this touch of magic to it.
Anyway, after a touch we continued with non-precision approaches as the ceiling was clearing a bit. First a NDB approach with a holding pattern and finally a localizer approach. Around 12:30pm, it was about time to head back to Atlanta as I was supposed to go to my Advanced Dynamic Class at Georgia Tech at 2pm sharp. Return trip was uneventful with a cruise entirely in the soup followed by an ILS approach at Dekalb Peachtree Airport (PDK). This time, we broke out of the clouds at 1500ft above ground.
Touchdown was a few minutes after 1pm. Headwinds and funny radar vectoring during our return trip did not really helped us ... I reached Georgia Tech at 2:15pm…well too bad for the flight mechanics class... Guess I’ll have to catch it later…
Part of the flight that was under radar coverage
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N6204F
.
I did not get a chance to record the approach. But here is what it looks like.
No comments:
Post a Comment