1. Vectored for the VOR 27 at Oshkosh in pouring rain, broke out and saw the runway after I got established but before I started my descent, cancelled IFR to help the guy behind me, did a visual descent and landed on the green dot. 2. Vectored for the ILS 24(?) at Muskegeon, descended on the glide...

I want to go fly some approaches (and a hold) on Sunday. I know from experience that it's likely that the ceilings will be too high to do any meaningful approaches in IMC, but high enough that I might be in IMC during the vectors to the approach or at the hold. I figured I could take along a...

When you're determining if you need an alternate, and whether you can use an airport for an alternate, do you use the minimum of the normal forecast, TEMPOs and PROBs? -- Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/ Unix is great. The Unix culture is magnificent. Life in a Unix...

I know that in Canada, when you're cleared for the approach, you can start descending to the MSA. But today while being vectored for the LOC/DME RWY 12 at Oshawa, I was told "turn 030 for the base leg", and then I almost immediately blew right through the localizer. Was I supposed to take that as...

I'm flight planning a flight to DuPage (KDPA) from Rochester (KROC). Aeroplanner's automatic route has me going in V6 to NILES and then direct, but I was thinking that maybe coming in V8 to JOT and then direct would keep me more out of Chicago's hair. (Or "O'hair" as the case might be.) Or should...

Our club just got a 530 for one of our planes, and so before I fly it I'm spending a lot of time with Garmin's simulator. So one of the flights I do a lot is here (KROC) to Ottawa (CYOW) and back. When I fly from Ottawa, I always get the OTTAWA ONE departure, which means I put ASHTN and REEDO in...

We recently put a 530 in one of our planes. Garmin says the upgrade to WAAS is only going to be $1500. Sure, that's what they charge for the guts, but what is this likely to run to once the shop starts adding their labour costs, etc. Is another field approval needed, or what sort of paper...

I'm just reading IFR Refresher, and it has a report on an accident that happened after a King Air was cleared for an SDF approach at KSME. According to the article, at the time the A/FD and NTAP listed the SDF as "Out of Service (OTS) - Indefinitely", and had been for four years, but the plate was...

In a couple of weeks, I'm going to be near KBLM (Monmouth Executive) and I'm hoping to fly down in our club's Garmin 530-equipped P28B Dakota. Normally when I'm flying the Dakota, I just file direct and get ready for a re-route, but somehow I don't think that's going to fly in that part of the...

I cancelled a flight yesterday because on top of strong gusty winds there was an Airmet Zulu for light to moderate mixed and rime ice, and on top of that the destination was reporting layers at about 2,000 and 4,000 feet, a freezing level of about 3,000 feet, with occassional ceilings of 800...

Ok, I bored you all to death with wondering if I should go to BAF or CEF, with questions about the route down here, and questions about the approach plate for one of the approaches at CEF. I'd like to thank you all for your indulgence and let you know that I'm safely on the ground at BAF after a...

David Megginson and I were discussing the avionics the other day, and we had a very strange thought. We know that radios can be pulled out and swapped, usually with a single screw. Would it be possible to buy a single approach certified GPS, like a Garmin 530 or something, and put trays in...

Ok, it's coming up to that season, and was vividly demonstrated when I got hit by hail driving through Watertown last night. I drive a lot between Rochester NY and Ottawa Ontario, and Rochester NY and Whitby Ontario, and frequently those drives are in good VFR conditions except for that band...

I have a NavCanada chart subscription. My problem is that I can't remember when I got it. Will NavCanada let me know when it's going to expire, or give me an option to automatically extend it? I assume it's not like IFR Magazine, which just sent me a renewal notice for a subscription that...

I'm trying to improve my database generators for CoPilot and other programs (see http://navaid.com/ and http://xcski.com/~ptomblin/CoPilot/ for details). The problem I'm trying to deal with is that the FAA is totally inconsistent on how they name waypoints, DAFIF isn't any better, and there are...

I was looking at Phoenix AZ on the low altitude en-route chart, and there is a cluster of GPS waypoints charted all around the VOR (in the Class B). I assume those are for GPS instrument approaches. Is there a reason why those are charted on the en-route? -- Paul Tomblin ...

I'm trying to figure out the BAF ILS 23 localizer approach. The normal LOC 23 approach has a MDA of 900, and the LOC 23/DME approach has a MDA of 700 feet. After the FAF, there is a step down fix at 2.7 DME with a _1160_ before it. So does this mean that if you don't have DME, you can descend to...

I'm going to be flying from ROC to BAF weekend after next. Just plugging the end points into Aeroplanner gives me a nice simple route V2 ALB V146, but I see that BAF has a STAR, SWEDE ONE. It's a bit longer than the simple route, and since I've never flown that direction I don't know if I should...

The USAF terps guy Timothy Lovell sent John Haggerty (FAA terps guy) a response to his query about the question I asked here, about the odd step-down on the LOC vs LOC/DME versions of this approach. For those not playing along at home, the LOC has a MDA of 900 feet, and the LOC/DME has an MDA of...

When I don't fly IFR for a period of time, I don't seem to have any problem with approaches or procedures or the usual stuff, but my scan goes to hell. After looking over at the GPS or down at the chart and finding myself in a 40 degree bank, I tend to turn on the autopilot and leave it on until...