Dan Luke wrote:
Yesterday, for the first time since I got the instrument rating 5 years
ago, I had to hold for real.

It was a reposition flight from Mobile Downtown to Pensacola to pick up
an Angel Flight. When I checked the weather at home at 6am, fog was
reported everywhere on the central Gulf Coast - the nearest legal
alternate I found was Birmingham. Mobile was below minimums, but PNS
was just at minimums and forecast to improve slightly. When I took off,
BFM was still below minimums for the ILS, and when I checked the PNS
ATIS it was 1/4, indefinite ceiling 100.

Did you consider postponing the flight until PNS was reporting weather that you
would need to complete the approach? According to my calculations, this was only
a 46 mile flight, so it wouldn't have delayed your arrival at PNS by much, and
would have saved you a bunch of fuel used in holding, not to mention the risk
exposure of being airborne with nowhere to land.

snip

That problem dealt with, I headed down
the glide slope with more than usual concentration on keeping the
needles centered; I wanted to make this one. This time I saw enough
lights at DH to give me 100 more feet, and that was it: made it.

.... and you also had the required flight visibility?

snip

--
Dave Butler, software engineer 919-392-4367