Well this sort of happened to me a few weeks ago. Went out to get some
actual on a low visibility / low ceiling evening from MMU to SWF (about
45 nm flight). I don't remember the exact routing, but it was the
typical one that involves flying to the HUO VOR, then a radial off the
VOR to intercept the IAF for the ILS 27 approach. Winds were strong out
of the SW above 1500 feet, so getting up there took all of 20 minutes.

After I was handed off from the "busy" NY approach freq (127.6) to the
one handling SWF's airspace, I tried for about 3 minutes to check-in on
the new freq. I kept hearing a guy who sounded like an approach
controller, but it sure sounded like Boston center. I was thick in the
soup at 4000, about to make that turn at HUO, and couldn't raise
_anybody_ on the freq. Fortunately the plane I was flying has a Garmin
in it, so I toggled back to the previous frequency, said I couldn't
raise anybody, and finally received the correct frequency to dial in.
(I think the controller messed up, not me, but it's moot at this
point).

So I finally check in with the new controller, and he says I'm about to
overshoot the localizer... which I can plainly see on the GPS. I make
the turn pretty tight, and get lined up for the approach. At this
point, I know now I should have called this approach off and asked for
vectors to get lined back up, because up until this point, I had not
had a chance to brief, get weather, tune radios, or anything... I'd
been dealing with what I thought was a lost comm situation.

Let's just say that the approach was less than optimal, and I
definitely should have been more ahead of the plane than I ended up
being. To top off the stress, I broke out literally 100 feet above
minimums, into a VERY thick fog bank that only allowed me to see the
approach lights, not the actual runway. But, that's legal with an ILS,
so I continued down to minimums, dropped the throttle, dropped in flaps
to 30, and finally saw the runway (at least the first half - SWF has a
10k foot strip). When I got on the ground, I think I let the plane roll
out just a bit longer than usual, just so I could finally get my
bearings fully in place - I definitely scared myself on that approach.

The lesson I learned from that is to constantly evaluate where you are
in relation to where you should be - i.e., should you have gotten the
ATIS by now? Should you have briefed the approach? What about the
missed approach procedure? By the time I got to HUO, I had done none of
those things, and it didn't cross my mind as I was shooting the
approach - I dialed in the ILS and basically locked it in as best I
could while reminding myself what the minimum altitude was. I know I
handled the inadvertant "lost comm" part properly by going back to the
previous controller, and not wasting too much time on the wrong
frequency... but I realize now I should have done more to make sure I
didn't fall so far behind the plane.

--
Guy