The Scariest Thing I've Ever Seen

This guy was definitely not having fun... Sounds like he "went missed" then
saw the runways and circled to land on 30. BUT if he was right over your
head when he added power, he was a bit off course for 25 and get this...
www.flightaware.com doesn't list any incoming IFR 182's yesterday! Was this
guy trying it VFR? or maybe he was on a local IFR with CID and flightaware
didn't pick it up? Just glad he made it down ok. He's lucky he didn't clip
any of those cranes you've got sticking up in the air around there!

When I saw him go over in near knife-edge flight, he was heading EAST.
He clearly wasn't lined up for anything.

My guess is that he flew the VOR 36 approach, accidentally over-flew
the airport (cuz he couldn't see it), spotted it at the northeast edge
of the airport property (where we are), racked it around to keep the
runway environment in sight (which is when I spotted him), lost the
airport again, and just kinda did a "fly out for 30 seconds, do a
tear-drop 180 degree turn, fly the reciprocal heading for 30 seconds,
and hope for the best" approach.

It worked, but only just barely.

And Roger is right. Without GPS, I'll bet he wouldn't have found the
airport again.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"