single pilot ifr trip tonight

"Guy Elden Jr." wrote in message ...
Just got back from a good proficiency practice flight. This was the first
time I'd flown single pilot IFR at night with conditions that could
potentially deteriorate to actual instrument. (cloudy, rain developing as
the flight progressed, visibility dropping somewhat)

....

So to sum up: I had 1 VOR, 1 COM, and no backups in the plane for this trip.
And the COM was flaky toward the end. Methinks this plane is about to be
decommissioned from the flight line, because the owner refuses to put any
more money into it. It also just came out of 100 hour, so should (in theory)
be at its best operating capacity. I know I won't be trying any more trips
at night or IFR in it anytime soon, but I'm glad I had the chance to push
the boundaries a bit with the bare minimums for night IFR flight.

Given that you suspected the flight might turn into actual, did you
examine the
VOR checks done by other pilots in the last 30 days? I'd suspect if
the owner was an aircraft slumlord, that they weren't done... I got
bit by this once (second IFR solo flight after getting ticket), I
rented a plane where the VOR check was done, but only on one radio,
the other radio was off by about 13' and determining location by
station cross-reference put me into a confusing quandry where my time
based location wasn't matching the VOR cross reference location. Of
course I didn't realize that the second radio was bum or which VOR was
actually checked because it just said VOR check good +1', so It took
me another 20 minutes of sweating in hard actual to sluth out which
one was bad. I had to wait until an NDB passage to eliminate the bad
one. This was all over territory
which was outside ATC radar coverage, and when I did come into
coverage I was barked at because I had reported my position in the
wrong location (30 miles wrong). I informed them of electronics
problems and asked them to keep an eye on me. To compound my stress
levels, ATC later in the flight kept calling me asking my altitude and
telling me I was in a steep decent. This was due to a fresh and
faulty encoder install two days prior to me renting this plane.. No
idea why it kept doing that, but it sure freaked me out. Constantly
running through my mind were all the failure modes, blocked static,
failing gyros, etc etc.... I think I lost 40 pounds of weight and all
in perspiration on that trip. This stress could have all been avoided
if the log clearly stated which VOR was checked, and if the second one
wasn't checked I could have checked it myself before departing. (More
importantly, I should have realized that the entry was incorrect or
incomplete) The VOR problem combined with the fear of diving into the
ground due to some instrumentation failure were over the top
stressfull. The encoder by itself wouldn't have been so bad, but I
was already doubting the aircraft's quality before that happened due
to the VOR issue, so I started assuming everything was going to hell
in a handbasket... I learned more about troubleshooting problems on
that one trip than 90 hours of classroom lecture could ever be taught.

(Eric Ulmer) wrote in message om...

Given that you suspected the flight might turn into actual, did you
examine the
VOR checks done by other pilots in the last 30 days?

Good advice from the legal perspective...

rented a plane where the VOR check was done, but only on one radio,
the other radio was off by about 13' and determining location by
station cross-reference put me into a confusing quandry where my time
based location wasn't matching the VOR cross reference location.

Would it have been possible for you to check both OBS against
each other, either on the ground or once airborne? I also like
to turn 10 degrees each way and be sure I get full deflection.

A VOR check sometime in the last 30 days may be legally comforting,
but perhaps not as useful as knowing that both OBS are working
correctly for *this flight*.

I have had it happen that I did a VOT check on Weds, and on
Sun. discovered that the #2 OBS required 20 degrees to get a
full scale deflection. Something had frotzed.

Even when there isn't an authorized VOR checkpoint one can
often pick up a radial somewhere on the airport, or track
the localizer on takeoff or something.

It sounds like a nervewracking trip for you.

Sydney

"Snowbird" wrote in message om...

Even when there isn't an authorized VOR checkpoint one can
often pick up a radial somewhere on the airport, or track
the localizer on takeoff or something.

Tracking the localizer won't tell you anything about VOR errors.

"Ron Natalie" wrote in message =
m...
=20
"Snowbird" wrote in message =
om...
=20
Even when there isn't an authorized VOR checkpoint one can
often pick up a radial somewhere on the airport, or track
the localizer on takeoff or something.
=20
Tracking the localizer won't tell you anything about VOR errors.
=20
=20

It could, if the VOR happened to be on the airport.
---JRC---

"John R. Copeland" wrote in message ...

Tracking the localizer won't tell you anything about VOR errors.

It could, if the VOR happened to be on the airport.

I did mean localizer, not VOR. But I wasn't specific or clear
enough about what I meant. See other post.

Regards,
Sydney

"Ron Natalie" wrote in message om...
"Snowbird" wrote in message om...

Even when there isn't an authorized VOR checkpoint one can
often pick up a radial somewhere on the airport, or track
the localizer on takeoff or something.

Tracking the localizer won't tell you anything about VOR errors.

Depends upon the source of the error. It is true it will
not tell you whether the OBS is aligned within 4 degrees
(or indeed 13 or any number)

It wil give information about other NAV/OBS errors.

When my OBS have failed to give full-scale deflection at the
appropriate deviation, this occurs with both localizer and
VOR. If there's a problem with the splitter, it's evident.
If one NAV radio isn't receiving properly, it's evident.

Regards,
Sydney

(Eric Ulmer) writes:

This stress could have all been avoided if the log clearly stated
which VOR was checked, and if the second one wasn't checked I could
have checked it myself before departing.

It might be worth checking every navigation radio before every IFR
flight, if you are lucky enough to have facilities within range -- for
me it's just part of the IFR preflight (including a test of the ADF
during taxi to make sure the needle is tracking when I turn), even
though I own my plane and am very familiar with it.

Out of interest, I've never seen a log entry in Canada for a pilot VOR
check (either in my own plane's journey log, or in the journey logs of
any rentals) -- the only time there's an entry is after equipment has
been installed or reinstalled. We have to do the checks, but I don't
think we have to log them -- is that right, or are a lot of us just
ignorant of the regs?


All the best,


David