IR checkride story!

"Guy Elden Jr." writes:

Now my thoughts are turning toward trips... and vacations... and things to
do with my wife and friends. We've got some ideas in mind, one of them is
pretty ambitious... involving a trip down and back up the east coast of the
U.S.... so we'll see...

Congrats! Isn't it great? I passed my (Canadian) IFR flight test
only six days ago, and I've already logged several hours of IFR and
over an hour of actual IMC during four trips since then.

In case you're interested, here are some of the early lessons I've
learned now that I'm flying IFR for real, outside the bounds of
overly-familiar airspace (our weather in Ottawa is very similar to
yours down in New Jersey) -- these may be useful, since they're things
that matter to us newbies but more experienced IFR pilots might take
for granted:

1. When you have pax and the air is bumpy, it's still not always worth
trying to climb above the afternoon cumulus cloud in the summer --
the tops are higher than you'd think. You'll make life harder on
the pax during the long, slow (assuming a normally-aspirated light
piston) climb through the heavier turbulence in the clouds for the
last few thousand feet than you would just flying level through the
lighter turbulence underneath, assuming a decent ceiling. I
actually had a passenger throw up for the first time Monday
afternoon. You have a good chance of getting above fast in the
morning (it worked well for me twice), but by early afternoon those
tops are just going up and up and up and the insides of the clouds
at 7000-9000 ft are pretty rough.

2. On a related point, when you're climbing through cumulus at maximum
gross weight, hold Vy right on, even if the VSI shows level or a
slight descent sometimes (and the ASI isn't moving). Pulling up a
bit will show a temporary climb as you trade airspeed for altitude,
but in the end, you'll be worse off. At 7,000 or 8,000 ft on a hot
day, sometimes the best you can do in cumulus cloud is just to hold
your altitude at Vy and full power until you get through the
downdraft.

3. On another related point, mid-to-late afternoon is pretty much out
for flying in actual IMC in the summer around here, since every
afternoon seems to have a 30% probability of TCU and CB. If the
only way to fly is through the clouds, and you don't have 'sferics
on your plane, plan for early morning or late evening flights
instead.

4. Now that you're not in training, when conditions on the ground are
better than MVFR ATC seems to always offer you a visual approach,
unless you ask for something else. My approach plates have been
useful primarily for SIDs and STARs so far, except when I've
explicitly requested an IAP.

5. ATC is *very* grateful when they're busy and you cancel IFR once
you have the field in sight (assuming good VFR). They cannot ask
you to do that (at least not in Canada), but it reduces their
workload and might save you 10 minutes or more, depending on the
airspace. I'm assuming that the U.S. makes the same distinction
we do between a visual approach (still IFR) and cancelling IFR to
land VFR.

6. Everything else notwithstanding, when you can do it, breaking out
on top into the sunshine is an awe-inspiring experience for
everyone in the plane.

7. I don't miss the foggles, not even a little bit.

Enjoy your first few trips, and I'll look forward to reading your own
observations and lessons if you have a chance to post them. I was
down in New York for a business trip in May, and I parked my Warrior
at Caldwell Air Services at KCDW -- it's a nice little airport. I'll
probably choose Teterboro next time, though, since it was a long trip
into Manhattan and back to Caldwell.


All the best, and have fun,


David

--
David Megginson, , http://www.megginson.com/