I love when this stuff works...

[Ted]

Last night, the Mooney's owner flew into PHL with a friend. She called me up and asked if I'd be able to fly in to pick them up and bring them back to Williamsport. Well, I'm not one to turn down an excuse to fly, so of course we can all guess my answer.

A bunch of thunderstorms were moving through the area throughout the afternoon. I watched them moving, and predicted that by the time I had to take off, they would have moved through. Sure enough, I was right. By the time I got to the airport, I was able to pick up my flight plan with no delays.

The weather had cleared after the storms moved through to a beautiful VFR night, leaving Williamsport about 9:45 PM. Smooth and you could see the stars - my favorite kind of flying. My trusted friend (the Mooney) and I headed off for the short hop into PHL. The standard "Keep your speed up until 3 miles out, contact tower..." as I got in close. No problem.

I checked the weather at Williamsport before we left PHL and it was clear. I asked the Mooney's owner if she wanted to fly or if she wanted me to fly, and she pointed at me, so we loaded up and off we went, taking off from PHL about half past midnight. I'd put in an IFR flight plan anyway, so we followed that up. Turned out to be good that I did. As we were about 50 miles out, we started to see low-laying fog over some areas. This is a typical occurrence in this part of Pennsylvania, especially along the river. Williamsport airport is frequently fogged in, even when you're in perfectly clear skies for the rest of the flight, and all other airports are open. As we approached Williamsport, we tuned in the weather and heard "Scattered 600." Ok, not a ceiling, but I requested the ILS anyway "just for fun." As we got to the FAF, I tuned it in again and that had changed to "Broken 600." Well now we have a ceiling.

There was a thin but dense cloud layer pretty much right over the airport. As we got close we could see everything around us but the airport. I'm used to seeing the ILS lights pretty far out. Nope, not this time. We got into the cloud layer, wondering if the lights we working. After all, it's night and they're bright. Down closer to the missed approach point. By the time we got to 1100 MSL (DH is 1020) we still didn't see the runway. This was looking like it might be my first real missed approach.

And, right at minimums, all three of us saw the rabbit leading the way to 27 and called it. A sigh of relief, and we came in for what was even a smooth landing at 2 AM. My passengers said I did a great job on the ILS. Even though all but the last couple hundred feet of altitude were in perfect VMC, I felt I earned that ILS in my logbook. That was my first ILS to mins for real. Now that was fun.

I love when this stuff works. It still amazes me.

 

[SCCutler]

Cool beans!

 

[wsuffa]

It sure is impressive, isn't it.

I've done mins at several airports, probably the two most impressive were the ILS to KNEW and the ILS to KLBX. At KNEW, the rabbit and approach lights just materialize out of the mist, there is no land below them - just the gray waters of the Ponchetrain.

 

[jdwatson]

Nice job. I haven't had the "pleasure" of flying an approach to minimums.

 

[dmccormack]

Cool!

I havent flown any approach to min at night, though.

I'm a bit cautious about flying SEL at night anyway.

 

[Everskyward]

Passengers think it's magic...

 

[CJones]

Awesome! Successful ILS to mins at night.... One of the best feelings of accomplishment in aviation.

 

[gismo]

Passengers think it's magic...

About 17 years ago I flew a night ILS approach into Lunken (Cincinnati, OH) with my wife as a passenger. This was her first time on an approach at night and the first time on an approach when the clouds were near the ground. But when the rabbit and other approach lights emerged from the mist at about 300 HAT (DH=275) followed by the runway lights at about 200 she expressed amazement that it was indeed magical.

 

[SCCutler]

My lowest ILS has been to ADS 33, 400' (250' min's), but I flew the GPS 14 at T82 (Fredericksburg) to minimums (was reaching for the throttle and gear when the ground came in to view just past the VDP). I sure do prefer having a rabbit and all that bright, sparkly, razzmatazz to watch for.

Bill, KNEW is a trip, even in "VFR" conditions it's unnerving. Every time I fly there, I am glad for the instrument training, think about JFK, Jr.

 

[wsuffa]

About 17 years ago I flew a night ILS approach into Lunken (Cincinnati, OH) with my wife as a passenger. This was her first time on an approach at night and the first time on an approach when the clouds were near the ground. But when the rabbit and other approach lights emerged from the mist at about 300 HAT (DH=275) followed by the runway lights at about 200 she expressed amazement that it was indeed magical.

Yep, done LUK, too, when the ATIS was variable enough that I had the plates for CVG out and at the ready in case we went missed. Gotta be careful about the ridge south of LUK. It can be a challenging airport like KNEW.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Passengers think it's magic...

It is! Well, magic-al, anyway. This thread reminds me of a time when I was in the truck and headed past Madison and the weather was perfect IFR (no ice, no TS, and close to minimums) so I decided we should stop and get a couple of approaches in. I threw my trainee in the right seat of the plane and we flew to DBQ. As the runway lights appeared out of the mist, he went "Wow, cool!" Then we taxied back and picked up our clearance back to Madison, and watched the Navajo that had been in line for the approach behind us materialize out of the muck before heading back up to MSN for another approach there.

 

[t0r0nad0]

My only experience with this was when I was doing the 737-800 full-motion sim ride. I did an ILS to 28R at KSFO with clouds at minimums (200'). I was on the gauges the entire way down with nothing but gray out the windows until the co-pilot/instructor called the runway lights. I looked up and saw the rabbit and green runway end lights appear out of the mist. Yeah, it was a simulation, but it still looked really cool. The non-pilot passenger in the jump seat was impressed .

 

[sheldon957]

What was your AGL? (Edit: I looked up the plate and it says 529 elev) I have broken out at 900' but I was still 870' AGL so not nearly so rewarding as yours was at a lower AGL.

 

[dmccormack]

What was your AGL? (Edit: I looked up the plate and it says 529 elev) I have broken out at 900' but I was still 870' AGL so not nearly so rewarding as yours was at a lower AGL.

The majority of ILS approaches are 200' AGL, though some ILS approaches have higher DH due to obstacles or other impediments to a 200' DH.

 

[Ted]

As you noted, at Williamsport, DH is 1022 MSL, or 500 AGL. So 500 AGL isn't quite like breaking out at 200 AGL like a good number of ILSs do, but I also take minimums pretty seriously. The only time I would shoot an ILS right into the ground busting minimums would be if I lost an engine on the Aztec and I couldn't maintain altitude to get to another airport. That would also require a pretty heavy load and a pretty warm day, or a high ground elevation.

I generally don't plan to fly when I think the ceilings are going to be more than 200-300' above minimums. I like having that buffer since predictions, METARs, etc. aren't always 100% accurate. Having a buffer might mean you end up flying at minimums, rather than having conditions end up below.