tawood
En-Route
So this is my first winter with an IR, and I've found staying current is difficult...well, its difficult to stay current if you are looking to fly in actual conditions here in Michigan while avoiding ice. But I've been patient, watched the weather daily, and even took a few different days off of work when the weatherman has predicted some instrument weather, only to be kept on the ground by un-forecast fog or extreme winds. My last 4 approaches were all done in October, with several more in August, so my time was running out for doing this in actual.
Finally, this weekend's predictions for semi-low ceilings, 50+ degrees on the ground, freezing levels well above the MSA, and mild surface winds held true, and I went to my hangar early this morning at about 7am, trying to get up and fly before the afternoon predictions of heavy turbulence kicked in. When I got to the airport, the airports all around were at about 5000 foot unpredicted ceilings, but all the TAFs were saying that through the morning those ceilings should come down to about 1000 agl. So, after killing an hour+ tidying up the hangar, I took a look on foreflight on my phone, and saw that several airport ceilings about 40 miles to my north were all down to around 900-1200 feet, and were predicted to stay that way for the day. There were no airports between me and them, and my field, as well as the other fields to the E/S/W of me, were all still 5000 feet. So, I took off without a clearance, just planning to get a pop up clearance as I got close to the low clouds. (I've also never gotten a pop-up clearance before, so I did this to "scratch it off my list".)
First surprise was that the low clouds were literally just a couple miles north of my home field, so that right after turning north from takeoff, I had to turn/circle and call someone for the pop-up. Once done, I climbed and headed to my first airport for a non-precision approach. Within moments of leveling from the climb, I entered the clouds and started flying on instruments (no AP in my bird). I flew along, feeling very good, remembering how much I like actual (but hate the hood). ATC gave me vectors to my first approach (VOR), then I was cleared, and flew it no problem, ending with a low approach/missed. On to the next one.
I called missed, climbed to 3000 and was vectored to the next one, an ILS. After awhile ATC gave me a turn, and also a descent to 2300...which I did and did fine, until...
Just as I was leveling at 2300, I hit some turbulence, chop really...not bad turbulence at all. In fact, during the past summer when I practiced/obtained my IR, I flew in MUCH MUCH worse summer air current stuff...but as I hit the turbulence, I got the weirdest sensation, like none of my instruments made any sense: my initial impression was that some were showing a climb, some were showing a dive, some a bank, some not, etc. For just a few seconds, I had this sensation, but then the air smoothed out, the feeling went away, everything seemed fine, and I flew on. My first thought was, "Wow, I'm rustier than I thought!" I crossed checked the gauges: now I was sure that everything was in agreement. I took a look at my vacuum: 5", right where it should be...ok, all good.
I flew the ILS to another low approach, and called missed again, to go fly my third/last approach. As I was being vectored and descending to the third and final approach, again I hit some light turbulence, and again I got the same sensation that NOTHING made sense. Because I wasn't so "caught off guard" this time, I thought to myself, "This is not me, this is a problem with the gauges." My first reaction was to suspect the AI, but I looked again at the vacuum, and it again showed 5 inches. It sounds silly to me now, but I just didn't consider at the time that the AI would fail on it's own...I really expected the AI to fail ONLY due to a failed vacuum pump. But just like before, after just a few seconds, everything again looked fine: plane flying level, cross check of gauges showed everything in agreement. I now dismissed the thought that it was an instrument problem and thought, "Maybe it was me again."
I finished the approach with a last low approach, and asked for vectors back to my home drone. The better weather had been heading my way, because within just moments of turning back home, I popped out into VFR with 5000 foot ceilings, and I cancelled IFR. Then I started some tests...
While flying level, I quickly-but-lightly pushed the yoke forward and back, 2 or 3 times, to "simulate" some turbulence, while watching the gauges. In doing this, I made the plane bump a bit, without really changing my attitude at all. SURPRISE! The trouble revealed itself: my AI instantly showed a 45+ degree climb with a 30 degree bank from the light "bumping", for about 3 or 4 seconds, before it "popped" back to indicate the correct level flight. I then wagged the wings, again quickly-but-lightly, two times, and sure enough, the AI went haywire again, for about 3 seconds (this time a 45+ degree dive, with only slight bank), before returning to a correct indication.
Like I said, it sounds silly to me now that I would think that the only way the vacuum gauges fail is from a loss of vacuum, but as this was happening that's exactly what I thought. Oh, and another "fail" on my part: I have an AHRS backup in my Stratus, which I didn't even display until AFTER running my tests and actually finding the AI as the problem (and the AHRS worked fine for the entire VFR flight home, while that AI messed up a couple more times in the pattern). I don't plan to make that mistake again...how easy it would have been to turn that on, at least immediately after I had an inkling that it could be a gauge problem...
Finally, this weekend's predictions for semi-low ceilings, 50+ degrees on the ground, freezing levels well above the MSA, and mild surface winds held true, and I went to my hangar early this morning at about 7am, trying to get up and fly before the afternoon predictions of heavy turbulence kicked in. When I got to the airport, the airports all around were at about 5000 foot unpredicted ceilings, but all the TAFs were saying that through the morning those ceilings should come down to about 1000 agl. So, after killing an hour+ tidying up the hangar, I took a look on foreflight on my phone, and saw that several airport ceilings about 40 miles to my north were all down to around 900-1200 feet, and were predicted to stay that way for the day. There were no airports between me and them, and my field, as well as the other fields to the E/S/W of me, were all still 5000 feet. So, I took off without a clearance, just planning to get a pop up clearance as I got close to the low clouds. (I've also never gotten a pop-up clearance before, so I did this to "scratch it off my list".)
First surprise was that the low clouds were literally just a couple miles north of my home field, so that right after turning north from takeoff, I had to turn/circle and call someone for the pop-up. Once done, I climbed and headed to my first airport for a non-precision approach. Within moments of leveling from the climb, I entered the clouds and started flying on instruments (no AP in my bird). I flew along, feeling very good, remembering how much I like actual (but hate the hood). ATC gave me vectors to my first approach (VOR), then I was cleared, and flew it no problem, ending with a low approach/missed. On to the next one.
I called missed, climbed to 3000 and was vectored to the next one, an ILS. After awhile ATC gave me a turn, and also a descent to 2300...which I did and did fine, until...
Just as I was leveling at 2300, I hit some turbulence, chop really...not bad turbulence at all. In fact, during the past summer when I practiced/obtained my IR, I flew in MUCH MUCH worse summer air current stuff...but as I hit the turbulence, I got the weirdest sensation, like none of my instruments made any sense: my initial impression was that some were showing a climb, some were showing a dive, some a bank, some not, etc. For just a few seconds, I had this sensation, but then the air smoothed out, the feeling went away, everything seemed fine, and I flew on. My first thought was, "Wow, I'm rustier than I thought!" I crossed checked the gauges: now I was sure that everything was in agreement. I took a look at my vacuum: 5", right where it should be...ok, all good.
I flew the ILS to another low approach, and called missed again, to go fly my third/last approach. As I was being vectored and descending to the third and final approach, again I hit some light turbulence, and again I got the same sensation that NOTHING made sense. Because I wasn't so "caught off guard" this time, I thought to myself, "This is not me, this is a problem with the gauges." My first reaction was to suspect the AI, but I looked again at the vacuum, and it again showed 5 inches. It sounds silly to me now, but I just didn't consider at the time that the AI would fail on it's own...I really expected the AI to fail ONLY due to a failed vacuum pump. But just like before, after just a few seconds, everything again looked fine: plane flying level, cross check of gauges showed everything in agreement. I now dismissed the thought that it was an instrument problem and thought, "Maybe it was me again."
I finished the approach with a last low approach, and asked for vectors back to my home drone. The better weather had been heading my way, because within just moments of turning back home, I popped out into VFR with 5000 foot ceilings, and I cancelled IFR. Then I started some tests...
While flying level, I quickly-but-lightly pushed the yoke forward and back, 2 or 3 times, to "simulate" some turbulence, while watching the gauges. In doing this, I made the plane bump a bit, without really changing my attitude at all. SURPRISE! The trouble revealed itself: my AI instantly showed a 45+ degree climb with a 30 degree bank from the light "bumping", for about 3 or 4 seconds, before it "popped" back to indicate the correct level flight. I then wagged the wings, again quickly-but-lightly, two times, and sure enough, the AI went haywire again, for about 3 seconds (this time a 45+ degree dive, with only slight bank), before returning to a correct indication.
Like I said, it sounds silly to me now that I would think that the only way the vacuum gauges fail is from a loss of vacuum, but as this was happening that's exactly what I thought. Oh, and another "fail" on my part: I have an AHRS backup in my Stratus, which I didn't even display until AFTER running my tests and actually finding the AI as the problem (and the AHRS worked fine for the entire VFR flight home, while that AI messed up a couple more times in the pattern). I don't plan to make that mistake again...how easy it would have been to turn that on, at least immediately after I had an inkling that it could be a gauge problem...
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