denverpilot
Tied Down
This dude is headed somewhere for some holiday weekend fun I bet...
Operation Butt Freeze
- Thread starter denverpilot
- Start date
TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
F(inished)IFY
Exactly! Thank you.
denverpilot
Tied Down
MarkL stopped by and said hi. I was polite and shook hands and then after he left had to ask Jesse who that was. Hahaha. Sorry Mark! He had to go fly. See ya later!
Jesse is letting me hang out and watch one of his other Instrument students fly the simulator. It's giving me grins because I see him exactly where I was in December. And hearing Jesse say the same things. Pretty good confidence booster.
"This thing is really touchy."
"Yep, if you can fly the simulator well the real aircraft will be easier."
I said that too.
It's interesting watching. Fly on the wall...
Jesse is letting me hang out and watch one of his other Instrument students fly the simulator. It's giving me grins because I see him exactly where I was in December. And hearing Jesse say the same things. Pretty good confidence booster.
"This thing is really touchy."
"Yep, if you can fly the simulator well the real aircraft will be easier."
I said that too.
It's interesting watching. Fly on the wall...
tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
supper was so yummy. and we had a great soaring flight. took off 6:10 landed 7:35. max altitude 7,300 MSL.
denverpilot
Tied Down
Saw your post that you forgot your data logger.
I put 1.0 of Safety Pilot in the logbook in the Debonaire tonight. Jesse flying. Jason came along too. Beautiful night here. Jesse flies a nice ILS.
Nice airplane. As always in a new aircraft I had to play the "how the hell does this seatbelt work?" game. I could be convinced to do the Commercial in it. Ha.
Back at the crash pad. Chatting with Karen on the phone. Sipping a cold Coke Zero.
I put 1.0 of Safety Pilot in the logbook in the Debonaire tonight. Jesse flying. Jason came along too. Beautiful night here. Jesse flies a nice ILS.
Nice airplane. As always in a new aircraft I had to play the "how the hell does this seatbelt work?" game. I could be convinced to do the Commercial in it. Ha.
Back at the crash pad. Chatting with Karen on the phone. Sipping a cold Coke Zero.
TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
Hope you get to knock it out this morning, Nate. Good skill (you won't need luck).
denverpilot
Tied Down
Thanks to my mahvelous CFII, Jesse... I have joined the League of Temporary Airmen!!!
He sent a text asking "How's it going?" right after we finished up. The answer was...
"It would appear that I owe you beers for the rest of my life!" LOL!
I arrived about 20 minutes early to pre-flight the airplane and ultimately that was a mistake but not a disqualifying one. See, that broke my usual pre-flight routine and guess what I left in?
You got it. The chocks. Son-of-a...!
Shutdown, get out. Pull them. Breathe deep. Calm nerves. Climb back in. Start checklist ALL the way over. (Not going to miss anything else damnit!!)
Ride went pretty good. During taxi/run-up the DME was Tango Uniform. This wasnt what I wanted to see. We decided to wait and see. I can fly the ride without it but damn... Maybe rain got into the antenna connection. Crud.
Takeoff is good, DPE lets me leave my hood up a little longer than Jesse so I get ahead of stuff. Radios were mostly set on the ground, double check all.
First up was the VOR 17 vectors to the VOR then the procedure after holding and entry from the hold. (The "tricky" one with the course change at the VOR inbound is first. Okay. Let's get it out of the way. The ILS 18 and LOC 18 are marginally easier!)
Departure gives me the usual heading of 010 at 3000. Yay. Write it down but this is "normal" so far other than the DME which is still TU. Yay for Foreflight for situational awareness!
Over the VOR the DME springs to life. Don't trust it yet. Outbound for 45 seconds to see if we can null out the wind on the first lap. Southeast wind meant 30 degree intercept was shallow but I saw on Foreflight that it would work. Well over a minute inbound. And intercept close in. Alright now we know how much to fix it on the next lap.
Outbound we go, 30 seconds this time which means dorking with my timer in the turn. I hate that. Ha. Turn comes quick, a little over a minute. Out we go.
DPE has me ask Approach to get a clearance to start the VOR 17 on the inbound turn. Here we go!
Reset DG, it's a little off. That's better. Big correction angle on the roll out. Needle slow but coming in. Contact Tower. I'm behind a little on the descent but it's coming. Down we go.
Hit the VOR and led the turn to the left just a smudge because I know the left course correction happens fast at the VOR. Got it! On down we go.
Airplane sinks a tad and I catch it right at MDA. Damn! Too close. A little buffer now. Good. Time's up, missed approach!
Tower gives us the new heading of 210 and 3500. Up and right.
Vectors to final for the ILS. DME has been happy now for a while. Yay!
Brief out loud, vectors are a shallow intercept with the wind 3 miles from the marker. DPE has sneakily turned the Marker audio off or just got tired of listening to it over the beacon on the last Approach. I turn it back on.
Needle centered now marker beacon starts beeping. Time to go down. DPE seems mildly miffed about something but he says he'll explain later. Ok.
Down we go. I chase left/right just a little bit. Not my best ILS but within standards. Not my worst either. DA, DPE says land. Remind myself this is the 200 foot wide runway, watch the flare! Touch and go. Climbing. Tower calls for right to 210 and 3000. Over to Departure.
DPE asks me to ask for a block altitude. Approach says "maintain VFR" with no restrictions. Past the airport northbound on vectors the DPE says "put your head in your lap."
He takes the airplane. Maneuvers. Here comes unusual attitudes. Head up. We're almost 90 off course in a descending left turn. Recover smartly to straight and level, establish a climbing right turn back to assigned heading. Piece of cake!
Brief the LOC 18. DPE asks me to request that with a Circle to Land 17. Okey dokey!
Here's where it gets a little funky. I learn why later. DPE asks me to reconfigure the aircraft for 17" MP and 10 flaps while outbound and "just fly it". Okay... 110 knots or so.
Controller turns us inbound (technically early because they change the approach plate since I was here last and the turn is depicted 12 miles out for the jets now. Nobody in Cessnas goes out that far, they vector you around the corner early. We even called Omaha Approach a few days ago and asked what they intended with that change. They don't really want slow aircraft doing a cross country at 90 knots.)
Somewhere in here he covered the DG and AI. Now I'm busy. New configuration. He also tells me to forget using my "egg timer" and to use the panel click on this one. Ouch. That thing is tiny and hard to read! I say "ok".
Inbound vector. Intercept. 6 miles out. Good. A little time at this faster speed to stabilize. Thank goodness. I joke that if the DPE can do this at 160, I can do it at 110. He laughs.
Looks good! Cool! Airplane feels tipped forward from the Approach flaps. I chase a little with pitch but manage to stay high. Good!
Over the marker the DPE is playing with high/low sensitivity setting on the marker beacon. It pops on beeping when he throws it to high. Okay down we go.
Reach for my "egg timer". He laughs and says "no". Argh! Note the sweep hand on the panel clock. Thank God Foreflight is there too. Pull power to 90 knot descent. He says, "leave it at 15 inches". Oh! Okay, quick re-look at speeds and guesstimate a 110 knot time that'll have me missed slightly early. Busy!
Down we come. Hauling butt. Well, for me anyway. Needle is hanging in there nicely. Yay. Level off and fart with the trim to get it not to go below. Whew!
Level for a bit, he says, hood up, land on 17. Holy crap. Almost finished and no "bad words" from the right seat yet.
Don't go below until you've move over there Nate I'm repeating to myself. Hold altitude. Left turn. Lined up. Okay power off, full flaps. Way high. Stick a slip in. He says "aww, you won't need that..." and chuckles. Round out, flare, touchdown a little past the markers. (I knew I needed that slip. Damn STOL kit floats!). Left crosswind... Rack the ailerons to the left stops.
He says nice things about my crosswind technique. Yay. (Nice to get some flowers.)
Taxi in. Shut down.
Review starts. No surprises. He then explains two things.
Marker beacon receiver is not sensitive enough on low, but starts too early on high. You're not quite there yet. Have it checked. "Yes sir!"
"Whoever put the STOL kit on this airplane didn't do you any favors. When you get slightly slow you can't correct it with pitch alone, I noticed you have to add a little power and then take it off again. It's not stable at 90 knots. Did you notice how much better it was with 10 flap and the higher power setting?"
Now that I think about it, yes.
"Do that. Go practice it. Fly your approaches faster with approach flaps out. It holds speed nicely at 18-19" MP."
A little more chit chat about the STOL and I pointed out no stall horn after all that slowing. He agrees. "It's great for one purpose, short and slow. But it's messing with you at 90 knots. Fly it a little faster, I think you'll like it."
He reaches out his hand across the cockpit and says, "Congratulations!"
I about jump out of the airplane. Yee haw!
We walk past a Duke on the way into the terminal and pause to talk. He has nothing nice to say about the Duke. "People buy these because they look sexy." Agreed.
Inside the FBO PC has decided it's not on the network. I ask to fix it. ipconfig /release ; ipconfig /renew - damn thing. It gets an address and I pull up IACRA.
Type type click. Wake up the printer. Temporary Airman Certificate comes out. Holy crap! It's done!
We chat a little more and he says he has a Private ride to give. Thank you's and pleasantries and I'm standing there with a disorganized pile of logbook, certificate, charts, and crud with a huge grin on my face.
Whoo hoo!!!
He sent a text asking "How's it going?" right after we finished up. The answer was...
"It would appear that I owe you beers for the rest of my life!" LOL!
I arrived about 20 minutes early to pre-flight the airplane and ultimately that was a mistake but not a disqualifying one. See, that broke my usual pre-flight routine and guess what I left in?
You got it. The chocks. Son-of-a...!
Shutdown, get out. Pull them. Breathe deep. Calm nerves. Climb back in. Start checklist ALL the way over. (Not going to miss anything else damnit!!)
Ride went pretty good. During taxi/run-up the DME was Tango Uniform. This wasnt what I wanted to see. We decided to wait and see. I can fly the ride without it but damn... Maybe rain got into the antenna connection. Crud.
Takeoff is good, DPE lets me leave my hood up a little longer than Jesse so I get ahead of stuff. Radios were mostly set on the ground, double check all.
First up was the VOR 17 vectors to the VOR then the procedure after holding and entry from the hold. (The "tricky" one with the course change at the VOR inbound is first. Okay. Let's get it out of the way. The ILS 18 and LOC 18 are marginally easier!)
Departure gives me the usual heading of 010 at 3000. Yay. Write it down but this is "normal" so far other than the DME which is still TU. Yay for Foreflight for situational awareness!
Over the VOR the DME springs to life. Don't trust it yet. Outbound for 45 seconds to see if we can null out the wind on the first lap. Southeast wind meant 30 degree intercept was shallow but I saw on Foreflight that it would work. Well over a minute inbound. And intercept close in. Alright now we know how much to fix it on the next lap.
Outbound we go, 30 seconds this time which means dorking with my timer in the turn. I hate that. Ha. Turn comes quick, a little over a minute. Out we go.
DPE has me ask Approach to get a clearance to start the VOR 17 on the inbound turn. Here we go!
Reset DG, it's a little off. That's better. Big correction angle on the roll out. Needle slow but coming in. Contact Tower. I'm behind a little on the descent but it's coming. Down we go.
Hit the VOR and led the turn to the left just a smudge because I know the left course correction happens fast at the VOR. Got it! On down we go.
Airplane sinks a tad and I catch it right at MDA. Damn! Too close. A little buffer now. Good. Time's up, missed approach!
Tower gives us the new heading of 210 and 3500. Up and right.
Vectors to final for the ILS. DME has been happy now for a while. Yay!
Brief out loud, vectors are a shallow intercept with the wind 3 miles from the marker. DPE has sneakily turned the Marker audio off or just got tired of listening to it over the beacon on the last Approach. I turn it back on.
Needle centered now marker beacon starts beeping. Time to go down. DPE seems mildly miffed about something but he says he'll explain later. Ok.
Down we go. I chase left/right just a little bit. Not my best ILS but within standards. Not my worst either. DA, DPE says land. Remind myself this is the 200 foot wide runway, watch the flare! Touch and go. Climbing. Tower calls for right to 210 and 3000. Over to Departure.
DPE asks me to ask for a block altitude. Approach says "maintain VFR" with no restrictions. Past the airport northbound on vectors the DPE says "put your head in your lap."
He takes the airplane. Maneuvers. Here comes unusual attitudes. Head up. We're almost 90 off course in a descending left turn. Recover smartly to straight and level, establish a climbing right turn back to assigned heading. Piece of cake!
Brief the LOC 18. DPE asks me to request that with a Circle to Land 17. Okey dokey!
Here's where it gets a little funky. I learn why later. DPE asks me to reconfigure the aircraft for 17" MP and 10 flaps while outbound and "just fly it". Okay... 110 knots or so.
Controller turns us inbound (technically early because they change the approach plate since I was here last and the turn is depicted 12 miles out for the jets now. Nobody in Cessnas goes out that far, they vector you around the corner early. We even called Omaha Approach a few days ago and asked what they intended with that change. They don't really want slow aircraft doing a cross country at 90 knots.)
Somewhere in here he covered the DG and AI. Now I'm busy. New configuration. He also tells me to forget using my "egg timer" and to use the panel click on this one. Ouch. That thing is tiny and hard to read! I say "ok".
Inbound vector. Intercept. 6 miles out. Good. A little time at this faster speed to stabilize. Thank goodness. I joke that if the DPE can do this at 160, I can do it at 110. He laughs.
Looks good! Cool! Airplane feels tipped forward from the Approach flaps. I chase a little with pitch but manage to stay high. Good!
Over the marker the DPE is playing with high/low sensitivity setting on the marker beacon. It pops on beeping when he throws it to high. Okay down we go.
Reach for my "egg timer". He laughs and says "no". Argh! Note the sweep hand on the panel clock. Thank God Foreflight is there too. Pull power to 90 knot descent. He says, "leave it at 15 inches". Oh! Okay, quick re-look at speeds and guesstimate a 110 knot time that'll have me missed slightly early. Busy!
Down we come. Hauling butt. Well, for me anyway. Needle is hanging in there nicely. Yay. Level off and fart with the trim to get it not to go below. Whew!
Level for a bit, he says, hood up, land on 17. Holy crap. Almost finished and no "bad words" from the right seat yet.
Don't go below until you've move over there Nate I'm repeating to myself. Hold altitude. Left turn. Lined up. Okay power off, full flaps. Way high. Stick a slip in. He says "aww, you won't need that..." and chuckles. Round out, flare, touchdown a little past the markers. (I knew I needed that slip. Damn STOL kit floats!). Left crosswind... Rack the ailerons to the left stops.
He says nice things about my crosswind technique. Yay. (Nice to get some flowers.)
Taxi in. Shut down.
Review starts. No surprises. He then explains two things.
Marker beacon receiver is not sensitive enough on low, but starts too early on high. You're not quite there yet. Have it checked. "Yes sir!"
"Whoever put the STOL kit on this airplane didn't do you any favors. When you get slightly slow you can't correct it with pitch alone, I noticed you have to add a little power and then take it off again. It's not stable at 90 knots. Did you notice how much better it was with 10 flap and the higher power setting?"
Now that I think about it, yes.
"Do that. Go practice it. Fly your approaches faster with approach flaps out. It holds speed nicely at 18-19" MP."
A little more chit chat about the STOL and I pointed out no stall horn after all that slowing. He agrees. "It's great for one purpose, short and slow. But it's messing with you at 90 knots. Fly it a little faster, I think you'll like it."
He reaches out his hand across the cockpit and says, "Congratulations!"
I about jump out of the airplane. Yee haw!
We walk past a Duke on the way into the terminal and pause to talk. He has nothing nice to say about the Duke. "People buy these because they look sexy." Agreed.
Inside the FBO PC has decided it's not on the network. I ask to fix it. ipconfig /release ; ipconfig /renew - damn thing. It gets an address and I pull up IACRA.
Type type click. Wake up the printer. Temporary Airman Certificate comes out. Holy crap! It's done!
We chat a little more and he says he has a Private ride to give. Thank you's and pleasantries and I'm standing there with a disorganized pile of logbook, certificate, charts, and crud with a huge grin on my face.
Whoo hoo!!!
Skylane81E
Final Approach
WAY TO GO!!!
Everskyward
Experimenter
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Everskyward
Cool! 
tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
congrats Nate!
Clark1961
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Jeanie
Pattern Altitude
You're rocking now, Nate, congrats!
Addicted2climbing
Pre-takeoff checklist
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Addicted2climbing
Congrats Nate... Great read again..
Can you elaborarte a bit more on why the STOL kit causes you problems? My goal one day is to own something with STOL ability, and I am curious if the downnsides mentioned affect flying a STOL equiped cessna in IFR or just the particular kit you have onyour 182..
Once again,
Congrats...
Marc
Can you elaborarte a bit more on why the STOL kit causes you problems? My goal one day is to own something with STOL ability, and I am curious if the downnsides mentioned affect flying a STOL equiped cessna in IFR or just the particular kit you have onyour 182..
Once again,
Congrats...
Marc
gprellwitz
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Grant Prellwitz
Congratulations, Nate!
dell30rb
Final Approach
Ha I remember the disorganized pile of crap after my last checkride. It was all strewn about on the table for the oral and airplane records check.. I just crammed it all into my flight bag and figured i'd deal with it later... too excited to sit down and organize things
And CONGRATS! Too many people fly for years and start/stop instrument training several times, but good for you and Jesse for getting it done. You won't regret it... get that ticket wet!
MDeitch1976
Line Up and Wait
Congratulations!
gkainz
Final Approach
Attaboy, Nate! Congrats! Nice writeup, too.
kimberlyanne546
Final Approach
Congratulations.
TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
Congrats!! Make sure you log that it took nine thread pages--NINE--to pass your checkride.
TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
saracelica
Pattern Altitude
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saracelica
Congrats!! Make sure you log that it took nine thread pages--NINE--to pass your checkride.
How many pages of Congratulations though!!
jjflys
Pre-takeoff checklist
Congrats Nate. So are you going to use your new ticket and file IFR on the way back to APA?
timwinters
Ejection Handle Pulled
Wooooooo.....effing.....whoooooooo!!! 
denverpilot
Tied Down
Congrats Nate. So are you going to use your new ticket and file IFR on the way back to APA?
Thanks all!
In answer to the above... Hell yes. FlightAware here I come!
Plan is an early morning departure tomorrow. Had some work stuff come up and then go away. Thought I might be on a conference call at 00:30 Central Time tonight but co-worker is back from his family emergency and offered to do this one.
Had late lunch with Jesse and chatted. He took the stock post-checkride "dork photo" of me next to the airplane. He can post it if he wants to.
(I suppose I should ask him to e-mail me a copy. And then hide it deep in my hard drive somewhere. Haha.)It was good to see Jesse, Jason, and MarkL (who now I won't forget next time!) ... see some of you at Gaston's or somewhere again, hopefully soon.
GMascelli
En-Route
CONGRATS!
denverpilot
Tied Down
From AOPA:
"Neb. Gov. Dave Heineman has declared May as "General Aviation Appreciation Month" for the state. "We applaud Governor Heineman for recognizing the significant contributions of general aviation to the state of Nebraska," said Selena Shilad, executive director of the Alliance for Aviation Across America."
Yeah...I will always think that May is a nice month to fly in Nebraska.
"Neb. Gov. Dave Heineman has declared May as "General Aviation Appreciation Month" for the state. "We applaud Governor Heineman for recognizing the significant contributions of general aviation to the state of Nebraska," said Selena Shilad, executive director of the Alliance for Aviation Across America."
Yeah...I will always think that May is a nice month to fly in Nebraska.
dhindmanjr
Filing Flight Plan
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doug_flys
Congrats Nate - I am familiar with that disorganized stare after a check-ride. I think you found me in a stupor after my PPL checkride. Well done PILOT - hurry home and the beer is on me.
AdamZ
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Adam Zucker
Calling it operation Butt freeze would now be a misnomer! Mazel Tov on the Pass Nate!
azure
Final Approach
Congratulations Nate!
Jim Logajan
En-Route
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.
Congratulations!
I'm flight aware stalking
saracelica
Pattern Altitude
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saracelica
Looks like he made it home!
denverpilot
Tied Down
First IFR Flight Debrief:
Waited for low IFR all along the route to lift this morning instead of leaving early.
Was watching for the window where the fog lifted along the route but the wind wasn't yet going to hit the 50 (!) knots that KBKF's meteorologists had in their TAF back home. (Centennial was more generous. And if the gusts at the house right now aren't over 40, I'd be amazed. Wicked out there right now.)
Transponder failed about 100 miles out of KLNK. Got to play 20-questions and mandatory reporting points all the way home.
Never saw it reply to anything after that.
FlightAware strangely has more "track" than the controllers did. Some is listed as "estimated" but not nearly as much as where the controllers said radar contact was lost.
All said they were only painting me as a Primary target from that point on. Crud.
DME also continued to be ultra-flakey (which wasn't so helpful with the controllers asking "where are you now?") and decided it would only show distances to VORs that were within about 25 miles.
Turned it off for about 1/2 hour and it worked again 50 miles out of Thurman and then freaked out again.
Suspected cause: Cockpit heat leak and taping up all the heater vents may be contributory.
Instead of keeping it cooler, it just spread all the heat evenly from the front. May have baked the avionics a bit. Going to try leaving the forward vents taped over but let the heat go to the back seat. Ugly hot.
So... need to see if one or both are now dead completely after that. Jesse joked that they gave their all and survived just long enough to do the ride.
We'll go see if they revive themselves when the airplane is cool again.
It may be time to just remove the heat ducting to the firewall for the summer. Dump it overboard. Sheesh.
Anyway. Other than that...
Some non-continuous patchy moderate turbulence from about 40 miles east of Thurman to Thurman, crossing the dry line there. And of course light chop from well before that. Expected but annoying.
Flight out to LNK was 3:09. Flight home was 4:18. Gotta live swimming upstream, Salmon-like. Trued out at 138... I was flogging the poor bird for all she was worth, but GS averaged just over 90 knots. Ugh! Haha.
Three controllers who all went through the trouble of confirming my Primary-only target later, and a vector from DEN TRACON direct APA (Since I'm /A I was filed to FQF and then the transition route to the ILS 35.) I had APA in sight. Cleared for the visual, controller said wind was "estimated 190 @ 17 G 29, cleared to land 17R". (17L/35R is closed for construction.
The "estimated" was interesting. Maybe the anemometer blew away.
It was nice of the controllers not to dump me out of the system and pretend my transponder would have a miraculous revival any moment. I appreciated their help in managing to make the whole flight under IFR.
Near E-470 and Arapahoe another lesson learned. One. Exactly one turbulence bump that even though the belt was "reasonably tight but not aerobatics tight", bounced me into the ceiling. No dent in ceiling or my noggin. But note to self: Crank seat all the way down in turbulence. Dummy. Oof.
Now we wait for the wind to die down to find out if the DME and/or Transponder are dead...
Still happy to have made the flight under IFR.
Oh... Funny... Forgot to mention I was filling out the flight plan in Foreflight and put "8500" for the altitude. Caught it before I hit "File"...
Ha. That's going to be a hard habit to break!
Waited for low IFR all along the route to lift this morning instead of leaving early.
Was watching for the window where the fog lifted along the route but the wind wasn't yet going to hit the 50 (!) knots that KBKF's meteorologists had in their TAF back home. (Centennial was more generous. And if the gusts at the house right now aren't over 40, I'd be amazed. Wicked out there right now.)
Transponder failed about 100 miles out of KLNK. Got to play 20-questions and mandatory reporting points all the way home.
Never saw it reply to anything after that.
FlightAware strangely has more "track" than the controllers did. Some is listed as "estimated" but not nearly as much as where the controllers said radar contact was lost.
All said they were only painting me as a Primary target from that point on. Crud.
DME also continued to be ultra-flakey (which wasn't so helpful with the controllers asking "where are you now?") and decided it would only show distances to VORs that were within about 25 miles.
Turned it off for about 1/2 hour and it worked again 50 miles out of Thurman and then freaked out again.
Suspected cause: Cockpit heat leak and taping up all the heater vents may be contributory.
Instead of keeping it cooler, it just spread all the heat evenly from the front. May have baked the avionics a bit. Going to try leaving the forward vents taped over but let the heat go to the back seat. Ugly hot.
So... need to see if one or both are now dead completely after that. Jesse joked that they gave their all and survived just long enough to do the ride.
We'll go see if they revive themselves when the airplane is cool again.
It may be time to just remove the heat ducting to the firewall for the summer. Dump it overboard. Sheesh.
Anyway. Other than that...
Some non-continuous patchy moderate turbulence from about 40 miles east of Thurman to Thurman, crossing the dry line there. And of course light chop from well before that. Expected but annoying.
Flight out to LNK was 3:09. Flight home was 4:18. Gotta live swimming upstream, Salmon-like. Trued out at 138... I was flogging the poor bird for all she was worth, but GS averaged just over 90 knots. Ugh! Haha.
Three controllers who all went through the trouble of confirming my Primary-only target later, and a vector from DEN TRACON direct APA (Since I'm /A I was filed to FQF and then the transition route to the ILS 35.) I had APA in sight. Cleared for the visual, controller said wind was "estimated 190 @ 17 G 29, cleared to land 17R". (17L/35R is closed for construction.
The "estimated" was interesting. Maybe the anemometer blew away.
It was nice of the controllers not to dump me out of the system and pretend my transponder would have a miraculous revival any moment. I appreciated their help in managing to make the whole flight under IFR.
Near E-470 and Arapahoe another lesson learned. One. Exactly one turbulence bump that even though the belt was "reasonably tight but not aerobatics tight", bounced me into the ceiling. No dent in ceiling or my noggin. But note to self: Crank seat all the way down in turbulence. Dummy. Oof.
Now we wait for the wind to die down to find out if the DME and/or Transponder are dead...
Still happy to have made the flight under IFR.
Oh... Funny... Forgot to mention I was filling out the flight plan in Foreflight and put "8500" for the altitude. Caught it before I hit "File"...
Ha. That's going to be a hard habit to break!
dhindmanjr
Filing Flight Plan
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Display name:
doug_flys
Sounds like an interesting flight. You might be right about APA losing its anemometer. I heard on liveatc that their wind instrument was down and they were using the ASOS for estimates. during the same exchange the NetJet declared a missed and then went to DIA to land. It is a bit sporty out there today.