At the start of every spring every instrument pilot who lives in the northern part of the country has to shake the dust off those old skills and take them out for a spin. I finally did that last night with a quick flight from bedford, down to hartford and back again. Three instrument approaches, the LDA (strangely named "Localizer-Type Directional Aid") at Hartford, a GPS approach up at Barnes and back to do the ILS at Bedford. Some things that I learned:

• 10 minutes is not enough time to get ready for an approach. The GPS approach didn't go well because I just didn't have time to get familiar and by the time I was ready to brief myself I was already on top of the final approach fix. Don't be afraid to ask for delaying vectors.
• Make use of the autopilot if it's there.
• I need to spend more time with approach plates, just to get familiar with reading them again. (Where is that damn MDA?)
• I need to work on holds.
• I need to do a little more work with the GPS receiver to get familiar with the procedures for the missed approach on a GPS approach.
• Loading an approach into the GPS, even if it's a non-GPS approach, makes all the difference in the world in terms of your positional awareness. Yet another workload reducer.

All in all, not too bad. I need a little more work but I should be good to go.