Yet another instrument lesson today. The weather was questionable
because we had just had a huge ice and snow storm go through, and
its remnants are still in the area. There was a good bit of
reported icing in the area as well as a warning for some
turbulence. However, the ceilings were high enough so that we
could get a little bit of practice in and do a couple of
approaches.
During my VFR training we did some recovery from unusual
attitutes, including some with partial panel, and it was the only
time that I ever was uncomfortable in the plane. Well, we did
some more of it today and it was, yet again, uncomfortable. We
stopped because I wasn't feeling all that hot. Doing it partial
panel didn't help, either. Speaking of which, my first recovery
from a nose high attitude didn't go well, either. I
overcontrolled and essentially pointed the plane at the ground.
As my instructor pointed out, “You had the VSI pegged.” A first
for me. I didn't know you could get a Warrior to do -2000ft/min.
I don't think I've ever actually had the pitch at quite that low
attitude before. (“Look! It's a lake! And it's it's getting
much bigger!”)
In any case, we did some timed turns as well as some other partial
panel-related climbs and descents. From there we called up boston
approach and did some no-gyro vectoring – also a new one for me.
It's kind of neat. Since your gyro is broken instead of giving
you headings (“Turn right to zero-seven-zero”) they say things
like “start a turn to the left” and “stop your turn” when you're
supposed to be on the right heading. It's all quite civilized.
Boston vectored me around and I did the localizer 29 approach into
Bedford. Normally this would have been a full ILS approach, but
Bedford's glide slope was out of service, so I had to fly it as a
localizer-only approach. Doing this without a DG or AI is pretty
challenging, I have to say. But it's excellent practice. In the
end I ended up slightly left of the centerline, but it wasn't a
bad approach.
On the next pass around my instructor reached over and slapped a
cover on my airspeed indicator. What fun! So now all I have left
is a tach, an altimeter, a VSI and a compass. Oh, yeah. And a
turn coordinator. At least I had that. Anyway, other than having
some trouble maintaining the right altitude, it went pretty well.
And had a decent landing to finish the day.
Whew. I'm tired.
