Hi everybody, happy to report that I did the IMC flight test today and passed! It went pretty smoothly... only two slight probs:
The first is that I had a choice between two aircraft, one with a "slightly dodgy AI" (reported to be sticking a bit in the pitch axis), and the other with no bug on the DI. I decided that living without a bug and having to remember my last selected heading was probably the lesser of two evils, and I would just have to manage with that - so we set used G-BODR.
The second problem was going to be the wind, which was forecast as having about a 25 knot tail-wind component on the ILS heading (215), so I'd have to keep up the rate-of-descent and the final phase would happen much more quickly than usual.
The drill was that I was to plan and fly to Cranfield, as if the examiner was just a passenger. I prepared a nice flight plan and all, but he didn't ask to see it. I had already booked my NDB/ILS approach at Cranfield, timed to be on the beacon at 15:00. As it turned out we were ready to go much earlier and the nice people at Cranfield TWR were happy to accomodate my request to bring it forward to 14:30. We ended up there about 10 mins earlier, but they managed to accomodate us by getting us to descend below some other chap who was joining the hold about then (thanks guys!).
Flew the club's unofficial "Westcott SID" to depart Wycombe, tracked to WCO, then turned and tracked to the CIT at Cranfield from where the approach begins at 3,500'. Got my clearance from CFD APP, copied the weather and readback the RWY in use and QNH. Because of the headwind, it seemed to take an age to reach CIT. A few times along the way the nice lady in the TWR asked me to transmit for VDF (no Radar at Cranfield) so she could guage my position and eventually this led to me being asked to descend to 2,500' before reaching the beacon. I added 30 seconds to the outbound leg time to account for the headwind for total of 3 minutes (cat A) and 20 degrees of drift heading. To my delight, it all worked out and I didn't end up passing through the centreline when turning to become established on the LLZ. So far it had all been quite leisurely but then, as expected due to the big tail-wind, it all started going a bit more quickly than usual and I was back at the beacon in no time and with 700fpm R.o.D. (versus usual 400 fpm) was above the glide slope... so back with the power and down with the nose for ~1,000fpm until I caught up with the glideslope. At least the crosswind was steady, requiring about 15 degrees into wind all the way down, so maintaining the centreline was mercifully easy in today's conditions! At 500' D.H. the screen was drawn back to reveal the runway dead ahead - happy days!
Climbed away on the go-around, up to 4,000' whilst routing VFR back to Wycombe via WCO and on the way back had the expected position fix, timed compass turns, partial panel, unusual attitudes, etc. All went well, I am pleased to report! Then screens down and VFR return to Wycombe. Happy Days indeed
!
So it was a pretty straightforward affair, nothing unexpected and generally easier than the lessons which had been generally taught to higher-than-test tolerances to ensure we are OK for the test.
Before I go, I must tell you about my previous lesson, which was not so straight forward and generally more dramatic... Although the test was booked, I had been told that I had to fly an additional 40 minutes prior to the test in order to have the requisite 15 instructional hrs required. I was scheduled for a 16:30 slot from Wycombe for this last training sortie, but the occlusion with the snow that headed our way from the west yesterday afternoon was also timed to be with us at about the same time, and TAF at Brize was indicating ~800' cloud base with it, so I figured the flight would not be on (no instrument approach at Wycombe). But when the boss landed back from a previous trip he said to go an get ready and wait in the a/c, which I did. We had signs of carb-ice at the hold, but cleared it all OK. I asked if I should be concerned about icing, but the boss said that "as snow is already frozen it won't stick" and it seems he knows what he is talking about (!) as we had no ice form on the wings during the flight.
We climbed out just as the snow shower arrived - no need for the panels as we were straight into the soup by ~400' and I did not see anything much again until we landed. I found I had an incredibly persuasive case of the leans - seemed to be due to the long climbing turn involved in this SID, being in real IMC, and feeling nervy due to what we could hear of other people's problems below us (more on this below). Once levelled off at 3,500', we headed out towards Westcott as planned but when we didn't pop out of the side of the shower and could not out-climb it given the airspace, the boss said we'd have to head back so we got a radar service from Farnborough and tracked towards CPT to pick up a radial that would take us back to the field.
As we were doing this, the RT back at Wycombe became very busy - and was at times frightening to listen to. Three aircraft were VFR and trying to return to the field, where by now the cloudbase in the snow shower was ~300' or worse. Two were PPL's returning from cross countries to the east, and must have thought twice about continuing to Wycombe but seemingly the snow shower and low cloud engulfed them just as they had nearly made it back... the other aircraft was an instructor and student on a training detail. One of the returning a/c and the training flight made it back by whatever means they could, both eventually seeing the field at about 1/2 mile. But the third chap, apparently returning from Cambridge, seemed to really be in dire straights... he was unable to tell TWR his position, so they got him to call D&D on 121.5 for a position fix and vectors for the approach to Wycombe RWY 06... twice he called back to Wycombe TWR but apparently either couldn't see the airfield, or saw it too late and was too high to land, and so back into the soup... in the end he had to call back to D&D on 121.5 three times and on the thrid attempt made it back into Wycombe - lucky boy...!
So, back to us in our Warrior at 3,500' heading to CPT... we turned to intercept CPT radial 070 which takes you back to Wycombe at about 17dme. By now it was pitch dark because even though it was not yet official night, the black clouds that had brought the snow showers had blocked out all of what remained of the daylight. The boss had me descend first to 2,500' then to 2,000 then to 1,500 (about 1000' aal) and then we could jst make out some lights below. For me this was a useful lesson: I found I was so badly tempted to look out the side windows to see the odd house light that I was very quickly - frighteningly so - in a descending turn towards where I was looking: even though I had only looked away from the instruments for a fraction of a second I thought. After the second time (and a growl from the boss!) I decided I'd just keep my head inside the cockpit for now..! The boss had me orbit at 1,500 while he confirmed our position as Henley (bend in the river, town) and got me to say bye to Farnborough, and call Wycombe inbound from Henley with 4 miles to run.
No way could we see Wycombe, but an orangey-glow ahead just might be the red APAPI's? We headed for this, whilst stil ltracking CPT070. I found looking ahead to keep my eye on this glow (fleetingly, then back to instruments!) was difficult because of the dazzling effect of the snow-flakes rushing towards me and illuminated by the beam of the landing light. As we got closer to the glow, I could see a couple of red lights further ahead that looked more like they might be APAPI's, and then passed overhead the glow which turned out to be a big bonfire in some back yard! Now we could see the APAPI's, but not the runway (the runway lights were on, but they are not designed for such low-vis conditions as these!)...
Eventually, at about 1 mile, and with the cloud-base by now improved to about 600' aal but still snowing, the runway heaved into view and I was able to call final. The boss said "make this a touch and go"... the man in the TWR thought we were mad, but said "if you insist" and so we did 4x "real" bad weather circuits before finally landing!
All good character building stuff, and a great experience I would not want to have missed - but I was glad the boss was along for the ride as I am only about 75% sure I would have got myself back in those conditions. In practice I would have diverted to Cranfield as the weather wouldn't have yet reached them, or if I couldn't out-run it I would have headed for Brize and asked for a vectored SRA or PAR approach I guess.
So I hope you might find this of interest - all the best to everyone and I look forward to hearing more from the rest of you, especially OBSCop when you do your test - good luck!
Andy
