My Second IFR Approach Flight

My instructor suggested we do two approaches. We would fly the FREES6 departure from Santa Rosa (STS), then direct to Scaggs Island VOR (SGD) for the transition to the Napa Loc 36L approach. We would go missed at Napa, which would bring us back to SGD. Since SGD is one of the transition routes to the STS ILS-32, this would be the beginning of IAP number two.

When I received my instructor’s email explaining the above lesson plan my first reaction was – “say what”? Trying to wrap my head around this plan sent synaptic fireworks off in my brain. I re-read his email in the hope that everything I had already learned would somehow fall into place. I hoped I would have an epiphany where all the complex ramifications would simply reveal themselves to me in a calming light of singing angels.

It didn’t happen. I was gripped with a sinking feeling of self-doubt and angst.

Hell, I have doubts about my ability just to fly the simple departure procedure. How can I even hope to learn everything I will need to know to fly this lesson plan? Even if I do manage to “learn” this on paper and MSFS, there is no way I’ll actually be able to fly it. At least not with foggles on, no moving map GPS and with ATC constantly yapping at me.

“You are too stupid to fly IFR. Quit now, Gary,” said one of the voices in my head.

I decided to begin with the flight plan. I know enough to realize that, although I will be doing only one landing, I will need to file two flight plans. I start up AOPA Internet Flight Planner and create the two flight plans. I include the various intersections, pick appropriate altitudes and print out the Nav logs, charts and flight plans for each flight. Now what?

I decide to review each step of the flight. I print out the current version of the FREES6 departure procedure, the APC Loc 36L approach plate and the STS ILS 32 approach. I try to memorize as much as I can. After 30 minutes I find I can remember the names of the procedures but not much else. I decide a highlighter, identifying the important parts, might help me pick out the information quickly when I need it.

Over the next week I fly all or parts of the plan on MSFS a number of times. Slowly I start to have some understanding of what’s involved. Yet, even with the pause button, I still get behind the plane. As the day for my flight approaches I comfort myself with the thought that, “Actually flying the plane will be much easier than flying the simulator”. Two minutes into the actual flight I realized the fallacy of that concept.

I arrive at the FBO and proudly proclaim to my flight instructor that I have done my homework! I have a ream-and-a-half of print-outs, charts, flight plans, logs, full size approach plates, checklists and a 98 page DUATS weather briefing. It all fits neatly on my 81/2x14 clipboard along with my electronic E6B, post-it holder, tethered pencil and Johnny Quest flashlight. I’m thinking my instructor must be impressed, but for some reason his eyes seem to roll back into his head. Probably a touch of vertigo from his last lesson, I’m thinking.

In the plane my instructor coaches me on how to request our IFR clearance from the ground controller. He advises me to be ready to copy the clearance. No problem. Since I filed the flight plan, I already know what the clearance is going to be, right?

“34777 I have your clearance,” says ground control.

“Go ahead”, I say calmly waiting for the familiar words to flow into my headset.

“34777 is cleared to Napa via hjjkjlk;k, then tnfkgfke, sdfsd;lk, squawk fdk;fskd;f.”

“What did he say? Did you get any of that?” I ask my CFII.

“Yep”

“But it’s not what I filed for. I haven’t studied that. I don’t even know what he was talking about,” I whine.

“Welcome to IFR,” says CFII.

“Did he say right turn-out on departure?”

“Yep”

“But that’s not a departure procedure or an low altitude route. How does he know I won’t hit a mountain or something else?” I ask, thoroughly confused.

“Because it’s CAVU and I don’t have foggles on,” explains the CFII like I’m some kind of idiot. Not an idiot-savant, just a plain old idiot.

We were radar vectored all the way to the localizer at Napa. This possibility had never even crossed my mind.

From the moment we left the runway at STS I had absolutely no idea where I was. I was following the controller’s headings and altitude changes which seemed to come every thirty seconds. The mountain of paperwork, charts and paraphernalia I had carried on my clipboard became a serious distraction. There was too much stuff and I couldn’t find what I needed when I needed it.

I tried to glance at my three-inch diameter, circa 1990, Apollo GPS to figure out where I was.

“I’m lost,” I declare to my CFII after the radio is silent for a few moments.

“Look at your GPS,” he says.

“I am, but I don’t have enough time to look at it, think about what it’s telling me and still fly the plane,” I say.

When we intercepted the localizer I still couldn’t grasp where I was and what I was supposed to be doing next. My instructor calmly spoon-fed me what I needed to know.

I think that’s when I realized how much I still had to learn. I also realized the only real way to learn this was sitting in the pilot’s seat and trying to do it. I think this realization helped calm me down and I decided I would just do the best I could and let my flight instructor help with the rest.

When we reached 360 feet on the final approach to 36L at Napa, my instructor told me to take off the foggles. The runway was in front of me and I could have made a normal landing. However, I felt no real elation since I knew that I had never really been in control of the approach. I was flying the plane without any sense of situational awareness.

We called “missed approach” and began the turn to the Scaggs Island VOR. I had flown this transition route many times on flight simulator. I couldn’t use the same excuses I had for the radar-vectored Napa approach. I knew where I was now and where I was going.

Unfortunately, that didn’t help me very much. I still felt like I was a mile behind the plane. I didn’t do too badly on the ILS. I was able to keep both of the needles from getting too far off center. The foggles came off at decision height and I was able to make a fairly normal landing.

After the flight my flight instructor spend some time suggesting how I could minimize and simplify my cockpit organization. He gave me some words of encouragement as well. I felt he had bailed me out when I needed it, kept quiet when I didn’t and never got annoyed with my performance.

In retrospect I learned a lot from the flight. I learned there is no substitute for actually flying IFR. I learned I need to practice the basics of instrument flight. I learned that an IFR flight is not something you can just plan in advance like a VFR flight. Somehow you have to have a general plan but still have the overall situational awareness to deal with the enroute changes from ATC. I learned I need to practice reading the GPS and picturing my location in relation to the waypoint.

I have a very long way to go….

Gary