Instrument Student's Log
Part Eighteen

Flights 35-40

Flight 35: Sat, Apr 19. (1.5 / 4.8 / 60.6)

I hadn't done approaches at Lakeland in three weeks, and it showed today. We flew in the middle of the afternoon, and the air was bumpy. It's hard to do approaches while riding a roller coaster. Most of the time I was fighting updrafts and had trouble maintaining altitude or descending. I did two VOR approaches, one of them partial panel, and one ILS approach.

Flight 36: Sun, Apr 20. (.8 / 4.8 / 61.4)

I flew with another instrument instructor today as a sort of stage check. Again it was bumpy and windy. I did the ILS approach twice. The first try was awful, and the second was a little better.

Then I did a VOR approach that was good, except that I flew right past the VOR at the beginning without realizing it. I tried the ILS for a third time, not quite as bad as the first two.

Flight 37: Mon, Apr 21. (1.2 / 4.8 / 62.6)

Tonight we tried the ILS approach several times. They were better than the last two flights, but not as good as a month ago. The typical pattern was to get established nicely on the localizer and within a dot or so on the glideslope until about 500 feet above the minimum, and then lose it.

I used to be able to do that ILS approach well, and now I'm getting pretty frustrated. Some things that I am improving at are intercepting the localizer, realizing when I've gone through it, and noticing when the ADF flips at the outer marker (a signal to start the timer and make a radio call, as if I didn't have enough to do already). I ended the last approach with a circle-to-land manuever that my CFII said was good.

Flight 38: Tues, Apr 22. (1.3 / 4.8 / 63.9)

We did the usual group of approaches tonight- the ILS twice, then the NDB and finally the VOR partial panel. All of them were a little better than last time. We ended with intersection holding.

Flight 39: Wed, Apr 23. (1.4 / 4.8 / 65.3)

This flight was an improved repeat of last night's. A cold front passed through in the afternoon, and the wind was strong at altitude, which didn't help, especially with the partial panel work.

I'm getting tired from all these evening flights after work, which is probably why I got a little disoriented near the end. I was tracking a VOR radial to the intersection, and the airplane started turning, but I didn't realize it.