A recent pair of Hope Air missions have let me experience a wide spectrum of instrument flying occurrences.

fly-though plane wash

In the typical drizzly fall weather, flying in clouds means flying through rain. Enough time and enough rain do wonders to clean off bug splats from the windshield. More than that, and the wings have a chance at a rinse. Even more, and we may have a hard time seeing out. A serious, long-lasting downpour can become a problem, eroding propellers and paint. Luckily GXRP had several rounds of the thorough-wash level of rain.

cruising in the sunshine, landing in glum

The simplest kind of IFR flying involves a visual departure, climing through a thin layer of cloud, cruising above in the sunshine for a while, then descending through the layer for a visual approach. Newly rated pilots enjoy these flights since they are pretty and not too challenging. I haven’t had many of them, until one of the subject flights, when I collected quite a burn on one shoulder from about 90 minutes of solid sun. The blanket of cloud not far below just helped reflect even more light back up.

At ground level, it was glum, gray, damp, drizzly, and to a non-pilot, quite possibly depressing.

departure queue jumping

Departing a non-radar airport IFR can test one’s patience, as faraway controllers must dedicate large spans of airspace to individual aircraft. Trying to leave Timmins on the 4th was particularly tiresome due to the conduct of others in the system.

I was first in the queue to depart, and almost received a clearance, when apparently some other airborne aircraft suddenly wanted to divert there. So I was put on hold until that plane was to come down. Then two other aircraft started up behind me, and because the weather was something like OVC008, also were waiting for IFR clearances. At some point, the dude in the rear had the clever idea to depart VFR and pick up his clearance airborne. Yes, pretend-VFR in OVC008 conditions, in not-entirely-flat terrain in class E controlled airspace. To my surprise, the controller approved it. Then of course the other dude also asked for and got it, and off he went. In each case, they were originally cleared to stay VFR for 20 miles. Yet in each case, the IFR controller gave them their clearance within a minute after take-off. From listening on several frequencies, it was obvious that their queue-jumping flight paths actually blocked me even longer on the ground, and there was no other traffic in the immediate area after all. This was rude of both the pilots (who almost certainly broke VFR limits) and the controller.

zigzagging between thunderstorms

I was eager for an early take-off during that same Timmins return leg, because a broad bunch of thunderstorms was between me and Toronto. The route was squeezed between a big fat L from the west/south, and a bit fat V from the east, with all the little branches blooming CBs. With the weather equipment on GXRP, I was able to plot a decent course between these dangerous areas, even advising the controller and one of the two queue-jumping dudes about my observations. Despite the elevated anxiety level during this maneuvering and rerouting, it was great to have all the equipment work, be consistent, and let me make sense of them. Here is a picture of the wall of storms, once I passed it, and another of the sunset.

contact approach at night

The delayed takeoff lead to a delayed arrival in Toronto that evening. The weather was misty, threatening to turn foggy. Because of the intended rush, I did not refuel in Timmins, leaving reserves of fuel close to minimum for the return flight. So several unfortunate conditions were developing by the time I was to arrive home: darkness, fogging up, gradual fuel discomfort. I did not want to do any unnecessary maneuvering – a full instrument approach into home base would have taken another fifteen minutes or more.

Luckily, even in very misty conditions, it is possible to tell apart Lake Ontario’s water from the lit-up shoreline. Crossing near Oshawa was a good time to ask for a contact approach, and follow the shoreline home for the final 20 miles. The sun had already set, and it took a lot of squinting to keep the water/land boundary in view. But a few minutes of squinting and GPS map confirming, I arrived at home. In the last few minutes, I heard that several airports went down to IFR conditions – strangely the Island was the last one still VFR that night.

There was even a flight student or two doing circuit practice in those terrible conditions. My hat’s off to their instructors, who must have deemed the increased risks worth the extra education under stress.

switching to VFR … temporarily

Jumping forward a week, returning from a trip to the Sault, my copilot and I decided that cruising above the clouds (see above) was too boring. Weather observations confirmed that VFR was possible all the way home. So about half way there, just over the Bruce peninsula (YVV VOR), we cancelled IFR, and dove down under the clouds to fly home low. The clouds were not that high – just a little beyond VFR minima, so we had to swerve around little airports, taller towers, and the like. But it was fun being on our own (not having to get an IFR controller’s approval for every turn), and to see trees, cows, cars so up close.

Up to twenty minutes before arrival, weather observations at the island indicated reasonable VFR conditions. But as we approached Buttonville, a sudden wall of low cloud enveloped entire Toronto. Proceeding further south was impossible VFR. So we sheepishly asked to get our IFR clearance “back” – or rather a whole new one. The radio was abuzz with people suddenly being unable to land at airports that until minutes ago were clear. That leads us to …

full autopilot-driven GPS+ILS approach

ILS precision approaches give the best chance of landing in crappy weather. Trouble is, there are not that many ILSs installed in the Toronto area, other than the ten or so at Pearson, one at Hamilton, and … one at the Island! But the one at the Island is special – only aircraft with special avionics are allowed to take that one, and the minima are not as low (advantageous) as usual (360 ft AGL instead of 200 ft).

The avionics requirements for this approach are roughly: a recent IFR GPS with some special features, a coupled autopilot, in addition to the ILS receiver. Since this past summer, GXRP has had all this equipment. This approach was special in that this was the first time that all that equipment came in not just handy, but necessary. We actually went a little farther than we had to, and let the autopilot fly the entire approach until short final. That darned old thing worked perfectly too. It was a wonderful feeling to have all that equipment, installed at great expense, work together to enable a landing at home base under difficult conditions (OVC005, 1.5SM). Without that equipment, I like others would have had to give up landing at home, and go to Pearson or a lot farther out.

missing

Only a few types of events enccuntered in serious IFR were not experienced during these flights:

• equipment malfunctions
• involuntary rerouting
• icing

• significant turbulence

I’ve had each of these happen before, thankfully in isolation, and they were not much fun.