FLYING ANGELS AROUND AND OUTSMARTING THE WEATHER

or

“I Love It When A Plan Comes Together!”

Part One

I am glad I made the flight. There was brief hesitation about the weather at the location where the Angel Flight pick-up would occur, and timing was important for the return trip to KFMN, but more details on that later.  The situation was right, and it was time to overcome some jitters, and get into the game.

Anyone who has played sports, a musician who has played a concert, and many public speakers all suffer a bit from pre-game jitters.  Once the game is on, so to speak, the jitters go away, and the event becomes fun and memorable.  Flying has its days that are that way as well.  This is a story about one of those days for me as I dealt with instrument conditions to provide a charity flight.

For a pilot to receive an instrument rating, he must have a certain number of flying hours, have flown with an instructor to receive specific training, and passed a check-ride with a Federal Aviation Administration examiner.  Flying by instruments means that one flies the aircraft only by referencing the instruments on the control panel and without outside references.   See the Glossary provided in RizAir Blog 2 for more definitions and details. https://rizair.blog/2018/06/20/if-youre-going-to-hang-with-the-natives-ya-gotta-learn-the-lingo-a-k-a-aviation-alphabet-soup/.

After passing the check-ride, the pilot must remain “current”; that is, he must fly within a six-month period six instrument landing approaches, perform holds at specified locations (flying ovals in the air to wait your turn to try the approach again or fly to your alternate landing site), and other maneuvers.  Living in the Southwest, actual instrument flight rules (IFR) flights can be difficult to come by, so we do practice approaches “under the hood “; the hood being a view limiting device that prevents one from seeing out the window.  These flights are accomplished with a safety pilot watching outside for the view-limited pilot.

Angel Flight is a charitable organization that organizes flights through volunteer pilots for the benefit of non-emergency medical patients.  The pilots pay the expenses of the flight, and the flights, generally, fly the patient to or from a treatment location.  Here in the Four Corners area of New Mexico we are under the authority of two Angel Flight sub-sections: Angel Flight West, based in Santa Monica, California, and Angel Flight South Central, based out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  This Angel Flight involved the transport of a patient with severe asthma and her mother back home for a few days of respite from treatment in Denver, Colorado, and it was set up by Angel Flight West.  Check them out at these links: http://www.angelflightwest.org/ and http://www.angelflightsc.org/.

Any pilot worth his salt is a bit of a weather junkie.  Visibility, cloud layer bottoms, cloud layer tops, wind, rain, snow, ice, etc., or the lack thereof, affect every flight because, no matter the conditions, good, bad, or indifferent, once the wheels leave the ground, an airplane is flying “in” weather.

The weather forecast the night before the flight showed that a cold front with low clouds was stalling out just north of Denver.  Low clouds, with bases 200 to 800 feet above the ground were forecast, but no icing.  The front was predicted to stay north of Denver and the weather at Centennial Airport (KAPA) was supposed to be calm, cool, and clear. (CAVU – clear air, visibility unlimited).  I notified the angels I would pick them up at 8:30 a.m., and that I would depart KFMN at 6 a.m.

Up early on the morning of the flight.  Guess what?  The weather guessers missed it again!  The front had moved south overnight, and KAPA was now showing 200 feet overcast.  The rest of the route looked very good.  The weather guessers did forecast that the clouds would lift to 800-1000 feet above ground level by 10 a.m. and would be breaking up as the day advanced.

I called the angels and bumped the pick-up time back to 10:30 a.m.  Because of the delay, timing now became a critical factor.  Scattered cumulous cloud build-up (the harbinger of thunderstorms) was forecast for later in the day, and they were particularly fond of building up in La Veta pass near Alamosa, Colorado where my flight path would take me.  So, the plan was to shoot the approach into Centennial, pick up the passengers, and head out before the T-storms become a factor. A few nerves were present since it had been some time since I had flown an actual approach instead of a simulated one.

As I prepare for engine start a little before 8 a.m., I put on my “nose hose” (nasal cannula) and make sure the portable oxygen tank I use is set up and ready to use.  Engine start, listen to ATIS, and call for clearance via the instrument flight plan I had filed.  “N39707 cleared to the Centennial Airport as filed.” Things are going good so far.

The first leg towards Alamosa and La Veta Pass was at 15,000 feet. CAVU.  Beautiful day, no turbulence, and a pretty good tailwind to boot. What a great day to fly!

Making the turn towards Pueblo, I could see the peculiar nature of this front.

Pueblo was reporting clear and calm, but looking to the north, east, and south, I could see a low layer of puffy, white clouds all around the airport.  Important reminder here: Airport weather is a report of weather immediately around the airport.  Automated weather at airports takes account of just a sliver or cone of the sky immediately above the measuring device, so automated weather can only account for weather immediately above the machine.

At Pueblo, the flight plan is altered by Denver Center to take me direct to Falcon VOR.  Falcon VOR? That is beyond my destination, why are they doing that?  But good IFR pilots follow directions and trust ATC knows what they are doing (but you verify!).  A lower altitude request was granted so that I could turn off the O2 and save it for the return flight.

Heading on the beeline for Falcon VOR, I crossed just to the east of Colorado Springs.  Initially KCOS was reporting low IFR, but as I approached it the controllers were clearing visual (non-instrument) landings into the airport.  Looking out the window, I was thinking, I hope the pilot does not have to go around!  The main runway was clear, but not a half mile off the north end of the runway, a low scuzzy layer was sitting there waiting to gobble up some unsuspecting pilot on a go around.  Once again, the rule: Airport weather is weather over the airport.  There might be IFR conditions just outside the reporting boundary.

Getting close to the destination.  KAPA is reporting 500 overcast (OVC) and 1. 5 miles visibility.  300 foot lower than forecast and about a mile to mile and a half lower visibility.  Light mist was reported.  Runway 35 ILS is in use.  Load up the approach in the GPS.

ILS stands for instrument landing system.  The “approach” provides two elements of guidance: 1. Horizontial directional towards the runway, the “localizer”, and 2. vertical navigation, called the glideslope.  The localizer keeps you on a straight path to the runway, and the glideslope guides you in an exacting path toward the ground that will place your touchdown on the runway at just about 1000 feet from the numbers on the runway.

As the plane approached the Denver area, Denver Approach started issuing radar vectors to place me on the ILS 35 approach.  Now it was making sense!  The route to Falcon VOR put me on a line from which ATC could vector me at an approximately 45 degree angle to the approach.

Down we go into the cloud tops near 9000 feet above sea level “MSL”(3500 – 4000 feet above the ground “AGL”).  Pitot heat on, approach loaded in the system and ready, pre-landing checklist complete.  Walk in the park coming up.

“N39707, cleared for the runway 35 ILS, Centennial Airport, maintain 9000 until established on the localizer, localizer intercept 5 miles ahead.”

Intercept the localizer, autopilot latches on, but wait, where are the glideslope indicators?  They never appeared.  Plan B – shoot the localizer only approach.  The localizer approach has higher minimums because there is no vertical guidance, but I just might make it!

Gear down, flaps one, power back, descent under way.  Still no glideslope.  Ground contact – I can see the ground, but forward visibility is still in the clouds. Descent continues. I am just about at the missed approach point/decision height. I am reaching for the throttle to go missed, when, boom, I broke out of the clouds and there was an airport right below me with the nose right on the center line.

Pull power to get down, final item review, and touchdown!  I so wish I had video.  There is nothing quite like breaking out of the clouds and suddenly the airport is right there in front of you.  As I taxied into the ramp, wisps of thin, small fog rolled past me, but the mist had stopped.

Fueled at the self-service station, and then went to the terminal to pick up my passengers.  They were there waiting eagerly. The return trip – well the adventure continues – and that is a story for the next blog.

A few thoughts to ponder. It is good to practice and practice again a wide variety of things, but we don’t know all that practice means anything unless we go out and do what we trained to do.  This is true of sports, music, war, and flying.

Good preparation and good practice make for good outcomes.  I was thrown a curveball when the glideslope did not appear, but was prepared to immediately fly the localizer approach instead.  I had studied and was prepared for the weather to be worse than originally forecast, and had an alternate landing location planned.   Finally, I did not force the flight earlier in the day.  I studied the newest forecasts, bumped back the arrival into KAPA to account for the new forecast, and as discussed in the next blog, adapted once again as I watched the weather playout.

Upon returning home, I began researching why the glideslope did not appear.  The Garmin 430W should have autoswitched the CDI from GPS to the radio once I was established on the approach.  The guys at FlyingLikeThePros had the answer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5joEIGWF7xc&index=8&list=PLkVESy0CJFdyKHG1n0xkMyR9azEQkIddo/   I received a “slam dunk” vector which creates autoswitch problems.  The King autopilot has problems in a few situations as well.

We should always be learning as pilots and not let our questions regarding problems go unanswered.

Next time: Thank Goodness for Turbo-charged Engines!

Clear Skies and tailwinds!

RizAir – Blog #5