Instrument Lesson #2: Scan and ILS

Earlier today I flew on my second instrument lesson. Alex was unavailable at the last minute, so Pete (different Pete than during my private training) joined me for the flight. After some initial turns, climbs, and descents under the hood, he thought I was doing well enough to start throwing more my way. He set me up for a hold at the Chicago Heights VOR (CGT), which I executed pretty well for my first time out—but I can see that I’ll need lots of practice with these to get to PTS. The stiff crosswind was a factor.

Then we shot the ILS 30 approach at Gary (GYY). I didn’t have an Indiana approach book on me, so Pete gave me the vectors, altitudes and nav frequencies. Gary’s tower can’t approve instrument approaches, but the controllers have told Midway Aviators to simply request a “long, straight-in VFR approach” and they’ll know what we’re doing. I narrowly avoided full deflection down on the indicator. I was high and a little to the right when I got to 1,300 ft and Pete had me look up at the field. I had to spend a few seconds looking around for the runway since it wasn’t directly ahead of me. I can tell that the transition from instruments to visual approach will be a skill on which I’ll need to spend some time.

We landed, topped off our tanks, and Pete had me perform a 0/0 take-off. Whee! That’s fun! I was straying a little to the right of the center line so Pete had to make one correction for me, but I can see that’s it’s not going to be too hard—just a matter of practice.