Practice Instrument Flying with Darin
I've been exicited to do some instrument flying with the hood on. I asked Darin if he wanted to come along on Saturday and he said sure. Unfortunately the low clouds around Tacoma Narrows didn't permit us to shoot any VFR practice approaches. We decided instead just to practice flying around with the hood on while the other person gave vectors and looked out for traffic. We took turns and both got about a 1/2 our of simulated instrument time. Pretty fun althought it took a little getting used to. Probably the biggest difference is how the airplane feels at 90kts. (Approach speed)
We had such a good time we decided to give it another shot today. (Sunday) The weather was much better and I came up with a somewhat aggressive plan. I planned to fly the ILS 17 at Tacoma Narrows followed by some holds and then the LOC 17 approach. (The same thing I did a week or so ago but this time I would be wearing the hood.) Plus after the LOC 17 approach I'd climb to 4500ft and join the airway V27 and fly to Hoquiam and shoot their ILS 24 approach.
All in all it went great but I'm sure out of practice. The RV is very responsive compared to a 172 and it's pretty easy to over control. Wearing the hood while flying the airplane for over an hour was pretty challenging but a lot of fun. I'm just going to need a lot more practice.
I recorded the whole flight so I could check it out on Google Earth afterwards. Not too bad overall.
Zooming in you can see the sloppiness better especially in the holding pattern.
After the ILS at Hoquiam my brain was pretty spent so Darin flew us back home.
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