Critique of an IFR flight from WVI Background: clouds are 1500 overcast with tops at 2300. A fairly quiet morning. Weather is clear 50 miles vis south of SNS. Haze to the west makes flight to the west over the ocean disorienting with 10 miles vis but no horizon to the front. On the ground: Got the WVI PID, but the ILS at MRY is not in service. Since it's 1500 at MRY, they're using the LOC DME for 28L so they can't have the ILS on at the same time. This is because the jets can't fly with a tailwind. When there's wind, it's from the SW, and blows the clouds higher, so MRY uses the LOC DME for 28L. If there's no wind, the mist may be very low, but there's no tailwind, so 10R ILS is used. We accepted WVI PID, but the ADF was inoperative. Since the PID requires ADF, in the initial request say "negative ADF" and ATC gives an alternate departure, usually "upon entering controlled airspace fly heading 200, climb 3000, expect vectors SNS VOR13". What this means is: take off and until 700AGL (start of E airspace), terrain and traffic separation is your responsibility. After that, if you lose comms, you're on a heading to intercept the VOR13 SNS approach, so you'd just fly it. Takeoff and initial intercept: takeoff was fine, vectors good to the approach course. Then ATC said 10 miles from SAMES cleared VOR13 approach. Since we're within 10 miles from SAMES, the plate says we're past SEWOF and can go to 1600. From 3000 start the descent as soon as possible, otherwise it's very hard to get down in time. 500-800 ft/min descent to get down. Past SAMES: ATC hands us off to tower. If we wanted MRY approach to ID SAMES for us, we'd ask before the handoff, since SNS tower has no radar. We get the handoff because we're entering the D airspace. If it's IFR, tower wants to know our missed, but doesn't care about anything else since there is no other traffic. If it's VFR the tower will ask you for SAMES because they have to deconflict you with VFR traffic in the airspace, and tower may ask for your DME along the way to help sequence traffic. On the VOR13 SNS missed: Aviate, navigate, communicate. The missed is 1.0 DME, about 0.6 from the end of the runway. Start the climbing turn and get to 1000AGL before calling anyone. Anytime the plane is moving below 1000AGL, it's a critical phase of flight (taxi, takeoff, missed, or landing). Don't initiate communications during a critical phase of flight, and if they call you, say "busy, stand by." Reduce your workload. Don't let ATC distract you. They only care about traffic. You are responsible for terrain separation. Call the missed once above 1000AGL. Turning 30 degrees past heading and responding to ATC is wrong, flying the heading and responding late to the radio is right. On vectors for ILS 31 SNS: Use the time to get the updated weather and ID the navaids. 22 miles out is a lot of extra time. If you like, use the memory aid "weather, panel, brief." Get the weather to figure out if it's circle or straight in. Keep in mind ATC may ask for a circle when you wanted a straight in (they can't clear you for a tailwind or crosswind runway unless you ask them.) Then get the panel set up. Scan left to right, and ID the navaids. Don't forget to ID the DME as well. If you use ADF, keep the volume turned up to hear it for the whole time you use it, since ADF has no nav flags to warn you if it goes out. Finally, brief the approach and the missed approach. You can brief the straight in and the circle minimums, and the LOC only vs. ILS minimums, or you can just brief what you want to fly and if anything else happens, just fly the missed (simpler and safer). On the ILS: At first you intercepted the VOR 310 radial. When the GS flag showed, you figured out you hadn't flipped the ILS and VOR freq. To track, notice the trend of the needle movement, not if it is centered. If it's moving left, make it stop moving, but don't try to center it immediately. You can fly the whole approach with the needles unmoving but 1/4 deflected, and this will be fine. Just get the needles stable. The trick to keep from S turning through the needle is to use half of the last correction you flew for the next heading correction. If you fly 12 degrees left of course to get the needle moving towards the donut, once it's centered, take out 6 degrees of correction. Then if the needle still moves, correct it by half of that (three degrees). Three degrees is two seconds at half standard rate (use half standard rate turns once the needle is alive). Once you have a pretty good heading (the needle moves slowly or not at all) make all corrections in three degree increments (two seconds at half-standard rate turn). For no-gyro, use half-standard turns once on the approach, and use 8 seconds (12 degrees) for the first correction, 4 seconds (6 degrees) for the second correction, and 2 seconds (3 degrees) for all the remaining corrections. You can count out loud if it helps. Keep in mind that standard rate is 3 degrees per second, so half standard rate is 1.5 degrees per second, or 3 degrees per 2 seconds. Tower asked you to report the outer marker (he wants to know if you're entering the D airspace). The marker never beeped, so you reported 2.5 miles. Instead, scan the DME also, and know that SNS tower really just wants to know when you enter the D airspace. On the ILS missed: All ILS approaches have a missed that says "climb to XXX' then climbing turn..." Notice you must climb straight on the missed for a little while before making any turns. Since you are at 200 AGL at the missed, it makes sense to climb straight for a bit before turning so you don't hit the control tower. For any approach, including the ILS, if you climb to 1000AGL before making any turns or calling ATC, you will be safe, but especially on an ILS make sure to climb straight to the briefed altitude before turning. On vectors to WVI LOC 2: When flying 270, ATC said "fly 280", and you said back "right turn 280" and he said "negative, I said fly heading 280." Minor point, but if the correction is less than 30 degrees, ATC generally won't say right or left. This is because they can only see your ground track, not your heading, so they can't tell if the heading they're about to give you is left or right of your current heading. If ATC says right or left and it's the wrong way, you might think you're getting a 360 for spacing and do the wrong thing. On that note, ATC generally only gives heading vector changes of 30 degrees or more and (except for really windy days) will always intercept you at a 30 degree angle or less to the final approach course. So you'll get 345 degrees or 045 degrees as intercepts for the WVI LOC 2 (015 degrees) approach. Whenever you get a vector that is 30 degrees from your final approach course, expect the needle to come alive soon. Flying 280 west: ATC gave you a right turn to 320, you started a roll right, and by the time you responded to ATC, the roll had exceeded 45 degrees with a 15 degree nose down. You used the AI (correctly) to get back into a standard rate turn. Although we had 10 miles vis, there was no horizon (very subtle). Intercept: ATC flew us right through the localizer. If we had lost comms, this would require an own nav procedure (turning outbound). Since he called us right as we went through, instead we got vectors back for the intercept. For lost comms, if we were within 30 degrees of final course outside of NALLS, we'd intercept and fly the approach. Otherwise with lost comms we'd turn to fly outbound and do the own nav procedure. On WVI LOC 2 final: We were still at 3000 (ATC screw up) and cleared approach. Once the LOC needle came alive, we could go to 2200. We remained higher than that, and you leveled out above the clouds for a little bit at 2500. To ID NALLS, look at the VOR with 293 on the head. If your current heading (on the VOR head outer ring) is on the same side as the needle, you are on an intercept course. If they are on opposite sides, you are flying away from that VOR radial. In this case we are flying 015, the VOR is tuned to 293, and the needle was deflected to the left. Since the 015 number on the VOR head was on the right side of the head, and the needle was deflected left, we were not intercepting the radial, but flying away from it (so we were past NALLS). You forgot to start the timer. Without ADF, it was impossible to ID the missed. Not a big deal in a radar environment or when the actual weather is above minimums. Short final WVI: We had a little trouble getting down in time, but the airspeed and configuration were fine. We broke out at 1100 and you cancelled IFR. I don't cancel unless I'm on the taxiway or completely VMC. With 1600 broken, VMC is 500 below clouds, which is 1100, slightly below TPA, so I suggest canceling when on the taxiway (in case the brakes fail or the gear light goes out, etc). Don't cancel until 1000 above the clouds when climbing to fly over-the-top. We also had a little confusion circling for 20. We lined up for 26 instead. Transition to VMC is hard, and a dark day with prescription sunglasses is even harder. Use regular glasses with flip ups or contacts. Also, use the DG to identify downwind (runway number is at the bottom) and final (runway number is at the top of the DG). Overall: major mistakes: don't accept a clearance requiring equipment you don't have minor mistakes: not getting to min altitudes quickly slightly more than standard rate turns looking down at the plates on very short approach did not ID the navaids didn't get ATIS before every approach talking to ATC during critical phases 30 degrees off initial MAP heading wrong frequency VOR vs. ILS ATC distraction caused unusual attitude need GS practice, too high, full deflection canceling IFR before VMC or off the taxiway very good: clearance readback airspeed controlled well headings within 10 degrees altitude holding +/- 100ft airplane configuration slow throttle adjustments missed at SNS at the MAP unusual attitude recovery VOR and LOC tracking Suggested IFR personal minimums: Ceiling: 1000 AGL Visibility: 5 miles Only when AWOS reports above minimums Takeoff minimums the same as the above DME must be working for situational awareness No back course, DME ARC, or ADF approaches VMC (2000/3) alternate within fuel distance with 1 hour reserve Only in a radar environment Mark Boyd personal minimums (8/19/02): Takeoff 400 and 1 Approach Ceiling: 400 AGL Approach Visibility: 1 mile Start approach only if AWOS is at or above approach minimums 4 hours or less of night/IFR per day without autopilot flown that type approach in last 60 days (BC, DME ARC, ADF, ILS) VMC (2000/3) alternate within fuel distance with 1 hour reserve in radar environment OR with handheld GPS and handheld radio with co-pilot, minimums become 200 and 1/2, 8 hours night or IFR no flight into forecast icing conditions no IFR or night flight above 10,000 without oxygen