IFR Sunset

I went for a short IFR currency flight from KSGS to KSTC and back today; KSTC was reporting 200' and 1/4 mile viz so I knew I would be going missed but wanted the practice. Tops were 2500 and I was cruising back at 4000' when the sun set. Scenes like this are one reason why I love to fly.

beautiful.

Very nice....

Sweet! Thanks for sharing.

Gorgeous view! Any freezing moisture on the way down?

Vlad said:

Gorgeous view! Any freezing moisture on the way down?

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Negative icing. Aside from that, I was only IMC briefly as tops were at 2500' and the MDA was 1219. OAT on top was 5?C.

I like to shoot ILS approaches at 135kts, so when I went missed I popped back out of the undercast pretty quickly.

I remember years ago one winter day shortly after I got my IFR ticket I went out to a nearby airport (Modesto for the Northern Ca group) that was reporting indefinite ceiling 200, 1/2 mile vis with an IFR rated buddy of mine acting as safety pilot. Like your flight, the tops were up around 2000 and clear above but I wanted to actually see, or not see, what it was like to arrive at mins and have nothing there. I wanted to see it for real.
At the time Modesto had and NDB approach, a VOR approach and an ILS. I shot two of each type of approach. I didn't see anything for the NDB or VOR approaches. The VOR was a VOR/DME approach so when you were on course and at the correct distance you were right over the threshold which was only 400' below you but there was nothing to see. When I shot the first ILS we just caught a glimpse of the rabbits after we committed to the missed approach. The second one we could have made it in. The approach lights and the red bars grew out of the murk at mins so we technically could have gone down to 100' but it was time to get the rental airplane back home. Flying home after that last approach looked just like your picture.

Brad, very nice picture! Is the bump in the clouds the Becker power plant's plume?

AlexPeterson said:

Brad, very nice picture! Is the bump in the clouds the Becker power plant's plume?

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Yes, it is - I found the patterns from local flow disruption pretty interesting. The wind was from the NW, and you can see how the plume and the wind interacted on the surface of the undercast. There was a similar thing going on with the stack from the plant near Stillwater as well.

It is icing time of year.

Vlad said:

Gorgeous view! Any freezing moisture on the way down?

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I am a bit south of MN, but had 32F and fog yesterday morning. I drove to town, and on the way back noticed the antenna in an excessive primary bending mode with 18" tip to tip at 50 kts. WHAT?? Yes, it was ice. Stopped cleaned it off and back to stability. Those little spirals to eliminate trailing vortices (and all that excitement) are very effective.

Constant Speed Prop?

ChiefPilot said:

Negative icing. Aside from that, I was only IMC briefly as tops were at 2500' and the MDA was 1219. OAT on top was 5?C.

I like to shoot ILS approaches at 135kts, so when I went missed I popped back out of the undercast pretty quickly.

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If I break out at minimums with my 9 carrying 135 knots, I'll need about 12,000 feet of runway to get it stopped. Even bleeding enough speed at the DH to begin dropping flaps would be interesting. I try to plan for 90 at FAP and have approach flaps extended at that point as well.
I used to be based out of Detroit Metro many years ago with a C172. The controllers learned quickly that saying "keep your speed up" was pretty pointless. Great to see you practicing in the real stuff.
Terry, CFI
RV9A N323TP

terrykohler said:

If I break out at minimums with my 9 carrying 135 knots, I'll need about 12,000 feet of runway to get it stopped. Even bleeding enough speed at the DH to begin dropping flaps would be interesting. I try to plan for 90 at FAP and have approach flaps extended at that point as well.
I used to be based out of Detroit Metro many years ago with a C172. The controllers learned quickly that saying "keep your speed up" was pretty pointless. Great to see you practicing in the real stuff.
Terry, CFI
RV9A N323TP

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Yep, CS prop, which as you know really helps slow things down. I don't think I'd use such a high approach speed on a short runway, but an ILS usually has a long runway behind it so it's not a problem. Once I break out and go visual, chopping the power, dropping 10º flaps at 96kts IAS and the remainder at 82kts gets me slowed up quick.

That speed doesn't always work, however. I was twice asked to slow down; once to 120 for spacing with a Citation and the other to 110 for a KingAir, both times at KRST.