rzbill
Well Known Member
I have always mentally agreed with the title of this thread but yesterday it was handed to me on a platter such that it is now engrained in my heart.
I departed Asheville for a short hop to Lincolnton. It was marginal VFR but of the low ceiling-very good visibility type. I decided to go VFR. No problems encountered.
Weather was predicted to be the same or improve for the ride home. It was until I reached the mountains surrounding the Asheville valley. For some reason I could not receive ATIS (unusual). Approach said 1000' and 2.5 miles. Should be no problem. I squeezed in to take a look and decided to ask for a special and contact approach which was granted. However, I ran into a wall cloud and had to terminate. I flew back out of the valley to Rutherfordton to sit down and put on my race face for IFR. I'm positive the AVL controller would have instantly offered a local IFR clearance to shoot an approach but I was not ready. Next time I will be even if I am VFR.
Filed, programmed the 430 and GRT and took off, opened plan and headed to AVL. I have an archer nav in the left tip. It has worked fine for all previous vfr testing of approaches. Well, it did not on this flight. I was approaching intercept from the right of course and I got no needles. Missed the intercept but I had the GRT SAP programmed and moving map on the other screen so I was able to recover without vectors. As soon as I turned such that I was intercepting from the left, the needles popped up.
Centered the needles and got settled. (HITS and the velocity vector kick butt). Tower called and said the CRJ ahead of me reported breaking out at minimums. Jeez... This will be a first.
Same happened to me. I started getting worried at 250 feet but the lights and rabbit popped out right at 200. Landed and thanked the tower for the help.
So, I learned a few things both technically and operationally that I now know I need to change.
I departed Asheville for a short hop to Lincolnton. It was marginal VFR but of the low ceiling-very good visibility type. I decided to go VFR. No problems encountered.
Weather was predicted to be the same or improve for the ride home. It was until I reached the mountains surrounding the Asheville valley. For some reason I could not receive ATIS (unusual). Approach said 1000' and 2.5 miles. Should be no problem. I squeezed in to take a look and decided to ask for a special and contact approach which was granted. However, I ran into a wall cloud and had to terminate. I flew back out of the valley to Rutherfordton to sit down and put on my race face for IFR. I'm positive the AVL controller would have instantly offered a local IFR clearance to shoot an approach but I was not ready. Next time I will be even if I am VFR.
Filed, programmed the 430 and GRT and took off, opened plan and headed to AVL. I have an archer nav in the left tip. It has worked fine for all previous vfr testing of approaches. Well, it did not on this flight. I was approaching intercept from the right of course and I got no needles. Missed the intercept but I had the GRT SAP programmed and moving map on the other screen so I was able to recover without vectors. As soon as I turned such that I was intercepting from the left, the needles popped up.
Centered the needles and got settled. (HITS and the velocity vector kick butt). Tower called and said the CRJ ahead of me reported breaking out at minimums. Jeez... This will be a first.
Same happened to me. I started getting worried at 250 feet but the lights and rabbit popped out right at 200. Landed and thanked the tower for the help.
So, I learned a few things both technically and operationally that I now know I need to change.
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