I flew my RV with a handheld for a year and did a radio install/first condition inspection a few months ago. I had other issues like remaking fuel lines and installing new cylinders over the next couple months but the radio install seemed pretty solid in the 20 flight hours since installation. I had a trip planned for today and wouldn't you know my destination was IFR, closest weather was 1/2-1 mile vis and 300-900 ceilings with good VFR within a 20 minute flight.
I waited an extra 45 minutes to find the Wx was improving slightly, loaded some extra gas and took off. The start of the BKN/OVC layer shortly after takeoff, we stayed about 3000 ft above the layer in cruise.
I hand flew for 15 min prior to the approach, but let Otto do the real deal. It dawned on me as I was 10 minutes out from the IAF that in all my practice approaches with the new equipment I had never actually slowed the airplane down as I flew them. I got the airplane slowed down to 120 knts IAS and settled in for the non-precision approach. Due to the hills the mins were pretty high, 700+ above the TDZE. I informed the controller in the event I went missed approach I planned on a nearby airport with slightly better weather and much lower minimums if I had to do the published missed approach. The "auxiliary" alternate airport didn't meet the qriteria to be named as an alternate for flight planning purposes. I still need to tweak the panel tilt for my standby SAM.
We broke out about 150' above minimums, my copilot took some neat pics. You can just make out the runway over the nose.
On the way home we were in between several small cells of TStorms and floated up and above the poofy clouds to 10,000. My passenger doesn't do well with bumps and we found a smooth ride up high. After several minutes at 10,000 the tops of the clouds started coming down and I did a slow 200 fpm descent for the next 40ish minutes down to pattern altitude at home base.
I have to say flying through the clouds and shooting an instrument approach in an airplane I built in my garage that is infinitely better equipped than any certified plane I've ever flown was priceless.....pricey in both time and money but nonetheless priceless.
First Real IFR in the RV!
Linear Mode
