Lunch at Martha's Vineyard and Stage 2 review

I've been getting behind a little lately on the whole blogging thing. But, here goes nothing in an attempt to update you with the latest and greatest from this week. On Thursday I went in as usual, except this time I got pushed back a little since my instructor picked up an earlier lesson before my usual at 8AM. So we started at 930 instead. We planned to shoot 3 approaches. We shot the ILS approach into Providence, TF Green Aiport, the back course localizer into New Bedford, and capped it off with the VOR 6 approach into Martha's Vineyard. All went well going into Martha's Vineyard - only one exception - while we were being provided with heading vectors to intercept the VOR 6 final approach path, Cape Cod Approach's last vectors they gave us would have put us straight through Restricted airspace 4105A just Southwest of Martha's Vineyard. My instructor and the chief flight instructor who was back-seating the lesson noticed this and quickly gave me a new heading to turn to in order to avoid crossing into the restricted airspace. Even though we didn't enter the airspace, I still filled out an aviation safety report and submitted it to NASA to have on file - just to cover my butt. Then we stopped off at the Cafe at Martha's Vineyard for lunch and had an infamous "$300 club sandwich."

We then filed an IFR flight plan to practice an approach into Providence on the way back to Norwood. Sure enough, when we received our clearance, the controllers gave us a totally different flight plan up the coast toward Plymouth. So we took the clearance and shot the ILS approach into Plymouth. In this case, was the worst approach I have shot. I was so far behind the airplane and the approach that we were already going missed because there was too much traffic and I hadn't even briefed the missed approach yet! Normally, you have everything briefed a few times before you even actually shoot the approach. (to give a little reference point) So I wasn't happy with my performance going back to Norwood. After we got back and debriefed, Josh had told me that regardless of my less than outstanding performance on the way back he still wanted to put me up for my Stage 2 checkride. At that point I was utterly embarrassed and furious with myself and my poor performance. I requested an additional review flight before my check ride. My check ride was scheduled for the first thing Friday morning. It ended up being rescheduled for Saturday and then pushed back again due to scheduling conflicts. So now, due to weather coming in for tomorrow (Monday) I am scheduled to go up for my check ride on Tuesday evening after work.

Friday I got to do my review flight with Josh where we shot another approach into Providence and executed the missed approach as published and entered the hold 12 miles to the Northwest of the airport. We circled in the hold until I established a 1 minute inbound leg. This took a couple times around since I was battling a rather strong quartering head/tailwind. On the way down to Providence it was such a strong headwind that we had a ground speed of 58 knots. Coming back into Norwood for the localizer approach on Runway 35 took us no time to get back to from Providence. It literally took us a little more than 10 mins to get from Providence to Norwood! We had a ground speed of 154 knots - which equates to approximately 177 mph!!!

It was a crazy week. Going into Stage 3. This is going to happen incredibly quick as it only consists of about 6 flights and 8 hours worth of flight time. We are going into cross country work and my long instrument cross country flight will most likely be to Albany, NY. I should be finishing up my instrument rating in the next 3 - 4 weeks with a total time for this rating being somewhere between 35-40 hours. (35 hrs is the FAA minimum for part 141)