Millionaire or Million Air

Yesterday was my long Cross Country flight for my instrument rating. The flight at to be 250 nautical miles round trip, with at least one leg being at least 100 nautical miles and must have 3 different types of approaches. Oy.....that's a mouthful! We started at 1030AM on Friday morning and got our IFR clearance and flew directly to Albany, NY. There wasn't too much wind aloft so it made for a nice flight out there at 6000 feet. We made it to Albany, NY from Norwood, MA in just under an hour and a half. I shot the ILS 1 approach into Albany. I held the needles right down the middle for almost all of the approach, my only problem was that I carried a little too much speed and allowed myself to stay fast. Upon landing I floated down the runway for about a 1000 extra feet than I needed to. But, none the less it was a really soft landing! All in all it was a really great leg out there. The FBO......Million Air at Albany is really really nice - ie complementary cookies, coffee, soda and popcorn as you walk in. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful. They even have their own little cinema in there with leather reclining chairs! The crew car was available, so we got to take the BMW 535 out to grab some lunch while we were there. Not a bad ride in the lap of luxury for lunch! We got to pretend. It was all good. I love my Hyundai. It does the trick. Haha. We left Albany shortly after 2 and flew direct to Providence where I made my second, but poor attempt at the GPS approach into Providence. First, I really hadn't done too many GPS approaches, so I was really behind the briefing and was missing the radio clearances on the approach. They vectored us onto the final approach path, but I had thought they were going to have us shoot the full approach from the initial approach fix. When they gave us clearance for the approach, boy was I ever confused. It was really frustrating trying to shoot the approach, and not being ready for your mid-air IFR clearance to Norwood, our final destination. I had thought that they would just give us radar vectors like they had in the past from our practice approaches, but you get a new clearance since you are still on an IFR flight plan. Oy! That was really confusing and I was really lost. Then we finally shot the Localizer 35 approach into Norwood, which wasn't really a problem either, but at the end I was getting really tired and was off a bit to one side or the other rather than really keeping the localizer needle centered. We circled and landed on Runway 10. That was not one of my prettiest landings let me just say.........so we got back, debriefed and I had Josh spend a few extra minutes on the GPS to review it again.

Next week I am up for 2 review flights before I go up for my Stage 3 check ride and End of Course Check Ride the following week. Then up for my oral and practical exam with the FAA examiner a week after that. But, in the meantime, I am studying up for my written exams. I am taking both the Instrument Written and the Instrument Instructor Written, since they are practically the same test. At least they will be out of the way! Time to hit the books!