18 Mar 2006: Localizer Approach

A cold day in the making, only 27 deg F and 16 knot wind on the flightline this morning. This was the first of some concentrated approach training. Took off behind a Citation X being careful to rotate early and stay upwind of his course to avoid wake turbulence. Then a climb to 2,000 and turn to the northeast to head in the general direction of the Lawrence VOR.

The first approach was the Runway 16 localizer approach at Beverly airport. I set up and activated the approach in the GPS, tuned all the receivers to the correct NAV and COM frequencies and obtained vectors to TAITS intersection, the final approach fix (FAF). About 3 miles before TAITS, I throttled back to 2,000 rpm and dropped 10 degrees of flaps to slow dow to 90 knots. At TAITS I decreased the throttle to 1700 rpm and started down to the MDA of 580' after starting the timer. Decision point was at 3 minutes and 24 seconds from TAITS. We reached it and executed the missed approach procedure, a climbing left turn to 2,000 feet via the 201 radial from the Pease VOR. Once reaching WITCH intersection, I entered the hold, just like practice a couple of weeks ago and started the hold. The GPS really makes this easy since WITCH automatically is loaded as the direct to point after the missed approach point is reached.

So after receiving vectors back to TAITS it was time for another go at it. There was a lot to remember, but it seemed a little easier this time. Beverly tower called our missed approach a little early due to traffic in the pattern so we turned north and requested vectors back to Bedford and were given the ILS runway 29 approach. The approach terminated at about 600 feet MSL and the landing was pretty smooth. After the last couple of weeks, the 16 knot gusts didn't seem very bad at all. Looking forward to giving it another go next Wednesday night.

By the way, here is my flight path on flight tracker, right from Boston Center radar !