22 Mar 2006: ILS Approaches

Weather took a turn for the worse tonight. Winds were gusting to 18, skies overcast at 4,000 feet and there was light snow painted on the radar. The temperature dropped just below freezing so pre-flight was pretty cold and dark. On the other hand, nobody was around so radio communications with Hanscom Tower were limited to "Taxi to runway 29" and "Cleared for Takeoff".....not too common an occurance at this busy strip.

Tonights special was to be a mix of approaches. The first was the ILS at Lawrence airport. Set-up was much easier than last time and 1700 rpm held about a 500 fpm descent and 90 knots airspeed. At decision height, the CFII called out missed approach and we were off in a climbing left turn to 2,000 feet. I needed more up pitch to keep at V(y) of 75 knots but other than that, it was a good approach. Boston cleared us right to Beverly and I barely had enough time to clip on the Runway 16 localizer approach, pre-brief and activate the KLN-94 GPS. This time throttle setting of 1500 rpm helped get a 700 fpm descent rate for the non-precision approach. Once again, this wasn't too bad and at the missed approach point I pitched up and to the left, heading for the hold at WITCH intersection. I had barely gotten a positive rate of climb established when Boston gave me vectors to Bedford.

I needed a little more time to set up so requested delaying vectors which were given. Finally, I shot the approach forrunway 29 at Bedford, west missed approach and came around again for another shot. It went well except the landing flare was late so the plane took a nice bounce on landing. Next time, I'll try a couple of stop and goes to get better acclimated to the flare height at night. All in all, a great time tonight!