29 Mar 2006: VOR Approaches

Got a late start tonight...but oh, what a night! Clear skies, beautiful sunset and finally.....spring weather. Deprted Bedford after 6 p.m. on runway 5 and climbed directly to Lawrence VOR to shoot the VOR approach into Lawrence. Good intercept, good procedure turn to reverse course and good VOR alignment. But just busted the MDA before the MAP. Executed a missed approach and headed north to buy some time and then headed to the VOR approach into Beverly. Same thing again, just busted the MDA. Lesson learned? Start level off about 50 feet above the MDA and stablize the altitude. Other than that, it was pretty good.

Flew the visual back to Bedford. At night, Hanscom field is all but invisible. Could barely see the threshold lights for runway 11 but made a nice square pattern and really greased the landing. I'm starting to get itchy for some real IFR approaches.....this weekend is shaping up for some pretty lousy weather.....maybe it won't be too lousy and I'll get in some real IFR hours!