IFR to Keene, NH

The goal of today's flight was to shoot some ILS approaches up in Keene, NH first to get in some cross country hours and second, to fly a missed approach procedure in some hilly country for a change. Keene is in a valley and while it isn't the alps, the hills surrounding it do dictate some additional care in executing the missed approach from the Runway 2 ILS. I also intended to use the glass 172SP and get more time with the G1000 flight system.

The weather at Hanscom was good, wind from 210 at 12 knots with clear, but very hazy skies. In the region of Keene, ceilings were 4,000 scattered, 12,000 broken with ceilings becoming 4,000 overcast by 6 p.m. with showers associated with a cold front that was to be passing. We were leaving by 1:30 p.m. and were to be back by 3:30 so there seemed to be no problem there. It took 20 minutes to preflight and we received a clearance to Keene via Manchester VOR at 4,000 feet. I took off, proceeded direct Manchester and leveled off at 4,000 feet. After what seemed like eons, (we were only 4 miles from Manchester), we finally received a clearance to proceed direct Keene and to climb to 5,000. There was a 25 knot headwind at this point so or progress slowed considerably.

ASOS at Keene was now reporting 3,500 and broken. Hmmm....sounded as if thinks were going south a little earlier than anticipated. I took off the foggles for a minute and there in the distance you could see a towering wall of white. It started abruptly over Pack Monadnock Mountain and the ridge that makes up the Wapack Trail, as if the ridge were holding the bad weather back. So I left the foggles off since it looked as if I'd be getting some actual time today.

After flying into the IMC, we were hit by the expected moderate turbulence as ATC gave some vectors to descend and intercept the localizer. I was at 3,000 feet and still in solid IMC, no breaks in the clouds at all. I intercepted the localizer and descended to 2,600 to intercept the glideslope at the FAF. The cloud base was at my altitude and we were skimming in and out of the ceiiling as the glideslope came in and I started my descent. Visibility was 2-3 miles at most and at decision height, I pitched up, put in full power and retracted flaps to start the climb to 1,600 feet after which point I could safely turn direct to the Keene VOR and a hold at 3,000 feet.

By this time I was back into it at about 2,500 feet and the wind had shifted and was now coming from the south at 10 knots. Keene only has one instrument apporach for runway 2 so after holding at EEN and receiving another clearance for the ILS, the approach would end with a circle-to-land on runway 20. Since weather seemed to be deteriorating quicker than expected, I opted to head back to Hanscom while the conditions there were still good.

I received clerance back to LOBBY intersection at 6,000 feet. I broke out of the sloping overcast somewhere southeast of Keene at about 4,500 feet with a nice push from a quartering tailwind that gave us a 145 knot groundspeed. In no time at all, I was descending to intercept the VOR 23 approach into a very hazy Hanscom field. This was a good experience not only in IFR approaches, but in decision making. Although I'm sure I could have handled the circle to land approach, I was on the front side of a cold front and conditions were changing more rapidly than expected. This, coupled with the fact that I was in mountainous terrain raised the pucker factor more than I was in the mood for today. All in all, I had a lot of fun!