IFR to Sanford, Maine.

I arrived at Hanscom airport early this morning just on the warm side of an approaching cold front with 2 miles visibility in light to moderate rain, scattered to broken layer at 300 feet and overcast at 1000 feet. I filed to Sanford, Maine which was reporting -RA and overcast at 800 feet. A 172S-G1000 was available for the trip and although I'm checked out in it, I'd never actually flown it in other than simulated IFR conditions. I found a CFII who was familiar with the G1000 systems to come along for the ride and point out some of the many features on the MFD I still wanted to learn.

What a great flight! At 300' AGL I was into the soup and cleared to 4,000 feet for the flight to Sanford. Rain was moderate and I was constantly in and out of clouds and/or climbing through layers. I picked up the ILS at Sanford and just as I was about to call decision height at 438', we popped out of the overcast...and I descended through light rain for a touch and go.

Back up and into the clouds we were vectored for the VOR approach into Rochester, NH. MDA was just above 1000' so it was no surprise that at the MAP, there was no airport to be seen so we went missed, entering a hold while we picked up a clearance back to Bedford, MA for a GPS approach. Once on final, back at KBED, visibility was still about 2 miles so I felt as if we were at MDA forever before I could finally make out the REIL and PAPI lights....what a welcome sight indeed! It was a wet but happy pilot strolling through the rain and across the tarmac today.