Who Knew ILSs Needed Power?

N49134 - C152 - 2.6 hours

Since I've been trying to get the long IR XC out of the way, I've been bugging my friend Mike to get current again so that he could ride right seat for the flight so I didn't have to pay an instructor (certified flight instructor - CFI) to sit there.  Of course, it wasn't until later that I re-read the regs and found out that the flight requires a CFI, and not just an instrument rated safety pilot.  In any case, a friend needed a safety pilot to get instrument current again, and I was definitely up for that.

Sherriff SUV powering a light on 29

Mike lives down in Richmond, so we decided to meet up in Culpeper (CJR).  That plan meant I didn't have to drive too far, and he didn't have to use extra time on the plane to get all the way to Leesburg (JYO).  The drive down to CJR required a trip down Route 29, which is by far my least favorite drive in the world because of the quantity and poor timing of the traffic lights.  On a stroke of unfortunate luck, the power was out for a good amount of Virginia, so most of those lights were out and very few people were on the road.  I made it down in record time, but Mike got hung up because the airport he was flying out of didn't have power to pump fuel.  Luckily, a nearby field did, so he stopped there on the way up.

I killed some time with a run into the town of Culpeper, and then sat in the CJR terminal for a while listening to the local pilots tell their stories of how bad the storm affected them last night.  After sitting around for a while and developing a plan of attack where one approach dumped onto, or close to where another picked up, Mike arrived and we set off towards Stafford (RMN).

The Plan

The initial plan was to run the VOR RWY 33 approach into RMN, which has a missed approach that sets up for a convenient transition to the ILS RWY 33 approach.  From there, we'd transition to the ILS RWY 3 at Charlottesville (CHO), which has a missed approach that sets us up for the VOR/DME-A at Orange (OMH).  Lastly, instead of flying the missed after OMH, we would proceed direct to Casanova (CSN) to fly the LOC/DME RWY 15 at Warrenton-Fauquier (HWY), and then take the missed back to CSN to pick up the VOR-A to CJR.  That all looks good on paper, or perhaps on your screen, but life thought it looked a little too good.

RMN VOR RWY 33

After departing CJR, we headed towards BRV to pick up the VOR RWY 33 approach at RMN.  I called Potomac TRACON to let them know where we were and what we were doing, just so they knew.  Mike flew the approach pretty well while I made sure to keep us out of the SFRA and away from traffic.  Everything looked good with the first approach, so we went missed to continue with the ILS RWY 33 approach, which has a really cool arc to it.  Unfortunately, while attempting to transition from the VOR radial outbound, onto the Localizer beam (LOC) inbound, we figured out that the instrument landing system (ILS) was out of service.  Since we were in the middle of an approach, neither of us really had the free brain power to make the connection between the ILS being out and the storm last night.  Mike tracked back to BRV to shoot another VOR approach so that we didn't waste the time.

RMN ILS RWY 33

After the second VOR approach into RMN, we went direct to CHO.  I called Potomac back to update them on our next plans, where I was then told he thought CHO's ILS was also out of service.  We thought to try Shenandoah (SHD), but started to wonder if that would be out because of the power outages, too.  We tossed around a few more ideas, but we were also getting hungry, slightly irritated at the hand we were dealt (no notices to airmen - NOTAMs - were issued for the outages), and we figured it was a good time to get some fuel, too.  In the end, we decided to set down at CHO.

On the way in, Potomac told us a few times that the automatic terminal information service (ATIS - broadcasts the weather information and continuously) was out, though it seemed to be just fine when I tuned it in a few minutes prior to calling them.  In any case, the controller passed the weather to us and sent us over to tower.

As we got closer, a MedFlight helicopter called tower up to report they were proceeding to a crash on Route 29.  Tower called our flight out as traffic to the chopper, but also threw in a quick remark that someone was already on scene.  I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to what the controller was trying to say, as the accident was right under where we were at that point.  I couldn't spot it and Mike was still under the hood to log more instrument time, so the controller advised us to turn south to avoid a conflict.  When we were out of the way, he cleared us to land so Mike took the hood off and set us down.

The Landmark crew set us up with the car and we set off toward Timberwood in hopes they had power, AC (did I mention it was really hot today?), and food.  While they had power, they unfortunately couldn't hold up the full menu, so we had some bar food.  I have to give them credit, as the bar food was pretty good, but I was disappointed I couldn't have a burger.  Back at CHO, Mike paid the fuel tab and we set back off for some more approaches.

OMH VOR-A

Back up in the air, we went over the ridge to Gordonsville (GVE) to shoot the VOR-A into OMH.  I called Potomac to let them know what we were doing.  The controller advised me that there were jumpers (skydivers) that were about to be released, and that I should call on the airport's frequency to coordinate with the pilot of their plane.  We coordinated, Mike held mid-approach for a lap, and then we continued inbound.  After overflying the field, we went towards CSN to fly more VOR approaches into HWY and a final approach into CJR.

HWY VOR RWY 15

The last controller we spoke to seemed to be in no mood to handle VFR traffic at all, so we ended up just flying the last three approaches on our own.  Between the first and second approaches to HWY, an aircraft had departed to remain in the traffic pattern.  I had to coordinate with him because what we were doing was very non-standard when compared to the very standard traffic pattern (if you look at the approach plate, we were approaching the field from an odd angle).  Since it was out of the ordinary and I wanted to make sure the guy knew exactly what we were doing, I got pretty explicit with my radio calls, which someone listening in on the frequency made a quick joke about.  After breaking off on the approach, Mike shot the last VOR approach into CJR, landed, taxied off, and shut down.


After I packed my stuff back up, I jumped back in the car and headed home while Mike took the plane back down to Richmond.  He's current again, I got some PIC time for being a safety pilot, and in the process we had a pretty good adventure of it.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 0.0 - 61.4 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.0 - 6.6 (of 40)