Vectors To Final

Charles and I did about 1.8 hours of IFR practice this morning from PHF. The Jamestown Flight center is spending part of their time based in PHF in order to widen their market. This was the first time I have been "based" at a towered airport. Security was much more present, seeing as there are large airplanes based there. Plenty of guards/officers walking around, which is a good thing. We departed to the west to shoot the VOR-DME 27 and VOR 9 at Franklin (FKN, I think). The approaches went well. I had a rough time tracking to the Franklin VOR, but I think the needle was wondering a bit on its own, without my flying helping it. :) On the way back we were cleared for the ILS 7 @ PHF. However, just as I intercepted the localizer we were told of an emergency on-field. We started to head VFR to JGG (where we'd have to get a ride back to PHF). When we got near the nuclear power plant we heard that the emergency had been cleared so we asked Norfolk Approach to let us go...

Today Charles and I spent 1.8 hours in the IFR system by shooting an ILS approach at Chesterfield County and then Richmond; and the VOR approaches (partial panel) into New Kent and Williamsburg. This was my second time doing partial panel non-precision approaches and they went reasonably well. We also assumed that we lost VOR #2 on the JGG approach which required me to bounce VOR #1 b/t two stations so that I could know when I reached the HIGAL intersection. I did a little better on remembering to start the timer at the final approach fix. Things I screwed up on: Big one: busted the minimums at New Kent because I had the wrong altitude number in my head - why did I do that? I think it was the combo of having talked to some many controllers (and memorizing numbers they gave me) and trying to figure out the magnetic compass errors for the partial panel work I was doing. No excuse, but they are things to look out for as I move forward I lost 100ft of altitude almost everytime I slowed...

Today I went up with Bill acting as my safety pilot. Bill is also an instructor at JGG working on his CFII. We shot one ILS 7 at PHF and then the VOR-A at FYJ. We had to call off the VOR approach a little early due to skydivers, but I got to practice what I really needed to. We did some steep turns and then a DME-arc on the way back to JGG. My DME arc technique was OK, but I was reading the wrong distance number on the GPS so I ended up getting way off course. Not good. I feel that I could get a lot from practicing those on the simulator, so I might not worry too much about doing these in real life practice. Other things I screwed up on this flight: - forgot to dial in the inbound course into the OBS when shooting the ILS - forgot to turn on the marker beacon audio on the ILS - forgot to start the time at the FAF on the VOR-A into FYJ - did not maintain altitude when setting up for the steep turns (did ok in the turns themselves though).