IFR flight #13 - first time in the system
Today Charles and I went up for 1.4 hours and it was the first time I have flown in the IFR system.
Before I went to the airport I used 1-800-WX-BRIEF to get the weather and double-check that my DUATS flight plan filing worked. It took more than 30 minutes on the phone to get a real person on the line. I believe that is typical nowadays, with so few FSSs, at least when it is a slightly busy time of day.
We used the GCO from JGG to call up Norfolk and get our clearance. It was up to me to do the majority of the radio work, and I did about 60% of it. Charles helped me out from time to time as we transitioned b/t approaches.
We shot the ILS at Newport News, then on to West Point to shoot the GPS. They had jumpers at West Point when we were coming in, so we went missed at about 2 miles out to play it safe. From there we headed back to JGG on the VOR-B approach. At about 6 miles out we canceled IFR with Norfolk approach and continued on.
The JGG radio traffic was getting heavy so we went visual about 2 miles out. We were to cross midfield to land right-hand traffic on 13. After stating our intentions we heard someone on final and someone else trying to do the 45 degree downwind entry. We start scanning for that latter traffic pretty hard b/c we didn't have him in sight yet.
When we hit the point where we should turn to get the downwind leg we still didn't have him in sight. He called that he was on downwind already.
That scared the hell out of us b/c that was exactly where we were. I started to worry that he was just below us. Charles had us continue straight for a bit and then we found the traffic, over the river. Way out from downwind.
We made a quick right turn to avoid him and show him the wing. At that point he had us in sight and he made a right circle to come back again to enter the pattern. We went off to the right and eventually circled back to the left to get in behind him (after dodging him one more time). I must say, I was wide awake during all that. :)
Before I went to the airport I used 1-800-WX-BRIEF to get the weather and double-check that my DUATS flight plan filing worked. It took more than 30 minutes on the phone to get a real person on the line. I believe that is typical nowadays, with so few FSSs, at least when it is a slightly busy time of day.
We used the GCO from JGG to call up Norfolk and get our clearance. It was up to me to do the majority of the radio work, and I did about 60% of it. Charles helped me out from time to time as we transitioned b/t approaches.
We shot the ILS at Newport News, then on to West Point to shoot the GPS. They had jumpers at West Point when we were coming in, so we went missed at about 2 miles out to play it safe. From there we headed back to JGG on the VOR-B approach. At about 6 miles out we canceled IFR with Norfolk approach and continued on.
The JGG radio traffic was getting heavy so we went visual about 2 miles out. We were to cross midfield to land right-hand traffic on 13. After stating our intentions we heard someone on final and someone else trying to do the 45 degree downwind entry. We start scanning for that latter traffic pretty hard b/c we didn't have him in sight yet.
When we hit the point where we should turn to get the downwind leg we still didn't have him in sight. He called that he was on downwind already.
That scared the hell out of us b/c that was exactly where we were. I started to worry that he was just below us. Charles had us continue straight for a bit and then we found the traffic, over the river. Way out from downwind.
We made a quick right turn to avoid him and show him the wing. At that point he had us in sight and he made a right circle to come back again to enter the pattern. We went off to the right and eventually circled back to the left to get in behind him (after dodging him one more time). I must say, I was wide awake during all that. :)
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