IFR flight #18 - first time based at towered field

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 VFR to PHF. They did and we were cleared by the tower for a left hand pattern to runway 02. We were on final when we were asked to do a right 360 for spacing on traffic coming in from behind us. We did it and right when we were setup to land we had to do another one for more traffic. Eventually (on the 3rd try) we actually got on the ground, after a quite high landing. We were able to make the first taxiway though.

When we exited the plane we saw the fire crews parking their trucks. It seemed that a lear-jet type aircraft had a bit of a problem that involved smoke. I didn't get to see many details about it.

Other things that happened:
  • We saw 4 Mirages (I think) line up on the taxi way right beside us and then peel off to takeoff. They practice low approaches to local carriers for training purposes. We had to close our doors so we could hear each other to talk out there on the ramp - didn't help much. :)
  • We saw two F-15s over PHF when getting on Downwind for 02.
  • We had to wait on a Lear jet to land before we could sneak in for our FIRST pass at runway 02 (before having to do the 360s)

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