I should have been flying

Yeah, most people wouldn’t have called today’s weather ideal, but I was sitting at my desk wishing I was flying.  It was raining and/or overcast all day.  At about 3:00PM this afternoon, the weather at KVTA was 19°C (so no worries about icing), winds from 010@09 (a fair crosswind), clouds broken at 600, broken at 1000, overcast at 2600 (it was actually pretty variable below that overcast).  Now that I’m IFR current again, today would have been a great day to get some time in actual IMC.  It has been a long time since I flew in actual instrument conditions down to minimums, but it was well above the ILS minimums at KCMH and if I missed once going into KVTA, I probably could have gotten in the next time around, so not being able to get down wasn’t really a concern.  Sigh…  I do need to get some time in actual again.

Current again

Well, I am finally IFR current again.  I went up Wednesday with Harold and got an IPC (Instrument Proficiency Check) done.  I was a little rusty (as I knew I would be), but I was pretty pleased at my performance.  Yes, there is still more rust to be knocked off, but I am confident that I would be fine in IMC up (down) to my personal minimums.  We first flew over to KZZV, flew the full ILS 22 (including the hold), then on the miss came around and did the full VOR 22 (including procedure turn), then the GPS 27 back into KVTA (circle to land on runway 9).  Now one of these cloudy October days with ceilings 100-200 feet above MDA, I’ll have to go out and get some more time in actual IMC.  I am also now 2.5 hours from hitting 200 hours total time, at this rate that may still happen this calendar year.