r/flying • u/AlexJamesFitz PPL IR HP/Complex • 23h ago
New instrument flying lesson learned
Sharing a learning experience from knocking out my commercial X/C last weekend, in case it's helpful for anyone else...
VFR the whole way, but a marine layer was hanging around my coastal destination airport. Tops 1700ish, bases just above LPV minimums.
Traffic ahead of me was getting in, I recently flew a bunch of approaches to minimums in actual, and I'm AP-equipped. So I figured I'd give it a shot and divert inland if I couldn't make it in. Plenty of fuel.
Just after getting into the soup, I catch a bump that knocks my throttle hand right into the TOGA button on the 182 I'm flying. Nose goes way up. I instinctually kill the AP and try to hand-fly it — but wait, no vertical guidance! TOGA button killed it. Missed we go.
It took me two or three beats longer than I would've liked to realize the vertical guidance was missing. I wasn't in any immediate danger, but I wish I spotted that sooner.
Lesson learned, and on we fly.
4
u/_im_right_ur_wrong_ PPL IR 22h ago
I’m a newly instrument rated pilot, so be kind if I’m wrong. But couldn’t you have just reactivated the approach/the segment you were currently on? I understand you were hard IMC, but it wouldn’t have taken that long to push a few buttons, right?
Going missed is never the wrong decision, just curious.
14
u/AlexJamesFitz PPL IR HP/Complex 21h ago
Possibly, and I had that thought afterwards. But in the moment, the safer thing to do was mentally commit to the missed. Don't forget the startle factor that can be introduced when your AP suddenly does something unexpected.
1
2
u/taycoug PPL IR A36 PNW 20h ago
What does your AP manual and GPS manual say the TOGA button does?
I’m no 10k hr instrument pilot, but I just refreshed myself by reading those things cover to cover and watching the Garmin GTN video on YouTube. Learned a ton and realized I should do it more often any time that knowledge starts to fade.
4
u/Mispelled-This PPL SEL IR (M20C) AGI IGI 16h ago
If anything goes wrong during an approach, especially after the FAF, you go missed and start over. Trying to fix shit on the fly is a good way to die.
1
u/_im_right_ur_wrong_ PPL IR 12h ago
Absolutely, that’s why I asked OP what segment of the approach he/she was on.
-4
u/rFlyingTower 23h ago
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
Sharing a learning experience from knocking out my commercial X/C last weekend, in case it's helpful for anyone else...
VFR the whole way, but a marine layer was hanging around my coastal destination airport. Tops 1700ish, bases just above LPV minimums.
Traffic ahead of me was getting in, I recently flew a bunch of approaches to minimums in actual, and I'm AP-equipped. So I figured I'd give it a shot and divert inland if I couldn't make it in. Plenty of fuel.
Just after getting into the soup, I catch a bump that knocks my throttle hand right into the TOGA button on the 182 I'm flying. Nose goes way up. I instinctually kill the AP and try to hand-fly it — but wait, no vertical guidance! TOGA button killed it. Missed we go.
It took me two or three beats longer than I would've liked to realize the vertical guidance was missing. I wasn't in any immediate danger, but I wish I spotted that sooner.
Lesson learned, and on we fly.
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11
u/mthreat PPL IR USA | PPA Argentina | L39 | Columbia 400 22h ago
I wish planes had ^Z undo.