Pilot Life: More IMC Experience at Corvallis

In the IFR world, today was another "good" day to get some actual instrument/IMC flying in, so that's exactly what my instructor and I did. And it was a good way to start out the month of February, still my least favorite month of the year!

Giving N5174E another "wash" by flying in some IMC!

After getting in the air and throwing on my foggles, I called up Cascade Approach to pick up IFR clearance to Corvallis for some Instrument Approaches, starting with the ILS 17. We were in and out of the clouds a lot and at the altitudes we were flying at, it was mostly MVFR (Moderate Visual Flight Rules). As usual, I briefed the approach plate on our way in as ATC gave us radar vectors. Funny thing happened while we were getting set up: ATC asked us to reset our transponder with a new squawk code twice after getting our initial one! Upon giving us the third squawk code all within the first 15 minutes of flight, they were apologetic about it, but we had a good laugh about it!

For the most part, I did pretty well on the ILS 17 approach; I had to compensate by accounting for the winds aloft. We terminated the approach by going missed and requested radar vectors for the second approach, which would be the RNAV 17. Once again, I briefed and went over the approach plate and followed ATC instructions as they gave us radar vectors to the final approach path. Again, another decent job done on my part and we terminated this approach by going missed also. After reporting back in with Cascade Approach, we cancelled our IFR flight plan and went back to Albany VFR (or rather MVFR!). My instructor had me look outside momentarily to get an idea what barely-VFR conditions looked like; honestly, today looked like there was probably no more than 5 miles of visibility. And it was still legal too because from the altitude we were flying at as we returned to Albany, we were able to maintain positive visual contact with the ground below us. If I had to fly on given day like today, the concepts of establishing and following my personal minimums as a pilot and what determines my "Go/No-go" decisions at my discretion really came to mind.

Eventually, Albany Airport came into view and my instructor had me remove my foggles and we made an uneventful landing. Since it was raining, I elected to not refuel at the fuel pumps and risk allowing water into the fuel tanks and taxied straight back to the hangar, where we debriefed, signed off in my logbook, and stowed the airplane. All in all, today was a good flight to start the month and end the week. And I'm certainly grateful to have these opportunities to actually train in actual instrument conditions, something I couldn't do had I stayed in Utah with the planes I did fly down there!