Justin’s Pilot Reports (PIREP)

Attended AOPA’s “Single Pilot IFR” safety seminar this evening on the campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio. The presenter, Mark Grady, was excellent! He kept the crowd laughing while at the same time drilling in the message that sometimes we - as pilots - are our own worst enemies.

It was an informative seminar that identified “seven keys” to safe flight and included one harrowing ATC/pilot conversation in which the pilot had a dual vacuum pump failure in IMC conditions. The pilot did not declare an emergency and unfortunately for him, the controller didn’t know a vacuum pump from a vacuum cleaner. The pilot and his passenger perished. Like many aviation accidents, this one should have had a different ending.

This is an excerpt of AOPA Safety Seminar.
Read the full entry.

This morning I embarked on a solo IFR flight to the New Braunfels Municipal Airport to shoot an instrument approach there and to miss that approach and return to San Antonio Intl for the ILS Rwy 12R. Objective? Instrument flight proficiency.

The weather? Marginal VFR with ceilings of 1500 broken with a higher overcast layer at 2,300 feet. Here’s the actual METAR from the airport:
KSAT 141353Z 17011KT 10SM BKN016 BKN033 BKN250 27/24 A2997

With a requested cruise altitude of 5,000 feet I knew I’d earn some actual instrument flying time on this short trip. That was exactly the point.

This is an excerpt of ACTUAL instrument time.
Read the full entry.