Finally, some normal landings! I was hoping to finish all of my sim time today, but I had almost 7 hours to do, and I just was not able for it! Instead we did five hours today and I will do two hours Monday morning, followed by my first flight Monday evening.
I was flying with Gloria today. We took off from Malaga Airport and did the “Vibas 1A” departure. From there it was direct to Granada Airport, where I was told by ATC to enter the hold at 10,000 ft. I eventually got to descent 1000 ft at a time down the holding pattern until I reached 7000 ft and I could commence my approach.
First approach was the VOR for runway 09 at Granada. It involved tracking a radial out from a VOR until a set distance before turning back to the VOR (which is a radio navigation aid), to track another radial to take you to the runway. All went well, got down to minimums and couldn’t see anything, so a go around was in order! The missed approach point is defined by passing a marker beacon on the approach, and it’s difficult as the missed approach procedure makes you fly to a different marker beacon, so you’re turning a lot of dials while flying at 800 ft above the ground!
We did another VOR approach, followed by two more ILS approaches into Granada. Time for a quick break and a walk around the school and it was back for another flight.
This time we took the Vibas 1B departure and joined the Airway “A44” to the Almeria VOR where we descended to the Initial Approach Fix on the 17DME arc for an Non-Directional Beacon approach. This time, the RMI was frozen to simulate a fixed card ADF, which is somewhat more difficult as the correction is not staring you in the face like the other instruments.
Anyway, that completes my day! Followed by the walk home in 36 degrees sunshine! I can’t wait to start flying the aircraft Monday evening. The sun sets here around 8.30 and I’ll be doing my first real ILS into Malaga!
Andrew