100 HOURS
Written: 15 OCTOBER 2003

At the moment I have exactly 100 hours of logged flight time. Lately I've been flying down to Myrtle Beach and Grand Strand where I'm practicing instrument approaches.

I did the same flight today. Me and Kristian are flying together because we both have Anna. So when one is flying, the other is in the backseat (learning from the mistakes). The day starts with a review of the weather and filing of a flightplan. Then I do the preflight (walk around) to check if the plane is at all safe to fly. The maintenance here is generally ok. Not impressing, but the planes don't fall from the sky either. Anna has a tendancy to be a little late, so there's a little wainting involved between the preflight and the startup. We taxi out and finish all the checklists before we take off. And then I put on the "hood" and start flying by instrument. I call up Myrtle Beach approach and recieve an IFR clearance (which corresponds to my flightplan) and request the different I want to practice. Today I did the ILS 18 circle to land 36 at Myrtle, VOR 23 at Grand Strand and ended with a NDB-A at Conway. (There's some links in the last article concering the difference between them).

Instrument flying is so much more fun than normal flying. A lot more precision is required to master the different procedures and the contact with ATC (Air Traffic Control) is a lot more intense which makes me fell a bit more like a pilot.

Today there was a terrible crosswind (wind from the side when we're landing). It played a big part in todays landings which weren't all that great, but at least we got down. A 737 reported a 300 foot loss on final approach at Myrtle Beach as we were out flying. If a 737 experiences problems, imagine how the 172 is doing!!