Villenueve

 A few weeks ago Anne and I flew IFR to Villeneuve.  There was no significant weather near Saskatoon but the smoke meant that we were IMC about a minute after takeoff.  You could see the ground directly below the wing but there was no discernable horizon.  About half way through the two hour flight we were above a solid ceiling that gradually crept up to just under the aircraft.  Skimming over clouds like that is an exhilarating experience.

The descent into Villeneuve went perfectly smoothly.  ATC cleared me down to 6000 feet (fully in convective clouds now) and asked me to maintain my heading for traffic.  I slowed down a bit and engaged the ancient autopilot.  Based on the active runway we endued up using an RNAV LPV approach.  Just as I was reaching for the mic button to ask for a turn they cleared me to the approach via a waypoint (ROXOB - interesting tag) along with a descent to 4000.

I wanted to try something new so I flew the entire approach using the autopilot.  This entailed using the heading following bug and directing the flight that way.  Some of the turns got a little steep but it actually worked very well.

Soon enough we popped out of the clouds at about 800 feet.  I had put the gear down as soon as we were tracking the glideslope needles but I was still clocking along at 110 knots.  So that was a bit of failure as once visual contact was made (visibility was excellent under the clouds with a bit of light rain) I had to get the flaps down, slow down, and trim out for the approach.

So other than a bit of a scramble to get the airplane configured 800 feet up on final it went completely routine.

We parked the Comanche at Cardinal Aviation.  Excellent service and a real character.  Had a good time in Edmonton visiting old friends and family.

A few days home we flew back with a 50 knot tailwind and utterly clear weather.  I had never seen it so clear all the way from the Rockies to Lake Winnipeg.