First IFR Solo Flight

Flew from Victoria to Langley yesterday on my first solo IFR flight.

The weather had been stable and hot with high pressures and forest fire smoke blanketing the island for the week before.  I had flown out to Victoria and parked CF-NZB at the Victoria Flying Club.  They are an excellent group with plenty of parking, service, and tie-downs.  

Weather

The plan was to return on the 12th but the forecast weather was not particularly good.  A combination of mist, smoke, and rain would mean low ceilings and low visibility.  It did not seem responsible to me to have my first solo IFR flight be in such poor conditions.

The conditions forecast for the flight were also a shifting mix of rain, smoke, scattered clouds at 1,200 and an overcast ceiling between 2000 and 3000 feet.  However, there was still plenty of room for me to drop out and finish the flight VFR if all else failed.

The flight plan was filed between CYYJ and CYXX as there is no conventional approach into Langley Regional - only an RNAV approach.  My portable VFR GPS cannot be used for this.  However, once the aircraft was below the ceiling and confirmed to be in VFR conditions the intent was to cancel the IFR flight, close the flight plan, and proceed to Langley.

The departure from Victoria was more complex than anywhere else I have flown.  I had to file the flight plan, contact clearance delivery, contact ground, switch to tower, and then switch to terminal climbing past 1,000 feet per the SID.

Unlike the training, clearance delivery provided my clearance "to Abbotsford per flight plan via Vic four departure."  This was delivered in machine rapid prose and there was no contact frequency provided.

Foolishly, I did not ask for the departure frequency.  Instead, I repeated the clearance, double checked the navigation aids, and switched to ground for a taxi clearance.  This was more complex than the IFR route!

Intended route as shown by Fore Flight

It was only after I was in the air and swiftly approaching 1,000 feet that I realized that they had not provided a terminal frequency to contact.  I presumed that it was the local frequency that I had been using during some sightseeing flights in previous days and it turned out that this was a good guess.  Still, this frequency is not shown on the approach plates or the SID.  Only in notations on the terminal area on the IFR low charts.  Next time, I will ask for that frequency at clearance.

The departure is vectors and it was routine.  Climb on runway heading and follow the vector instructions.  They routed me around traffic a few times and I was in cloud passing 2,000 feet.  I didn't really notice the transition as I was focused on the instrument scan.  We did pop out of cloud briefly over the Georgia Straight but I was too busy doing the approach briefing to enjoy the view.

They switched me to a different terminal frequency closer to Abbotsford and he dropped me to 3,000 feet on a north vector.  I was getting a bit close to the approach so I let him know I was level at 3,000 and he promptly vectored me to the ILS 07.  The transition to the tower went cleanly as well.

I was planning on riding the ILS down until clear of cloud and low enough to be VFR.  The weather report was for broken ceiling between 2,000 and 3,000.  Tower asked for my intentions crossing the beacon - did I want to proceed to land on 07 or circle for 19.  By then I had noted the altitude of the cloud base and I was at least a thousand feet below that.  So I cancelled IFR and Abbotsford tower cleared me for a left turn to Langley.

The arrival at Langley was routine.  The entire flight was actually relaxing.  I had tensed up while in IMC but that went away quickly.  I had kept the airspeed low (100 knots) to give myself a bit more time and this made the Comanche wallow around a bit, but I barely noticed the IMC conditions - too busy managing the aircraft.  I'll keep the speed up next time and that should reduce the hand flying work load.