After two postponements, I finally finished my instrument cross country on Feb 6th. Compared to the two days I had scheduled before, the weather was near perfect for the flight. Not a cloud in sight and the ride was smooth along almost the entire route of flight.

I was supposed to have flown 1568R, but the attitude indicator failed (with a loud crunch, so I'm told) the day before and would not be available, unless I felt like staying local and VFR to practice some partial panel. Having scrubbed this flight a couple of times already, I decided against it and got moved over to N53361, a Cessna 172P. It had a similar avionics package to the Tiger so all I was really giving up was a few knots of speed. Incidentally, this was also the 20th aircraft I logged time in since starting my flying hobby over 8 years ago.

My plan was to fly from Cobb County to Birmingham Intl. (KBHM), perform an ILS approach there, then to Auburn, AL (KAUO), for the VOR/DME-A, and then back to Cobb County for the GPS 27.

Leg 1: KRYY-KBHM
Filed: DALAS GAD V209 TRUST
Total Distance: 116nm
Time: 1:21




When I called for my clearance, I was given radar vectors to TDG TRUST on V18, which took me to the south of my filed route. Andy said it was their usual practice (I assume they probably have a LOA with Birmingham Approach for that routing) to send anyone flying to Birmingham that way, although they usually clear you to HEFIN intersection first. Fortunately I was GPS equipped, because when I departed Cobb Co, I had no reception of the TDG VOR. It wasn't until I was about 10-15 miles to the west before it came in well enough to be used for navigation. Of course, about 5 minutes later I get "Cessna 53361, cleared direct Birmingham" shortly before being handed off to Atlanta Center. Then just to make things a bit more interesting, Center calls up: "Cessna 361, I have an amendment to your clearance, advise ready to copy". "Cessna 361, proceed direct Vulcan VOR, direct Birmingham. R-2101A just went hot." It seems our little shortcut put us right through the middle of the restricted area. R-2101 encompasses part of Anniston Army Depot, which is a munitions and chemical weapons storage facility. My assumption is it gets activated anytime they start moving any of the weapons out of their bunkers, just in case something goes off and starts launching rounds into the air above. On a positive note, I did read that all of the nastier nerve agents stored there have been destroyed, which has to be a relief to the residents in the Anniston/Oxford, AL area. Shortly after passing the Anniston area I'm handed off to Birmingham Approach, and shortly thereafter given clearance for the ILS 24 about 18 miles out from the airport. Due to headwinds, my groundspeed was reduced to about 90kts, which added about 10 minutes to the trip.

Leg 2: KBHM-KAUO
Route: HANDE KENTT
Distance: 98.9nm
Time: 0:32

Thankfully this leg took me significantly less than the first one, as the wind was to my back the entire way down. About halfway to Auburn, my back started killing me and I couldn't wait to get on the ground. I goofed the hold over the Tusgeegee VOR a bit, as I overshot the inbound course, but still managed to do correct and had the needle right where it needed to be when I made it to the missed approach point. I stopped here to stretch my legs and relive my back some. It was the first time I had flown into Auburn in some time, although when I first started flying it was a common destination and is also the place where I took my private pilot checkride.

Leg 3: KAUO-KRYY
Route: LGC LGC.MIKEE4
Distance: 96.2nm
Time: 0:45




I spent a little too much time on the ground at Auburn and by the time I was airborne the last leg of my flight plan had been purged from the system, so we ended up having to file in the air for the trip back home. I was cleared for the MIKEE4 arrival back to Cobb County. Its routing helps keep IFR arrivals to airports on the NW side of Atlanta clear of arrivals/departures in and out of Hartsfield to the east of the route. About 20-25 miles NE of the LaGrange VOR, I noticed that the NAV flag on the CDI tuned to LGC started flipping back and forth, then stayed on continuously. I reached over to the audio panel to monitor NAV1 and got no ident. I tried my NAV2 radio and got the same result. I tuned to the Atlanta VOR and immediately the CDI reacted and I got the ident. A quick call to Atlanta Approach indicated that I was the first to have any issues with it. A couple of minutes later I hear back from them, they had called the center and had them ask some other aircraft in the area if they could tune it, apparently it had just failed. By that time I was close enough in that approach decided just to give me vectors the remainder of the way to the IAF for the GPS 27 back into Cobb Co. With no WAAS, best I could do on this one was a descent to MDA, then set up for a visual rest of the way in. A quick check of the NOTAMs after I was back on the ground confirmed that the LGC VOR was indeed out of service.

Overall, things went well, I handled the airplane well the entire way, excecuted the approaches all pretty well, and had a good time to boot. Although after being cooped up in a 172 for over 4 hours, it quickly reminded me why I didn't like flying in an airplane of that size for that much time virtually nonstop! By the time I walked in the door at home, it was about 5 after midnight. After such a long day (I had been up since 7am!) I had no problem sleeping that night.

Totals:
Distance: 311nm
Time Logged:
4.2 Hrs Total
4.2 Hrs X/C
3.8 Hrs simulated instrument