Today I took and passed (yes!!) my instrument written test. It took me about 1:15 to get it done and I scored an 88 on the test. I was fairly confident that I knew the material, but they always seem to put in a few questions on the test that make you question your confidence. So I was thrilled that I not only passed, but scored as well as I did.

I should back up a moment and mention that I took it today because of....the weather! Up until yesterday, the forecast was supposed to be clear skies all day on Saturday. I get up this morning and the visibility is 2-3 miles with fog and mist, ceilings are 600 overcast. What?!? Nobody saw that coming.

Andy had called me the night before and told me the stage check was off, the CFII I was supposed to fly with had gotten stuck down in Saint Simons on a charter flight. So he set me up with a safety pilot who had recently passed his instrument checkride to fly a few approaches with me today. I head up to the airport as planned just in case the weather breaks up early. An hour rolls by, and while things improve, it isn't looking much better. I decide at that point to go ahead and get the written test out of the way, until I realize I've left my logbook, with my endorsement, at home. So I go back and get it, do a few more practice tests, come back and take the test.

Talk about a transformation, as soon as I walked out the door from the test, I look out the window and the sky is almost completely clear. There are a few clouds hanging around, but the ramp looks like it is covered with a bunch of ants, everyone who had been sitting around waiting to fly that day was out pre-flighting aircraft or was already rolling to the runway. My safety pilot, Rick, had arrived in the meantime. After a quick introduction, we did an impromptu flight plan, I had been auditing my logbook and realized I needed some more cross country time, so I plugged in an airport I had never flown to before in the 430 and decided the destination for the day would be the Jackson County airport in Commerce, Ga, 19A. It just met the criteria for a cross-country flight, about 52nm away.

We got airborne, dodged a few clouds on the way up to the cruise altitude, and enjoyed the trip enroute. I decided against flying the entire trip under the hood, I had plenty of instrument time and just wanted to enjoy the scenery for once in a long while. It was decided that when it came time to fly the approaches that I would don the hood again. First approach would be the VOR/DME 34 at Jackson County. At first, I was going to fly the DME arc, but at 2nd glance, it would have required a VERY steep turn with short intermediate leg to get on the arc. I instead opted for the AHN VOR transition, which added a few extra miles but was the better choice. I kept the needle fairly well centered the whole time, came down to MDA, and viola, there was the airport. I circled around to 16 since the wind favored that runway and put it down without much fuss. There were about 7-8 guys sitting around the FBO there, all welcoming us there and offered us free snacks, not just the typical popcorn, but a whole table chock full of cookies, chips, candy bars, etc. I grabbed a pack of Oreos, expressed my mutual dissatisfaction with our current president (not capitalized intentionally), thanked them for their hospitality and got back in the air.

Next up was the ILS 25 at Gwinnett County, in Lawrenceville, GA. Just getting cleared for the approach proved to be the biggest obstacle. Generally it is a good idea to talk to approach on the north side of Atlanta before flying any practice approaches because of the volume of traffic into RYY, PDK, LZU, etc. It lets them coordinate with the tower and get you slotted into the arrivals and traffic in the patterns at each airport. They're just that busy sometimes and today was no exception. After tuning to Atlanta Approach, it took me about a minute to get a word in, then another 1-2 minutes to get a squawk code! Then I had to ident twice before I was ID'd on radar. If I had to guess, I say that controller was probably working at least 14-15 aircraft. I know I counted about 7-8 distinct callsigns, not including my own, on his frequency. I had positioned myself to quickly join the approach course when I finally got my appraoch clearance. With the rising temperatures today, plus the clearing skies, meant some unstable air, so I was bouncing around on the localizer and glide slope, but kept it wthin a dot left/right/up/down, and the runway was right were it should be at DH. I had to break off my approach on short final because the tower had cleared a Hawker Jet to depart, but he took his time taxiing out to the runway, and wasn't even rolling by the time I passed the missed point. I started my climb back out, advised the tower, who told me to excecute a turn to the south for traffic, then turn back to the course I was given for my missed approach.

My final approach of the day was the GPS 27 back into Cobb County again. I had the course nailed pretty much all the way in, but coming down the pseudo-slope (my new term for it) I kept getting some updrafts that, even though I had my power exactly where it needed to be and my speed pegged, cancelled out my descent rate. I normally don't get that far off the glide slope, but I was about half to two thirds deflection the last two miles, even though I had been forcing the nose over and re-trimming to keep it on its way down. All said, when I looked up, I was looking at 3 whites and a red on the PAPI and well centered with the runway, so it was more than passable and would have gotten me down safely.

All told, today got me another 2 hours cross country time and some valuable practice for my stage check on Monday. With any luck, in two weeks I'll have the checkride done and will be able to add "Instrument Rating" to my license.