Danger, Will Robinson...

Conned one of partners in 78S to safety pilot for me tonight. Just wanted to fly some approaches and keep the instrument skills sharp. Flew the VOR 23 at Akron-Canton, the VOR-A at Kent State, and the LOC 25 at Akron Fulton.

No major problems, except that the Foggles don't go so good with the IFR Pilot's glasses. Usually, I remedy this by putting in contacts before doing training, but I got kept late at work and didn't have time to stop at home before meeting at the airport. Oh well.

I was a bit annoyed with the controller who let me blow through the localizer on the LOC 25 approach. I saw it coming, but he was handling a couple of other folks so I just played it out to see what I might expect on a busy IFR day. We were well outside the IAF, and so I thought he might just vector me back. No, that would be too easy, wouldn't it Mr. Controller? So instead, you give the IFR Pilot a 320 degree left hand turn back to the localizer.

Now I know this is only a practice approach in VFR conditions, but if we were in actual, don't you think that a sustained turn like that might not be the best idea? Ever heard of coriolis illusion? Huh? Huh?

Oh well, all's well that ends well. Big thanks to my safety pilot who managed to get the runway lights turned on at the home base when the IFR Pilot couldn't make it happen. The mike sequence is non-standard and it just wasn't listening to me tonight.

Then, when I got home, I got an e-mail from the folks at AirJourney.com. Not sure how they got my e-mail, but that's OK. Looks that they have some exciting opportunities to fly to all sorts of exotic destinations. This is just what the IFR Pilot needs -- a new project, such as planning for a trip like this one that they offer. I've always been fascinated by Iceland. This one also looks awesome!

I'm afraid that this is very, very dangerous. The IFR Pilot would look awfully good standing next to 78S at other worldly destinations, wouldn't he? Let me know which trip you think we should pick! Dadster, don't worry, I'll get a headrest installed on your chair before we go. It's almost enough of a reason to keep that little ole headset that's ready to be returned!