After a handful of IFR training flights, I was able to make my first REAL IFR flight with my instructor. Following is an account of that flight:

After reviewing everything on the ground, we taxied over to the parking area, completed the run-up and I called Portland clearance delivery to obtain our departure clearance. They responded with an altitude that was 1,000 feet higher than what was requested but everything else was as filed. I repeated the clearance sounding like someone who had no business talking on the radio. (I have never felt comfortable communication with controllers - not enough experience.) We then changed frequencies to the CTAF for Twin Oaks and departed the airport. Once we got into the air I put on my foggels and we contacted Portland approach. We flew southeast until we reached a radial of the Newburg VOR which we turned on and headed toward the VOR. After crossing the VOR, we turned towards the Salem airport and continued climbing.

The cloud layer was broken at 3,500 feet and overcast at around 4,000 feet. After climbing into the clouds, my instructor had me remove my foggles. This was my first experience flying in a cloud and I was surprised how much harder it was. After reaching 5,000 feet and leveling off, I was having a difficult time not over controlling the aircraft. I had a bad case of the leans which caused me to keep banking off to the left. After five to ten minutes of reminding myself to trust the instruments and ignore my senses, things started settling down. My instructor also started handling the radio making concentrating on flying easier.

I was so focused on flying the plane I was unable to enjoy the view. All I remember was quickly glancing up once and noticing how perfectly white it was and that rain was running off the windscreen.

We were vectored over to the ILS by Seattle Center. This made lining up with the ILS easy as all we needed to do was follow instructions until the needles came in. Once on the ILS, I reinstalled the foggles before coming out the bottom of the clouds and we were transferred to the Salem tower.

Flying the ILS was probably the easiest thing we did all day. As you can see from my track, I did a pretty good job flying down the ILS. Once we got to 500 feet I took off the foggles for a moment and did it all over again.

This was without a doubt the most fun I have had flying in a long time. I can see I need to make a point of flying into controlled airspace every chance I get in order to work on my radio skills. I'm really looking forward to doing it again!


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