For my 1st flight in the new aircraft, G-BHOR, I practised flying in IMC, with an instrument approach to Lydd.
It was probably the hardest IFR flight I’ve conducted so far, with pretty much solid IMC for 1 hour and 40 minutes.
Not long after taking off from Biggin Hill I was in cloud, and tracking east using GPS/VOR-DME. 10 miles east of Detling, I intercepted the 172 degree track to the Lydd NDB beacon, then took up the hold there at 3200ft. After going around the hold once, I headed outbound to the 14dme arc, then intercepted the localiser, followed by the glideslope.
Here’s the Lydd procedure.
I was able to keep the needles centred, all the way down to minimums, making very small corrections to heading and rate of descent.
After executing a missed approach, I set course back to Biggin Hill via Bewl Water. Just south of Sevenoaks, I was breaking cloud at 2400ft, and so I cancelled IFR and made a visual approach back to runway 21 at Biggin Hill.
A very satisfying flight.
Video: Hard IFR & 1st flight in new aircraft