First Instructor Flight BY LT JOHNATHAN BOSCH
fter four months in the instructor training unit relearning to fly the T-34, I was ready to head out with students. As a new IP our first few instructional flights are instrument hops. My very first flight was an out-and-in to Victoria, Texas, municipal airport and I was looking forward to that “Big Sky burger.” During the brief, the weather looked good for an instrument flight. There was no significant weather at takeoff, but ceilings were forecast to come down throughout the day. For our return flight, the forecast called for 400foot ceilings at Navy Corpus. This was better than the minimum 360-foot ceiling for a TACAN approach and 213 feet for the PAR with Corpus International calling no ceiling. We decided to go for it and monitor the weather for changes. Departing Victoria on our return, we requested pilot’s own navigation to BRASY to practice point to point navigation. ATC cleared it, and my student set up what appeared to be a direct course. A few minutes later ATC called and said, “Proceed direct to BRASY at this time.” This was the first time I cross-checked the 18
wet compass after takeoff and discovered a 30-degree error in our RMI. After confirming this with my student, we started a timed turn toward the appropriate heading using the wet compass. Once on heading, I tried to slave the RMI. It zipped past our heading and stabilized 130 degrees off. I decided that the instructional portion of the flight was over. I reported to ATC that our RMI had failed and requested radar vectors to the PAR at Navy Corpus. They asked if I wanted to declare an emergency, which I declined. Approximately once a minute, while on vectors, ATC would direct me to turn left. Approach
