My three passengers didn't want to fly again after the previous leg, but after talking to them (and signing few documents...), they agreed on continuing towards Granada. It was 17:30 and I didn't want to delay the flight for too long. The ceiling of clouds was not too high and, considering I had to surround Sierra Nevada, the safest plan was to flight IFR.
Just a quick check on the engines, structure and wheels and we were taxiing to runway 23. ATC cleared us for take off and I gained altitude quite quickly, til 9000 ft. I'm not familiarized with IFR procedures, so I allowed the GPS to take care of the heading while I was controlling the engines and altitude.
Once I reached the first fix of the airway, ATC left, so I decided to went on with the IFR plan by myself. I climbed firstly to FL140 (14000 ft.) to comply with the rules of that airway, but later I had to reach FL160, to avoid an extense layer of clouds. Luckily, we had enough oxygen tanks in the cockpit.
The whole leg was fully cloudy. We were able to see just the top of Sierra Nevada, with Mulhacén (3482 m) and Veleta (3398 m) as highest peaks. In fact, Mulhacén is the second highest mountain in Spain (after El Teide, a volcano in the Canary Islands).
In about 30 minutes we were starting the descent towards Granada airport (LEGR). I chose to do the final approach through the ILS of runway 09. The wind was calm, so this was the easiest path to land softly. And it worked out quite well.
It was a short leg in which I practiced a full IFR flight, GPS navigation and ATC control. I hadn't tried this in more than a year, and never with the Baron, so the experience was good. However, it was clear to me that, even though FL160 was feasible, maybe FL180 is the limit I can reach, and takes time. The theoretical ceiling is FL200, so I'll test this along the trip, to plan better my legs on high altitude regions.
I don't find suitable jobs to the south at this moment. I intend to have Gibraltar as my last stop before jumping to Africa. I never landed there before, so it will be an interesting flight. But, by now, let's rest.
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Technical details:
LEAM - LEGR
SID: ESILA1A
ESILA J865 UNTOS UN865 VIBAS
STAR: VIBAS2D
APPR: ILS Z 09
Av. distance: 160 nm
Av. GS: 150 kt
Av. alt.: FL160
METAR:
LEAM 131630Z AUTO VRB02KT 9999 BKN008 BKN016 16/15 Q1008
LEGR 131830Z AUTO 26003KT 220V300 9999 -RA FEW050 BKN057 BKN076 13/12 Q1009
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