I know I said I would avoid IFR as much as possible, but I decided to fly this leg on full IFR for two reasons. The first one was the weather. The whole area is expected to be cloudy and rainy for several days, with a exceptional window of more "clear" skies at the time I flew. The second reason was that I hadn't tested the 58P in IFR yet, so I saw a good opportunity here. In addition, I know quite well the area, so I won't discover anything new by flying low, so... let's test those instruments!
After checking the charts, I decide that the best way of flying this leg is over DGO VOR, so I plan accordingly SID and STAR, deciding on a cruise altitude of 9,000 ft. This way I don't have to pressurize the cabin (something that is stressful if repeated often). Also, the leg is too short to climb higher. So, I embark my 3 passengers and take off from runway 04.
I didn't remember how stressful it is to fly manually a SID/STAR, but very satisfying. I barely didn't have time to check out of the window, although certainly many clouds were there. The sky was broken, so some patches of ground could be seen, but definitely not good enough for VFR, especially around mountains.
I also took advantage to test the ILS approach capacity of the Baron, which was awesome. It perfectly catched and followed the glideslope. In general, it behaved really well in all stages of the flight.
A very pleasant flight that allowed me to refresh my instrumental skills. Luckily there were no traffics, and no ATC to talk to, otherwise things would have been more difficult.
The weather is expected to be bad around the Pyrinees over the next days, so I might fly IFR again for the main reason I already mentioned... I know quite well the area so I'd prefer to advance rather than to sit and wait. I'm also not quite convinced about the jobs that are at Bilbao, so I might hop around to get something better.
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Distance: 115 nm
LEBG 242100Z AUTO 06012KT 9999 OVC022 11/08 Q1020
LEBB 242200Z AUTO 29005KT 260V320 9999 FEW025 OVC043 16/13 Q1021
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