Backcourse to Daytona Beach

Today I flew one of the most complicated instrument approaches- the Localizer Backcourse Approach to Runway 25R at Daytona Beach.

There are three reasons this approach is considered to be difficult.

1 - It encompasses a DME arc, which takes some extra focus to fly.
2 - All of the waypoints are identified by VOR radials which require extra effort to keep track of.
3 - It is a backcourse, which means that the needle indicating whether you are on course or not swings in the opposite direction as usual.

Here is the approach's plan view:



If you're wondering how well I flew this approach, here is the printout from the simulator that shows my flight path:



And here's is the same flight path that I enhanced through MS Paint. The black lines are the runways at the airport, the thin green line is my takeoff and flight before starting the approach, the thick yellow line is my approach flight path, and the thin red line is my missed approach flight path. I also identified JODAB intersection (which was my IAF) and TOMOK intersection (the missed approach fix) in blue.



You should be able to easily compare this to the approach chart above. The only thing that wasn't perfect was the holding pattern I flew on the missed approach. I did not apply enough wind correction so it wasn't a perfect oval.

After I successfully flew this approach, I then did a perfect VOR-A approach to Morgantown airport and finished the flight off with the ILS 21 into Clarksburg.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get to fly a real plane.