Post #2 - KOGD instrument practice approaches

A few close calls, but overall good flight.

Today I flew down to Ogden to practice some IFR approaches. It was my first time going to OGD and I was excited. Justin and I started our flight southbound climbing to 10000 ft. We flew over sardine canyon and intercepted the 331 degree radial of the Ogden VOR and flew inbound. Once we were 10.5 miles away I made a right turn to fly a 10 nautical mile arc around the VOR. After flying the arc for a few minutes I got to the 281 radial and flew inbound to the VOR. This was the beginning of the VOR instrument approach. I continued toward the runway until we reached our minimum altitude and took my hood off. I was able to see runway 7, but we executed a missed approach procedure and performed a climbing left turn back to the VOR. It was a great approach and didn't have any problems.

We were then vectored for an ILS approach. We picked up the localizer and vertical guidance and proceeded inbound without any problem. We then performed another missed approach with a climbing left turn. However, after gaining about 1500 feet of altitude Justin said "Bird!" I looked up from foggles and saw a blackbird about 200 yards in front of us circling, and it was directly in our path! It looked like some kind of hawk.Suddenly it swooped down and I lost sight of it beneath the engine compartment. A short burst of excitement. Then, a few minutes later as we were continuing our climb and I was under the hood (meaning I can't see anything outside, only instruments), Justin said "descend", It turned out that there was a C-130 on a collision course with us. It was slightly above us and to the side, as we were climbing. Justin told me to look up after we descended and I saw the plane pass about 1000ft above us. We were wondering why Air Traffic Control didn't notify us of the plane, because that is part of their job. So that was close call #2.

We then flew the 10 DME arc again and Justin pulled one of the circuit breakers to practice partial panel approaches. He pulled the AHRS, which is the Attitude Heading Reference System. This blacked out my artificial horizon, Heading Situation Indicator, and a few other instruments. I then proceeded on the arc and descended to the runway for another great approach. We then told ATC that we were going home to KLGU (Logan-Cache Airport). However, ATC notified us that there was traffic 2 miles 1 o'clock. He was about 1000 ft above us and climbing to 8000 ft, as we were climbing to 10,000ft. We started looking for him but the mountain covered in snow, rocks, and trees made it hard to see him. Both of us were about to go through the canyon and we were close to the same altitude. Well, we never saw him, but as we were climbing through 8000 and continued climbing, we knew we were safe. We then went home and flew the GPS 35 approach for Logan.

A few close calls, but overall good flight.