IFR Flight Plan to CYPW in XTW

Building IFR system experience incrementally was the goal since I am new to the rating and all prior flights were with a G1000 but I like XTW. The flight plan route was;
Boundary Bay 4 departure, WC, AP, YCD, YPW, NDB RWY 09 full procedure. ZBB tower hands off to Vancouver Departure who issued a climb to 3000’ then over to Victoria Terminal. Getting the A16 airway as filed for this route is unlikely since AP (Active Pass) is a key hub for the arrival transitions APASS5 and FASBO5 into Victoria. We were vectored from White Rock NDB to Cherry Point and then essentially on the VFR route (commensurate with our VFR’ish airspeed) to East Point and given a climb to 6000’. At East Point we were given direct YCD Beacon so back on course with the KR86 ADF faithfully pointing the way and then to YPW with a hand off to Comox Terminal and down to 4000’. Midpoint between YCD and YPW on A16 is the MACAR waypoint on the 284 radial from the Vancouver VOR. The King 170B centered the needle perfectly confirming our location as we passed over.

Comox Terminal gave us the current weather and cleared us for the NDB approach. The Foreflight approach plate overlay works very nicely so a combination of ADF with GPS situational awareness. The published inbound track for NDB RWY 09 is 082 degrees, off-set to align with the valley for a missed approach. Since we were visual out of the procedure turn we just lined up with the runway so not a perfect ‘hockey stick’.

A PASCO Beech 1900C was just ahead of us Captained by Sean Samuel who one year ago was my instructor at Pacific Flying Club – he has moved up quickly. A short visit with Sean and to Julie’s Cafe then we headed south. Without a certified GPS the return to ZBB was VFR flown by my brother Ron while I got to play with the Stratus 2S and synthetic vision on Foreflight. Interesting downwind left 07 at 1500’ since 12 was also being used for landings simultaneously. Air time outbound was 1.3 and 1.1 for the return.