spiderweb
Final Approach
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2005
- Messages
- 9,488
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Display name:
Ben
Did my annual trip to MA, this time with a stop in Boston. For those of you with time on your hands, here's the report:
Aircraft was an SR-20, and mission was to bring my wife and her former college student to Boston to find housing for grad school for the student, and bring us all to Central MA to visit our former teachers.
Monday was FDK to BED and a night in Cambridge. Hadn't been to my hometown in about 10 years! On the way up, there were some cumulus, and I was granted 11k. Up there, the ride was glassy smooth, and my passengers were amazed. They thought it was my technique, lol. It really was, of course, planning and decision making, and realizing that, duh, above the clouds it would be smooth. See attached picture--Groundspeed of 186 kts, 60% pwr, and fuel flow of 10.8 GPH. 2.6 hours.
Next day, we flew to a small airport called Turners Falls (0B5), to visit our old teachers. They are 75 and 93, and have twice as much energy as my wife and I (in our 40s), and her former student who is 25. Unfortunately, just before I was able to visit one of my former cello teachers, he passed away. I missed him by a day. But overall, a great visit. 0.4 hours in clear sky.
We had planned to come back today, but the weather was predicted to be rainy and stormy (those are technical terms, in case you didn't know), so we went yesterday. It was rainy and stormy. I tried to top the weather, but pretty soon I was facing TCUs I couldn't top, so requested and was granted lower, and went under. My limit for cloud penetration when they're convective is no TCUs (and, obviously, CBs). ATC was great and let me deviate as needed. The NexRad and Stormscope made it easy to stay out of nasty stuff. So, the turbulence was kept to a minimum in the IMC. I also noted that the Cirrus was -much- better at handling turbulence than the C172s and C182s I've flown.
The speed, comfort, useful load, and weather capability made the trip incredibly smooth. My wife and her student love the plane, so I guess I made the right decision to transition! My landings were just OK, but my passengers thought they were great. They said "better than the airlines," but I know better.
And as I predicted, seven hours of quality time up there with the Perspective G1000 has made me -very- familiar with the buttons.
I would highly recommend the Cirrus for trips like these. Wish I could rent a FIKI SR-22, though!
Aircraft was an SR-20, and mission was to bring my wife and her former college student to Boston to find housing for grad school for the student, and bring us all to Central MA to visit our former teachers.
Monday was FDK to BED and a night in Cambridge. Hadn't been to my hometown in about 10 years! On the way up, there were some cumulus, and I was granted 11k. Up there, the ride was glassy smooth, and my passengers were amazed. They thought it was my technique, lol. It really was, of course, planning and decision making, and realizing that, duh, above the clouds it would be smooth. See attached picture--Groundspeed of 186 kts, 60% pwr, and fuel flow of 10.8 GPH. 2.6 hours.
Next day, we flew to a small airport called Turners Falls (0B5), to visit our old teachers. They are 75 and 93, and have twice as much energy as my wife and I (in our 40s), and her former student who is 25. Unfortunately, just before I was able to visit one of my former cello teachers, he passed away. I missed him by a day. But overall, a great visit. 0.4 hours in clear sky.
We had planned to come back today, but the weather was predicted to be rainy and stormy (those are technical terms, in case you didn't know), so we went yesterday. It was rainy and stormy. I tried to top the weather, but pretty soon I was facing TCUs I couldn't top, so requested and was granted lower, and went under. My limit for cloud penetration when they're convective is no TCUs (and, obviously, CBs). ATC was great and let me deviate as needed. The NexRad and Stormscope made it easy to stay out of nasty stuff. So, the turbulence was kept to a minimum in the IMC. I also noted that the Cirrus was -much- better at handling turbulence than the C172s and C182s I've flown.
The speed, comfort, useful load, and weather capability made the trip incredibly smooth. My wife and her student love the plane, so I guess I made the right decision to transition! My landings were just OK, but my passengers thought they were great. They said "better than the airlines," but I know better.
And as I predicted, seven hours of quality time up there with the Perspective G1000 has made me -very- familiar with the buttons.
I would highly recommend the Cirrus for trips like these. Wish I could rent a FIKI SR-22, though!
