Vectors To Final

Krista and I went up today (for 1.7hrs total time) with the hopes of punching through a few clouds. We got the chance to do just that, with clouds at 2500' and a scattered layer in places at 1500'. Today added about 0.2 hours of actual instrument time to my logbook, and one of the approaches was ~70% in the clouds (once we came down the glideslope we broke out of the soup fairly quickly). I re-learned how easy it is to get your head turned around with respect to the attitude of the airplane when in the clouds. But my training must have worked because focusing on the instruments and keeping a good scan going kept me feeling on top of things. This was also the first time I have flown out of a towered airport solo since taking up flying again last year. My radio work was fine, though I mumbled once or twice. :) Here is a video of us entering a cloud on the way to KORF:

I was browsing Justin's NoticeToAirmen forums today and came across a link to a movie, One Six Right , posted by Todd . The movie describes some of the history of a CA airport and the trailer had a few scenes of a Piper Cub. This reminded me of my first time flying a tail wheel airplane back around 1994 (it was also a Cub). This Cub was owned by my high school friend's Dad, who was (probably still is) a professional ATP pilot. My friend (also a pilot) used to take me up in the plane once a month or so, and we'd have a great time exploring the local area. Then one day his Dad (also an instructor) asked if I'd like to actually learn how to fly it (I already had my private license at that point). Of course I jumped at the chance and we got the airplane started up. He showed me how S-turns are needed when taxiing since you can't see in front all that well with the tail almost on the tarmac. Setting up on runway 20, he had me advance power and told me to go easy on...

Today I took a friend and co-worker named Doug up for 1.4 hours. We had a simple flight plan - go to KMFV , do a touch-and-go, and return to JGG. Since that plan involves crossing the Chesapeake bay, I plotted the shortest distance across the water, which turned out to be the CCV VOR 290 radial giving us about 13NM over open water. I decided to use 6500' of altitude so that we could glide back to shore even if we lost the engine in the middle of the bay. The interesting part was calculating where the "middle" was, based on the winds aloft. Going to KMFV we crossed the bay in about 4:15 (132 kts ground speed) but coming back it took about 7 minutes (~90 kts ground speed). I watched the engine instruments closely during that part of the flight. :) We had a good flight with a few winds making things interesting close to the ground. There was some chop in the air at 2000' and we had a nice crosswind at KMFV (my landing was a bit off there, didn't work the rudd...

Today I went for a ride in a Cirrus SR-22, a plane I have admired (by specs) since getting back into flying a year ago. I got the chance to check it out because of a local -22 owner @ JGG. He is looking for a partner on the airplane, and though I couldn't afford to buy in with him (I wish I could) he was still more than willing to give me a demo flight. We had lunch at the local airport restaurant and then drove down to his hangar. We pulled the plane out and after a quick preflight hopped in. The first thing I noticed was that the interior of the plane was a little smaller than I expected (based on pictures I have seen). That is pretty typical for me; pictures of items always seem larger than the real thing. However, it was still a very comfortable cabin and at least there was some room between pilot and co-pilot which is not the case in the 172R I normally fly around in. The seat was a little bit hard and I was worried it would be uncomfortable, but I never noticed it to b...