Night flight and the return
John flew down to KUZA to give me a lift back up to Williamsburg late last week. He arrived in Rock Hill around 5:00 PM and we made a fast turnaround to get back up north before some forecast weather made its way into the area.
I took the left seat and we made our way east around the southern side of the KCLT airspace. John picked up our IFR clearance while I got re-acclimated to flying the turbo Cirrus SR22 (it all came back to me quickly thankfully).
The sun set about half way to our destination and we watched as the city lights started becoming more and more prominent. I made a check of the KJGG weather every 15 mins or so to see what the ceiling was doing there - it was maintaining at 2300' AGL overcast.
When John was flying down south he went through a bit of weather through VA so we expected to see some of that again. However, the way it turned out, we only went through a few small cloud layers that were pretty thin. I would reach down and turn off the strobe light when we did, as it was giving us a blinding flash when it reflected off the clouds.
As we neared KJGG Norfolk ATC asked us what we wanted to do - he did not have the weather at Williamsburg. We told him if he could get us down to 2000' we would likely be able to shoot the visual approach. He was very accommodating, as they always are, and as we crossed the James river we eased down below the last of the clouds.
We could see the beacon so I pointed towards it to set up for a 45 degree downwind entry. I turned on the landing light in preparation for the dark, moonless landing. John canceled our IFR clearance and worked the radio to get the airport lights on for me. I set up a slightly wider than usual pattern to give us plenty of time to get stabilized on the final approach.
As I was getting us down the glidepath to the runway, John helped me out by calling out airpseeds - 81 kts, 83 kts, 82 kts, 84 kts (my goal was 80 - 85 kts, favoring the high end since we had a slight gust to the winds).
Somehow - shear luck - I touched down with one of the softest landings I've ever had. I got on the brakes lightly while keeping the nose off the runway. Once the nose set down I applied the brakes more aggressively to make sure we stopped before our 3200' of runway ran out. We taxied to the hangar and shut down, feeling like we had accomplished a nice feat completing a night time, light IFR flight.
John brought me back down South on Monday and let me fly his beautiful plane once more. This flight was super easy as the winds were light and the sky was severe clear. We made a bee-line for KUZA and dodged to the left just a bit to again stay clear of the Charlotte airspace. John hopped in the left seat and headed back up to Williamsburg. He called me about 1.5 hours later to say he found some good tailwinds on the return trip - part of the time he was seeing 208+ kts of groundspeeed!
I took the left seat and we made our way east around the southern side of the KCLT airspace. John picked up our IFR clearance while I got re-acclimated to flying the turbo Cirrus SR22 (it all came back to me quickly thankfully).
The sun set about half way to our destination and we watched as the city lights started becoming more and more prominent. I made a check of the KJGG weather every 15 mins or so to see what the ceiling was doing there - it was maintaining at 2300' AGL overcast.
When John was flying down south he went through a bit of weather through VA so we expected to see some of that again. However, the way it turned out, we only went through a few small cloud layers that were pretty thin. I would reach down and turn off the strobe light when we did, as it was giving us a blinding flash when it reflected off the clouds.
As we neared KJGG Norfolk ATC asked us what we wanted to do - he did not have the weather at Williamsburg. We told him if he could get us down to 2000' we would likely be able to shoot the visual approach. He was very accommodating, as they always are, and as we crossed the James river we eased down below the last of the clouds.
We could see the beacon so I pointed towards it to set up for a 45 degree downwind entry. I turned on the landing light in preparation for the dark, moonless landing. John canceled our IFR clearance and worked the radio to get the airport lights on for me. I set up a slightly wider than usual pattern to give us plenty of time to get stabilized on the final approach.
As I was getting us down the glidepath to the runway, John helped me out by calling out airpseeds - 81 kts, 83 kts, 82 kts, 84 kts (my goal was 80 - 85 kts, favoring the high end since we had a slight gust to the winds).
Somehow - shear luck - I touched down with one of the softest landings I've ever had. I got on the brakes lightly while keeping the nose off the runway. Once the nose set down I applied the brakes more aggressively to make sure we stopped before our 3200' of runway ran out. We taxied to the hangar and shut down, feeling like we had accomplished a nice feat completing a night time, light IFR flight.
John brought me back down South on Monday and let me fly his beautiful plane once more. This flight was super easy as the winds were light and the sky was severe clear. We made a bee-line for KUZA and dodged to the left just a bit to again stay clear of the Charlotte airspace. John hopped in the left seat and headed back up to Williamsburg. He called me about 1.5 hours later to say he found some good tailwinds on the return trip - part of the time he was seeing 208+ kts of groundspeeed!
Comments