Vectors To Final

Yesterday I bought a new aircraft model for MS Flight Sim 2004: the Cirrus SR20 from EagleSoft . I have wanted to buy a good model of the Cirrus for a while, and have been following EagleSoft's progress on this for the last 6-7 months. They recently released it and I have to say I am impressed. From my point of view, they have made a top notch simulator, all the way down to mimicking the Avidyne glass panel. In the screenshots below you can see the PFD (primary flight display) in the middle. In that image, I am in a climbing left hand bank. The slip/skid indicator is the little triangle near the top of the panel, with the dark parallelogram under it showing that I need more left rudder. The rate of turn is shown as the blue arc over the compass rose in the bottom half of the screen (I am turning a little harder than standard rate). If you have an interest in learning the Cirrus or just the Avidyne setup, spend the $30 on this model. It is well worth it.

Today I spent 0.8 hours in the pattern. This was likely only the third time I have "stayed in the pattern" since I picked up flying again a year or so ago. We were practicing short/soft field takeoffs (neither of which have I done in many years). Needless to say, there was plenty of rust. Especially when coupled with the fact that I haven't flown in a few weeks and I am still getting use to a complex airplane. No dangerous rust thankfully, just rust. In fact, my first landing today was supposed to be a short field landing. What did I end up doing? The best NORMAL landing I have ever done in the plane. In fact my instructor even said that he doesn't see people make many landings that nice in that airplane, but that it was a crummy short field landing. :) I said "I'll take what I can get". :) I'm fighting some kind of virus or other bug, so even though I performed quite poorly today, I'll take it.