Avionics looking better

Last week Jim used his Cirrus to help me ferry our C172 back down to PVG for the last bit of avionics maintenance. It was to get its new - um, refurbished, - VOR indicator installed and an ADF antenna strung up since the old one was no where to be found.

I tried to crank up the cessna and found I needed to prime it a bit more to get it started. This was the first cold morning I've flown 35388 and I under-primed. I also had to spend about 20 minutes scrubbing off the frost with a towel. By the time I was done the sun was hitting the wings. If I had just sat back with a Bloody Mary and waited for the sun to do its thing I would have had the same result, but with less elbow grease. Oh well, live and learn (and re-learn).

I took off and saw a great climb rate - the cold air had me climbing out like I was on a fast elevator - maybe 900'/minute.

I dropped the plane off and buttoned it up as Jim was taxiing up in the SR22. I hopped in with him and we taxied out to leave. He was kind enough to let me do the takeoff and, with a lot of force on the right rudder pedal we were off the runway.

I immediately started saying something like "holy crap" in reaction to the massive climb rate we were getting. We were screaming up at around 1500 or more feet/minute even when I was about 10-20 kts faster than the best climb rate. I asked Jim if he turned on the afterburners when I wasn't looking but he hadn't.

Anyway, the next day I got a lift back down to PVG with the kind assistance of Dave and his Arrow and ferried the cessna back to JGG in a light rain. The ADF seemed good on the way back but my test of the glideslope was less than ideal since I just needed to get back and get into the office.

Tonight K and I went up to enjoy the sunset and give the glideslope its proper attention. K worked the radios (her first time with ATC) and I flew the ILS 7 into PHF. Things worked well so I went missed at 300 AGL and headed back to JGG. We did a little steep turn on the southside of the James river and then headed back into JGG as dusk settled in to stay.

I made a rather high approach - no excuse for that in the calm winds we had - but talked K through my flare and touchdown. Talking K through those types of high-intensity maneuvers is good practice for becoming a CFI one day, I'd imagine. I managed one of the softest landings in memory and we parked and shutdown.

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