A Cirrus Weekend

I joined John for 3 separate flights in his Cirrus SR22 this weekend. It was a lot of fun and gave me that much needed does of "air time" after having lost the Cessna.

We started Friday night with a sunset trek down to southern Virginia and back up. John made a practice GPS and VOR approach and got some landing practice in as well. He even let me take the reins for a leg from KFKN to KAKQ complete with a right seat landing to finish it off. My landing was so-so, but John had quite a few good ones, some of which were at night.

On the last takeoff before returning to KJGG I am fairly sure we hit a small bird right as we made it to rotation speed. I saw it fly by the left side of the plane, just near the prop arc, and then I heard a slight thump. Thankfully there was no damage – the leading edges are so sharp on that airplane it could probably cut a bird in two with little trouble.

Saturday we made a lunch run over to KPTB. We grabbed the crew car and went out for a little barbecue. The ride was a bit bumpy above 2500' and the weather was hot, so we didn't do too much joy riding (beyond a quick circle over a favorite boat hangout spot on the Chickahominy river).

Sunday had us making an early morning run to KBUY to help another pilot drop off his Arrow for the work on the spinner. The Cirrus made the trip a quick one – just under an hour flight time to cover 151 nm.

John finished that trip off with an especially impressive landing back at KJGG.

A few pictures from the flights (see the last one to learn how straight John flies):




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