Cirrus SR22 Turbo training - Day 3

Today’s 3.3 hour training flight focused on IFR work.
We flew from JGG to KDAN (Danville, VA) and shot the ILS there. I flew that one by hand, using the flight director as a terrific way to “cheat”. Just like a video game – keep the yellow thingie nestled in the green triangle bars!


Then we filed IFR for the trip to KFKN (Franklin) to shoot the GPS 9 approach partial panel (we failed the PFD). A quick stop for fuel (good prices!) and we were off again to JGG. We had to stay down at 1500’ to remain VFR until we could pick up an IFR clearance. For some reason we couldn’t pick up the clearance on the ground via the GCO (ground comm outlet) – it might have been out of service.

ATC was fairly busy during that last leg. In fact, one pilot was chewed out for not responding to calls from ATC. He was then promptly told “radar service terminated” and to “stay OUT of the airspace and get off my frequency”. Seemed a little excessive on ATC’s part, but I imagine the pilot was not very professional. After hearing that I tried to be extra concise on the radio and use a deep, confident, professional-sounding radio voice - well as much as I could muster that is.

I got my first holding pattern from ATC today. Someone was on the ground at JGG with an IFR clearance that had the airspace tied up for a few minutes. We spent the time making a couple of circles around the HCM VOR while I learned how best get the autopilot to fly it. Once he was cleared out of the area, ATC sent us right in to the airport. We were advised that another plane was behind us, in the hold until we were out of the way. Luckily we were able to cancel IFR right then so that the other guy didn’t have to do a few holds.

I ended the trip with a B+ landing. Well, it was actually a D+ landing since it was supposed to be short field and I didn’t touch down until 500 feet down the runway. The other landings went well though, including one that was a little crosswind. For some reason I really like the feeling of crabbing my way down the final approach and then dropping a wing and kicking opposite rudder just before touchdown. It feels very, ummm, aeronautical.

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