Evan's first flight

Today I took up my 17th "first time in a small plane" passenger - my son!

The whole family (Dad, Mom, and Son) went down to South Carolina to visit with family for a few hours. The SR22 made the trip in 1.5 hours each way. Had a little trouble picking up our IFR clearance in both directions. I was picking it up from approach right after departing the airport and Norfolk had some confusion when looking up my flight plan in the morning and Charlotte just ignored me for a while in the afternoon. Thankfully it was severe clear out so I didn't have issues with avoiding clouds while waiting for clearance.

We hooked Evan up with some swimming earplugs. They stayed in his ears well enough. They don't go in the ear canal, which is good because his 8 week old ears are very small, but that means they only block 20 or so decibels instead of 30 of so.

He was quite fussy in the car on the way to the airport and quite fussy when we finally got him situated in the airplane in his car seat. However, the second I cranked up the engine he got real calm and then slept. He slept for most of the flight down, until he was hungry a few miles away from our destination. Mom gave him a bottle and he was happy again. :) He spent a little more time awake on the trip back home later in the day, but was a happy camper - as long as Mom wasn't checking his ear plugs.

The airplane performed exceptionally well. We listened to XM radio the entire time and made good use of the autopilot. It handled the tiny bit of turbulence down low quite nicely. We cruised between 7000 and 9000 feet.

I had to keep a close eye on the cylinder head temps as the turbo gets things a little hot under the cowling. A little extra pull back on the mixture kept the temps under 380F - where I wanted them to stay.

Here's a few choice shots from the trip!

And a video:

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