Cirrus travels

A week ago John flew down in the SR22 with a neighbor/friend Mike and Mike's son, Adam, to give me a lift up to Williamsburg.

I did a quick preflight while the guys had some lunch and then, once we were all aboard, I cranked up the engine. I had a tough time cranking it, mainly due to not enough priming, but before too long we were heading east at 3000' to avoid CLT airspace.

After letting Adam fly for a few minutes I called up CLT to get an IFR clearance. Once we flew around the CLT airspace we were finally allowed to point directly to Williamsburg and climb up into the cooler air at 7000'.

Eventually we went up to 9000' to avoid a cloud layer and try to cool off a little more.

After descending through the clouds near Williamsburg, I handed the reigns off to Adam who flew us through a little rain and then down to the traffic pattern. He did a great job and handed me the airplane just in time to add some flaps before turning to a right base leg.

We all told Adam he was probably a natural, due to how smoothly he handled the airplane, and how well he nailed altitudes and headings. I hope he'll take up training as he seems a good fit to become a pilot!

We returned Friday in similar weather - just a few high clouds. We zipped about 20 feet over one cloud after having leveled off, giving us a good feel for how quick 170 kts really is. :)

Many thanks to John for not only taking me back and forth twice but for putting up with my changing schedule and giving me a place to sleep when my house was a bit too warm (had to get the A/C fixed)!

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