Touring the Southeast
This morning we started out bright and early.
I didn't sleep too well because I had too much ForeFlight code bouncing around in my brain. But a quick gulp of an energy drink and a shower had me awake by 6:30AM. We were off for a trip from VA (KJGG) to Hickory, NC (KHKY) and Greenville, SC (KGYH).
John let me do the flying so I could gain more time in the Turbo Cirrus.
The trip was great - we dropped off John's step mother in Hickory (cool airport that used to be a hub for Piedmont airlines - back when commercial air travel was a good thing) and then went over to Greenville for John to spend a few minutes with a client of his.
I grabbed some small snacks at each stop, just enough to cover me for the next leg. In Greenville I got a good chance to chat with Charlie (who works at KJGG) to get the most recent gossip about the goings-on at the airport.
From there we went straight back to Williamsburg.
I filed IFR for 11,000' direct to go back. That would have had us going right over the northern part of the KCLT airspace. But I learned, upon picking up my clearance, that they weren't allowing any of that.
We were given a route that had us go north of the airspace. They also only cleared us up to 9,000' instead of 11 as requested. We were told that the altitude change was due to the Charlotte airspace, but since we were routed north of it I didn't full understand that. Regardless, it gave me some practice plugging in a flight plan into the Garmin 430 (pretty easy to do).
As we approached the first waypoint we were gaining on a Diamond DA40 that was heading to the same location. Since he was at the altitude we were assigned, 9000, we had to wait at 7000.
Normally this is no big deal at all, but the Turbo Cirrus has certain procedures you follow when leveling off where you wait a while before pulling back to cruise power. Since I kept thinking we'd be stepped to a higher altitude anytime now, I was avoiding going through that sequence (not that it is anything all that tough). It made me think that, as nice as it would be to fly a jet, you are probably more concerned with not getting to go to your preferred altitude than you would be in a piston plane. Maybe when you fly something that fast you get extra special treatment from ATC. ;)
After asking if we could go on up to 11,000 to avoid the Diamond, ATC gave us a 20 degree right course change instead. That was great because it cut off a corner for us. They gave us a traffic call as we passed the Diamond but it was 6 miles out so I couldn't find it visually - I could only see it on the traffic scope. I felt that maybe ATC was waiting for me to be able to provide visual separation before allowing us to climb through the Diamond's altitude.
After a bit the Diamond was at our 8 o'clock so ATC cleared us to 9,000'. We asked for 11,000' and got it from the next controller. Our next waypoint was at a VOR and as we passed directly over it I realized that I actually get a little jittery doing that. Something about passing directly over a spot that others might go directly to. It made me extra vigilant for traffic.
We made good time once we were pointing directly to JGG - I saw 215 knots of ground speed at one point and we weren't quite running at max power (to keep the CHTs under 380 degrees).
My landings improved throughout the day so that thing called "practice" must actually work. :)
I didn't sleep too well because I had too much ForeFlight code bouncing around in my brain. But a quick gulp of an energy drink and a shower had me awake by 6:30AM. We were off for a trip from VA (KJGG) to Hickory, NC (KHKY) and Greenville, SC (KGYH).
John let me do the flying so I could gain more time in the Turbo Cirrus.
The trip was great - we dropped off John's step mother in Hickory (cool airport that used to be a hub for Piedmont airlines - back when commercial air travel was a good thing) and then went over to Greenville for John to spend a few minutes with a client of his.
I grabbed some small snacks at each stop, just enough to cover me for the next leg. In Greenville I got a good chance to chat with Charlie (who works at KJGG) to get the most recent gossip about the goings-on at the airport.
From there we went straight back to Williamsburg.
I filed IFR for 11,000' direct to go back. That would have had us going right over the northern part of the KCLT airspace. But I learned, upon picking up my clearance, that they weren't allowing any of that.
We were given a route that had us go north of the airspace. They also only cleared us up to 9,000' instead of 11 as requested. We were told that the altitude change was due to the Charlotte airspace, but since we were routed north of it I didn't full understand that. Regardless, it gave me some practice plugging in a flight plan into the Garmin 430 (pretty easy to do).
As we approached the first waypoint we were gaining on a Diamond DA40 that was heading to the same location. Since he was at the altitude we were assigned, 9000, we had to wait at 7000.
Normally this is no big deal at all, but the Turbo Cirrus has certain procedures you follow when leveling off where you wait a while before pulling back to cruise power. Since I kept thinking we'd be stepped to a higher altitude anytime now, I was avoiding going through that sequence (not that it is anything all that tough). It made me think that, as nice as it would be to fly a jet, you are probably more concerned with not getting to go to your preferred altitude than you would be in a piston plane. Maybe when you fly something that fast you get extra special treatment from ATC. ;)
After asking if we could go on up to 11,000 to avoid the Diamond, ATC gave us a 20 degree right course change instead. That was great because it cut off a corner for us. They gave us a traffic call as we passed the Diamond but it was 6 miles out so I couldn't find it visually - I could only see it on the traffic scope. I felt that maybe ATC was waiting for me to be able to provide visual separation before allowing us to climb through the Diamond's altitude.
After a bit the Diamond was at our 8 o'clock so ATC cleared us to 9,000'. We asked for 11,000' and got it from the next controller. Our next waypoint was at a VOR and as we passed directly over it I realized that I actually get a little jittery doing that. Something about passing directly over a spot that others might go directly to. It made me extra vigilant for traffic.
We made good time once we were pointing directly to JGG - I saw 215 knots of ground speed at one point and we weren't quite running at max power (to keep the CHTs under 380 degrees).
My landings improved throughout the day so that thing called "practice" must actually work. :)
Cruising back home
Fueling up after the trip (Bill mans the nozzle, Charlie is watching, John waits with the tow)
Fueling up after the trip (Bill mans the nozzle, Charlie is watching, John waits with the tow)
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