Vectors To Final

This evening I had a special treat. I got to fly "my" new airplane (well, part of it is mine) for the first time. I bought part of a Cirrus SR22 based at the local airport and today was "checkout" day. I went up with my co-owner's instructor to get re-aclimated with the airplane - it's been at least a year since I had PIC time in a Cirrus - and knock out a BFR (bi-annual flight review) and IPC (instrument proficiency check) at the same time. Needless to say, it was tough work, but loads of fun. We started out in the FBO talking about the performance and systems of the SR22. From there it was on to weather briefings and what to look out for. After that he gave me our route of flight (KUZA->KFLO->KCRE->KUZA) and I went off to brief and file it. ForeFlight Mobile 3 came in quite handy for that task, but I took my time doing it as I wanted to be completely thorough. This was not only my first Cirrus flight in a while, but my first flight as pil

Ars Technica posted a good article on the inner workings of air traffic control last week. It reminded me of my visit to the Potomac TRACON a few years back, and how impressive their facility was.