Tag Archives: training

Flying A Chandelle

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Since most of the northeast is still on lockdown during Covid-19, there is still really nowhere to go.  But it’s still a good time to fly and use this time to practice basic flying maneuvers.  For this flight I decided to practice chandelles and a few approaches.

The first chandelle, I forgot to turn the screen camera on, so I wasn’t able to save it.  However, the 2nd time I did it, I did have the cameras rolling.  You can see for yourself in the Youtube video below”

After that, I did an instrument approach at KGBR airport.  I flew the approach “OK” … But I made a couple of really rookie mistakes.  First mistake was that I transmitted my position report on the wrong frequency.  This was really painful for me because I usually laugh at those silly pilots when I hear others do this 🙁  Second mistake, which was worse, is that I bugged the wrong altitude on the autopilot so the VNAV descent didn’t happen as it should have.  I was able to easily recover from both mistakes.  But it just goes to show you really need to practice as often as possible.

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Practice Flight Over Rhode Island

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Another exciting week of Covid-19 life (NOT)!  This week was far from exciting.  In fact, between working from home and only leaving the house for the occasional grocery run, it was quite boring.

As a result, I was eager to escape to the skies.  Unfortunately, the rest of the country is still on lockdown.  So there is really no place to go.  But it is a perfect time to practice a bunch of flight maneuvers that I don’t normally do.  For me, most of my trips are cross-country flying IFR, using autopilot and as much automation as is available in the Cirrus.  So on this day, I decided to fly to Rhode Island.  But do it entirely VFR and without autopilot and practice some old fashioned stick and rudder flying.

You can see some of the flight in this video:

Hopefully, we will get back to normal soon.  I can’t wait to do a good, old fashioned $100 hamburger run 🙂

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Getting Back In The Saddle

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After a 4+ year hiatus from flying, I have been itching to get “Back in the Saddle”.

The closest I had been to flying was playing with drone, which was fun …. But nowhere near the same as true flying.  You can see some of my drone pix/videos here:

However, I was dreading the process of getting current… (My medical-=> expired; My instrument proficiency -=> Gone; My VFR proficiency -=> Gone; Even my logbook was “dusty”)

But last month, I decided to get going!

The first step before anything else was to get my medical in order.  Since I last flew, the FAA has created a simplified “Basic Med” that really is quite easy.  But that does not let you fly outside the US, which I will likely want to do.  So I found my local FAA doc and got the traditional 3rd class medical.

The next step was brushing up on all of the core aviation knowledge, which I thought I forgot.  With the help of the AOPA “Rusty Pilots” info, that got me started and I was surprised how quickly it all came back to me… Maybe it was like riding a bicycle 😉

Now it was time to get down to business with some Cirrus specific training.  There was a bunch of online transition training material that I studied for a couple of weeks and then it was time to find an instructor and really get going.

I decided to reach out to one of my old instructors in Atlanta and scheduled an intensive long weekend to get current on everything at once! Here we are about to climb in for my first lesson:
While the basics of flying all came back to me easily, the cockpit was totally different.  Over the past few years Cirrus has really upgraded the avionics dramatically in the SR22 G6.  You can see the new cockpit below.

After the initial few seconds of terror, I started playing with the buttons on the ground with GPU connected.  They have added so much amazing capability into this cockpit it feels like a spaceship!

After a grueling weekend including lots of landings, approaches, etc I am now legal again!

Next step is to find a new bird of my own.  The tricky part will be to find right plane with Turbo, A/C and all of the cool new avionics toys 😉

As soon as I have my new plane, I am hoping to start making some more videos and reviving my Youtube channel.

Cheers,
== T.J.==

My Journey To the Commercial Ticket

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“A good pilot is always learning”

During my 8 years of flying as an FAA private pilot, I tried my best to stick to this mantra. From flying my own plane every chance I got, to taking lots of Cirrus training, aerobatics training & even seaplane training, I was constantly learning, studying, practicing and, of course, enjoying every second of it. If there’s one thing I love as much as travel, it’s flying. Lucky for me, the two often go hand in hand.

I had been thinking about getting my commercial pilot’s license for a couple of years. I looked into the requirements, researched the best places to take the course, and even went as far as buying the books (which I halfheartedly read and studied off and on for the better part of two years). Though I had no desire to make a profession out of flying, I knew that if I wanted to take my skills to the next level and getting my commercial license was a great way to do so. The bug was planted in my ear in December, and making it my New Year’s resolution of 2014, I knew I had to take the plunge. I looked into the best school and training course for my rather crazy work schedule, and found American Flyers in Pompano Beach, which is near Ft Lauderdale, Florida.

I took a complete week off of work, which is something I seldom do. This enabled me to focus my time and energy completely on training both on the ground and in the air.

Since I had my Private Certificate and Instrument Rating already under my belt, I wasn’t really nervous about the flying aspect of the course. If anything, I was a bit peeved at the silly requirements the FAA calls for when training for the commercial license. Despite the Cirrus being a modern, luxurious, overly capable plane, the FAA required the test to be flown in a “retractable plane”… meaning the landing gear retracts into the airplane.

Even though this means nothing but a simple push of a button, it’s the FAA’s magical requirement. So I parked the Cirrus on the tarmac and walked over to my training aircraft, which was a 1978 vintage Cessna 172-R Retractable show below:

While it looked like a jalopy, it was surprisingly well maintained and was really “fit for purpose”!

Back to the story though, and I’m definitely not airborne yet.

In Pompano, Florida I had to first go through the ground school portion of the training. With the omnipresent Goodyear blimp always floating somewhere nearby (Pompano is the home of the Goodyear blimp), Monday through Friday I spent 3 hours a day studying commercial content with the flight instructors. After the ground portion each day there were also two training flights per day, each of which were 1-2 hour grueling sessions with an instructor to prepare me for the final exam. Practicing all the maneuvers, flight plans, emergency simulations etc., we did everything imaginable to prepare for the actual “Check Ride.”

Strangely enough, the maneuvers weren’t all that different from the ones I had to do during the my private training.  They simply had to be much more precisely.  There were a few new ones, which I thought were actually fun!  In particular, I enjoyed the lazy eights and the eights on pylons.  Both of these maneuvers simply felt elegant when done correctly.

However, operating the antique airplane with old-fashioned everything and not a glimmer of modern technology (not even GPS) was WAY out of my comfort zone.

But after a week of study and practice, I was ready for my Check Ride. The only question looming in the distance now… was my Check Ride ready for me??

The Big Day

After a week of intensive training, I was ready to take on my Check Ride. The kind faces at American Flyers were long in the past now, and for my final exam, I faced a whole different breed of pilots…. These were the hardened, time & flight weathered, FAA designated examiner,  who had spent more time in the air during their lives than they did on the ground. They had been through every type of in-flight problem imaginable, knew everything there was to know about the history, practice and profession of flying, and weren’t about to allow some flighty (pun intended), rookie of a pilot into the commercial club. Needless to say, I thought the exam was INTENSE.

My FAA examiner had flown 18,000 hours in the military, another 20,000 hours commercially… and then became an FAA examiner. This guy really knew his stuff. We sat down for a good 2 hours for the oral exam, where I was tested, tried, tricked and perhaps even slightly tormented 😉  I am sure he didn’t feel that way … But I sure did. In my mind though, I knew my stuff, and I didn’t think there was anything to worry about. Finally, after the 2 hours were through, the examiner looked at me and said “OK, we’re finished.” He got up… and just walked out the door.

Hmmm… “OK, we’re finished”… Did I pass or fail?   I wasn’t really sure.  Did I say or explain something wrong? My mind was reeling, and I wasn’t sure what to do. If you did happen to fail the oral exam, that was the end of the road for that day – you didn’t even get the chance to take the in-flight examination. You packed your books, called it a day, and got the “better luck next time” stamp of disapproval. 3 minutes I was sitting there in a despondent sweat, wondering what I had said wrong, when all of a sudden the door swung open and the examiner walked inside the room.

“Well aren’t you comin’?”

… I guess I had passed after all! … Time for the inflight portion!!

With the oral examination completed (and apparently passed), it was time for the real-deal Check Ride. We boarded a 1978 tin can and were ready to hit the skies. The only thing getting in between my commercial pilot’s license and me was the examiner to my right… and the black rain clouds looming in front of me. The examiner seemed confident that we could still carry on with the ride, so I took to the skies and explained what my flight plan would be.

In my Cirrus, a “flight plan” pretty much consists of following the GPS-guided magenta line on the screen in front of me. I finesse the joystick a bit, which many passengers tell me looks like I am playing a video game, and we’re well on our way to wherever!

In the jalopy trainer that I was now testing in… not so much. This ride was completely manual (really the whole point of the training), and relied solely on radio communication. To make things even more comical, the plane wasn’t really water tight (but remember: it has the magic requirement of retractable landing gear!!). As we made our way around the outskirts of the black rain clouds, the precipitation found its way inside the aircraft and completely soaked my entire left side. “Should we deviate to the right 10 degrees to avoid the precip?” I sensibly asked my examiner…

He replied “A little rain never hurt anybody… and we are still legal and VFR… So just continue on this heading” Clearly he wasn’t the one getting wet!

So we continued on and I was soaked but trying to ignore the water.  I demonstrated all of the required maneuvers (Steep Spirals, Lazy Eights, Eights On Pylons, emergency landings etc.), doing my best to appear calm, cool and collected. All of a sudden in mid-flight around 3,000 feet, the examiner leans forward, pulls the power and says, “Whoops, looks like your engine just failed!”

I gained control of the plane- entirely manual now- and looked around for the nearest clearing for my powerless landing. Following all the procedures exactly as I was supposed to, I got the plane to about 500 feet above an open farm before the examiner hit the power again and said “Hey, looks like you got lucky, your power came back.” Fantastic.

With the most difficult stuff out of the way (or so I thought), I started making my way back to the school. All of a sudden, the airplane’s radio system (which is our only means of communication with the control towers/air traffic control) entirely cut out. I reached back into my studies and started doing all the right procedures once again, until I looked at the examiner and realized that this wasn’t a test… the radio actually failed!!

As we made our way back to the landing strip, air traffic control (we could hear them but they couldn’t hear us) quickly assessed what was going on, and moved into radio-less protocol. As they spoke to us, we answered by clicks on the radio, maneuvers with the plane (rocking the wings back and forth) and were finally cleared for landing. Touching down that 1978 heap of antiquity, I knew I had passed my test after that ordeal!!

We made our way inside the school and I was awarded my temporary commercial pilot’s license right then and there. I rang the traditional bell as I received my certification and walked away seriously proud of my commercial accomplishments. From the expected trials and tricks to the unexpected maneuvers and all out radio failures- I definitely know why a good pilot should always be learning!

Now that I’ve obtained my commercial pilot’s license, I’m that much more qualified to rent planes, fly internationally and embark on my own self-fly journeys. Whether on land or in the sky, follow along to see where my next travels take me!

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Spotting Castles and Crossing New Borders

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After a couple of weeks of preparation, I was totally ready for my flight in Germany.
While I had read up on the many nuances of flying here, I didn’t really look carefully enough at the map.  I didn’t realize how close Baden-Baden was to France.  In fact, my hotel was walking distance to the French border!
This also meant that it would be easily possible to squeeze in quick trip to France as part of the training flight.  My instructor (Trip) suggested a great little airport on the French side near the border that had an unusual point of interest that most americans seem to like ( more on that later).
With Trip in the right seat, pre-flight complete and the fuel tanks topped off, I was finally ready for takeoff for my first European flight!
The weather was beautiful.  But since we would be crossing a border, we had to file a VFR flight plan.  The ATC communications were quite simple (and in English).  So I handled all of the radios and awkwardly tried to remember to say “November” before my call sign each time.  But interestingly, when you are flying VFR, the ATC communications can also be in local language.  It was wild to hear radio chatter from other airplanes in German, French and English all on the same short flight!
I flew the ILS approach  into Colmar, France, which was tough because of the distracting scenery!  The castle below was just a few degrees right of the localizer:
After landing, I was instructed to park on a grass apron (another first for me)
Just a few minute walk from the airport, we saw the statue of liberty!  Apparently, the original designer of the statue was from Colmar.  So in his honor, the town built a scale replica that is 12 meters tall, and perhaps on better condition than the original!
After a quick visit, we were back in the air doing air work at low altitude flying northbound along the Rhine river.
It was an incredibly scenic ride and we seemed to “find” castles everywhere.  My favorite one was near Heidelberg, which you can see below.

After all the training/sightseeing, I got a little bit of excitement on the final landing.
As we were on mid-field right downwind to the 10,000 FT runway in Baden-Baden, there was a Ryan Air jet on 7 mile final and the tower asked me if I could do an “expedited landing”.  I immediately said “affirmative”.

At this point, Trip decided to throw one last surprise at me.  He pulled the power to idle and announced “I think we have an engine failure.”  So I had to do a power off 180 to a full stop landing!

I think he really just wanted to remind me that this was a training flight and not just sightseeing!

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Things Falling Into Place

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Sometimes things just have a way of falling into place…

For me, this has recently been the case as I prepared for my annual recurrent training.
Usually, I accomplish my recurrent training by attending a CPPP.  But this year I decided to do it with a twist.  Instead of attending the course in Lakeland or Atlanta, I decided to attend the European version of the course in Germany.
This may sound a bit crazy… But since finishing the 50 states, I have been striving to become proficient at international flying and I could think of no better way than combining my usual training with some real world flying in Germany.
Since I started planning this adventure, I have been amazed at  how things have just fallen into place at every step! Here is what I mean:
1. I was concerned if I was would legally be allowed to fly in Germany with my FAA US pilot certificate. It turns out that US pilot credentials are honored worldwide IF you fly a US registered plane ( meaning tail # starting with “N”).  That didn’t seem so hard… So I started planning for flight training @ Baden-Baden Airpark (EDSB), which is just outside of Stuttgart.
2. With the help of a couple of friends from COPA, I located an “N” registered Cirrus in Germany.  As you can see in the pic below, I found one that is quite similar to my own .

Obviously, I will be flying the little plane in the foreground !
3. The next step was insurance.  With a little help from my friendly US based CSIP, this was nothing more than shuffling a little paper.
4. Now I needed to find a way to get there.  Thanks to my day job, I had a ton of air miles waiting to be redeemed and surprisingly it was even available for the dates I wanted!
So now it looks like the trip is really going to happen and I need to study!  European flying definitely has a few nuances and complexities.  But overall, it seems totally doable!
For example, here is the airspace map that I need to learn.
Stay tuned for the PIREP to find out how it goes…

Cheers,

== T.J.==

Seaplane Training

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After almost a month in Colombia for work, I was back in the country and eager to get back in the air!

After 4 weeks on the ground, I was a feeling a little rusty.

But I needed to get over it quickly because this weekend I had some serious new training planned.  For the longest time, I was curious about flying a seaplane and more importantly about landing on water.  I looked into it last year, but didn’t get around to it till now.  Life is short… and I am trying to “get around to everything”!

From my somewhat unscientific research, I determined that there are 2 places in the US that I felt were the “best places to learn”.   One was in Talkeetna, Alaska and the other was in Winter Haven, FL. I know there are many other places to learn.  But these two locations had awesome, long established schools with rave reviews from many fellow pilots.
Since Winter Haven is very close to me, I enrolled in Jack Brown‘s Weekend Seaplane Course.

The idea is simple…. 2 days of intensive ground and air training, after which you should be ready for an an FAA check ride.
I started early Saturday morning by “commuting” in the Cirrus from Tampa to Winter Haven.  Since seaplane flying is all about good, manual stick and rudder flying, I decided to use the short 20 minute flight for a little practice and flew entirely with NO automation!  No flight plan, no approaches, no GPS and even minimal radio! Without GPS, I just looked out the window and followed Interstate 4 until I saw “the right lake” and “the right airport”.

When I arrived, I saw my aircraft for the weekend, which was a Maule M-7-235:

But before jumping in, I had to go through ground school and learn all of the basics, especially how to taxi, maneuver and land.  After a couple of hours in the classroom, it was time to go flying with my instructor, John.  He was a seasoned pilot, who really drilled me on “feeling” if the plane was responding correctly to my inputs.  The first flight was NOT that graceful.  (It was a definitely harder than I expected).
After that flight, we took a lunch break and had a rather intense debrief, where John reviewed the many, many, things I did wrong 🙁
But I was determined to “get it”!  So after some more time in the class, we went for a second flight, where I redeemed myself.  In the afternoon, I things really started to make sense and everything just “clicked”
I did some more studying on Saturday night and was back early on Sunday for more training and test prep.  This flight was rather smooth and my confidence was building.
In the afternoon, I met the FAA examiner and he administered the oral exam, which I passed (but only after sweating through the weight and balance interrogation).   I did the basic calculation and showed that we were legal.  However, the examiner was not satisfied with just “legal”.  He emphasized how critical W&B was in a seaplane and made sure I understood the implications of being outside the envelope in EVERY direction!
Then it was time for the flight test.  It started out OK … I did a rather graceful taxi and takeoff.  But the skies were quite crowded, I had to dodge a helicopter, a Mooney and a Piper Cub!  Not exactly the drama I was looking for during a checkride…
Then it was time for the first landing in a nearby lake.  I did a reasonable job with traffic pattern and the touchdown was pretty good… But it went downhill from there!
Just an hour before, I performed every required maneuver perfectly (including glassy water, rough water and emergencies).  But on the checkride, I was totally behind the airplane and trying to catch up the whole time.  The instructor gave me a little latitude to repeat a maneuver.. But I was definitely NOT on my game.
I just wasn’t feeling it and he certainly sensed it.  We made our way back to base, where ironically, I made a pretty nice landing, and did a more detailed debrief.
Unfortunately, I did NOT pass this checkride 🙁
Cheers,
== T.J.==

Aerobatics Training In a Zlin

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As you have probably noticed, I have not been posting much lately.  It is NOT because I am flying less.  In fact, I have been flying quite a bit lately.  However, most of my flights were routine with nothing that I hadnt posted about before.  But this week, things really started to change!
After finishing the 50 states, I wanted to set a few more (new) goals, which you can see here.
This weekend, I decided was the first step!
I didn’t have all of my international paperwork in order.  So a trip to a new island was out of the question (for now).  But a new aircraft type was totally possible.   With the help of Kathy Hirtz of WingOver Aerobatics, I got to log some VERY interesting time in a ZLIN 242L, which you can see below:

This plane is a 200 hp, aerobatic plane that is capable of pulling +6 Gs and/or -3Gs!
But more importantly, I learned “how to fly” (again)!

Notice the Required Parachute I was wearing!

Aerobatic training was absolutely intense.  I started with a bunch of ground school and learned the intricacies of “hardcore” stick and rudder flying.  You are probably wondering what “hardcore” means in this context…
In “regular” training, which I did years ago, I learned all the basic of flight (pitch, roll, yaw etc) and all of the flight controls that the pilot had at his disposal (power, rudder, aileron, etc).  But with aerobatic training, you MUST learn all of the same material in greater detail and more by “feel” than by numbers on a gauge.
The Zlin was a great plane to learn aerobatics in.  Many aerobatics planes are tailwheels.  But the Zlin is a standard tricycle gear, which makes it a little more comfortable for most pilots to taxi and land.  The Zlin is also the polar opposite of the Cirrus I am accustomed to flying.  Kathy was  repeatedly reminding me to so stop looking at gauges inside the cockpit and focus my attention on “feeling” what the plane was doing outside the cockpit.
I am still not sure I totally understand it, but after a couple of hours, I am starting to get the hang of it!
Kathy was really an amazing instructor!  Despite the numerous mistakes I made in the cockpit, she was totally calm and patient.  So far I know how to do Falling Leafs, Spins, Dutch Rolls, Wing Overs, and (my favorite) the Aileron Rolls.  You can see for yourself how my first lesson in the video below:

Can’t wait for the next lesson, where I will learn how to more advanced maneuvers, such as a Hammerhead or a Cuban 8
Stay tuned for that…
Cheers,
== T.J.==

Training Mission Accomplished!

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This past weekend was fun, educational and downright grueling!  As expected, the ground portion of the CPPP covered some specific topics, like in-flight weather, engine management and aviation safety.  The stats around Cirrus accidents and parachute deploys were quite a surprise to me.  However, the flight training was the really significant part for me this year.
The instructor I was assigned (named Cliff) was a former military pilot and a very seasoned instructor. I had met Cliff a few months ago.  But never had the opportunity to fly with him before.
The plan was to cover VFR work on Saturday, such as stalls, slow flight, unusual attitudes, emergencies etc and IFR work on Sunday, such as procedures, holds, precision flight etc.  Sounds simple right??.  (That’s what I thought)
From the beginning, Cliff’s military background was blatantly obvious. After he carefully watched me do the entire pre-flight, we taxied out to runway 27.  Seconds after we started to move, Cliff noticed I was a few inches off of centerline and ~ 1200 RPM.  He immediately insisted that I get “exactly on centerline” and “exactly @ 1000 RPM”.  That was just a hint of the level of precision that Cliff demanded of his students.  After the run up, he gave me the instructions for the flight and we were quickly cleared for takeoff.
After departure I was to join V97 as soon as practical and track to the Rome VOR using NO GPS and NO AutoPilot.  The “no auto pilot”, I expected… But the “No GPS” hurt.  I felt like I couldn’t use any R9 magic and I don’t remember the last time I tracked a radial to an old fashioned VOR!
After I eventually got to the Rome VOR, we did some slow flight, stalls and unusual attitudes. Again, I thought to myself “Simple enough”. However, I didn’t realize the level of precision he required.  As a result, it took me 4 attempts to do one of the maneuvers until I did it “well enough” for him.  Even his technique for simulating emergencies was a bit interesting.  He pretended to be a panicked passenger repeatedly yelling “Smoke in the Cabin” when we were ~ 5 miles from landing.  I had to retrieve the right checklist and stay focused despite his distractions. After surviving Saturday, I was looking forward to Sunday’s IFR flight because that is more of my comfort zone.
On Sunday morning, I was prepared to spend the entire flight under the hood.  Luckily (or unluckily) the weather was not very good and most of the flight was in actual IMC.
My level of precision was more to Cliff’s liking on Sunday 😉  I was doing great and feeling rather proud of myself for flying so well in the clouds.     Then Cliff decided to change everything!
1. First, he blanked out my PFD, which is the left IFD screen on the R9 … (No problem… I just flew while looking at the right screen.)
2. Then he pulled the autopilot circuit breaker… (No problem… I just flew by hand..)
3. Then he pulled the circuit breaker on FMS keyboard … (No problem.  This was the first time I flew with this many things “failed” at the same time… But I did reasonably well)
4. Then he told me I had to fly the ILS27 back to McCollum Field in this condition… Yikes!  Just flying straight and level in this condition was OK.  But flying an ILS in actual IMC with 3 items failed, really pushed me!!!  I struggled to keep up with the radios and frequency changes using only backup instruments.
Fortunately, both Cliff and I survived!  Here is what the resulting GPS track looked like on Flightaware:

After a short break, I flew home and finished the weekend with ~ 10 hours on hobbs and a huge feeling of accomplishment!  Hopefully, I wont have to experience any of those emergencies for real.  But if I do, I now feel just a little more “ready”.
Cheers,
== T.J.==

Off To Training In Atlanta

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It’s that time of year again.  Like most pilots, my insurance company “requires” (or should I say “financially encourages”) me to take annual recurrent training.  The first few years of plane ownership, I would simply follow the basic FAA Wings program and do some 1-1 training with a local flight instructor.  This was enough to satisfy the insurance company and the FAA.  However, I rarely found it to be very significant.
Last year, I found a much better approach.  The Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) sponsors a 2 day program called the Cirrus Pilot Proficiency Program (CPPP).  I attended one in Lakeland, FL last year and found it to be very worthwhile.  The program entails about 10 hours of ground school and 6 hours of flight school.  This weekend there is a CPPP in Atlanta.
So this morning I flew from Tampa to Cobb County McCollum Airport on the north side of Atlanta. The flight was uneventful until I got close to Atlanta Hartsfield’s Class B airspace.  Then it got interesting!
The ATL Approach controller was busy orchestrating ~ 8 different aircraft and seemed a bit grumpy.  Every plane on the frequency seemed to be in the wrong position.  For about 10 minutes, there was not a single break on the radio with every transmission being rapid-fire instructions for heading and altitude changes.  When he finally got around to me, he seemed in a hurry to get rid of me.  He gave me a heading change, an altitude change, the Turbo 2 Arrival Procedure and a frequency change!  I repeated the whole thing back and was happy to change frequencies.  Thankfully, the next controller and frequency seemed to be much calmer.
I then tried to pull up the Turbo 2 procedure chart only to realize that it didn’t exist!  However, there was a TRBOW 8 procedure.   I confirmed with the controller, who laughed and told me (in his southern drawl) “there’s only one Turbo procedure ’round here and it’s Turbo 8”  As you can probably tell, not only was this frequency calmer, the controller was much friendlier.  In fact, when he gave frequency changes, it was often accompanied with “Good Day Y’All”
After he vectored me to a straight in RNAV GPS 27 approach, I flew a rather good approach but the landing wasn’t great.  It was smooth but a little left of centerline.  Luckily, the long, wide runway was quite forgiving.  The line crew @ Preferred Jet Center towed me into a parking space next to 4 other Cirrus planes.  Made for a cool picture today:

By the time “school” starts tomorrow, there should be 2 dozen more Cirrus planes on the ramp.  Hopefully, I can get an even cooler picture and some videos sometime this weekend.
Cheers,
== T.J.==