Monday, March 16, 2009

Overwhelmed

A warm front south of us was being held in place by some disorganized High pressure areas to the west, put precipitation was creeping up behind the front making the weather 'iffy'. At least we wouldn't be 'winded out' like last week.

The first flight is always difficult for me. Nothing feels comfortable, not sure how to adjust things and haven't started any kind of standard operating procedures. Its awkward just to get into the thing. The CFII patiently took me through the preflight and all checklists, added insight as to the 'why' behind some of the items and carefully led me through all of the ground procedures. My seat wasn't adjusted correctly, I couldn't comfortably reach the parking break and I never got the headset volume quite right to hear him over the other radio. Immediately obvious is that this is one sophisticated airplane. My challenge will be to understand all of the information being presented and be able to take corrective action on what is being displayed.

Once the avionics master is on, the checklists are displayed on the MFD. Starting, taxiing and runup are all normal, and all different. (Check to make sure you can overide the autopilot servos?)

Takeoff was fine, the side stick was not an issue. Plenty of rudder control even early in the roll. The roll is a bit longer then expected, but not bad. She loves to fly and easily holds a 10 degree pitch up. Clouds are about 4K, visibility maybe 20 miles. The problem is looking outside as there are just too many beautiful displays/maps/functions inside the cockpit.

The flight took us up to the North, over close to Pottstown then back home via a GPS approach. I did some basic airwork; climbs descents and turns, but the real introduction was to the systems. The GNS430 is an old friend of mine, but having two and understanding how they feed the navigation and autopilot systems is new to me.

The flight concluded with a beautiful landing by the CFII. At this point I'm speechless.

SR20
Time = 1.5 hours

1 comment:

  1. Nice! Glad you were up this week, the first few days were really nice out. Sure is an advanced aircraft. I've never flown in one, but seen them on the ramp and looked inside. What are some of the airspeeds you were getting or using on approach?

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