Easter Sunday Cirrus Time

Mike and I traded text messages to set up a meeting time for possible flight times. The best time looked to be around 2:30 with the family holiday brunch finishing up and Mike acknowledging the suggested time as a go. I headed back to the house to pick up my flight bag and give the TFR's and TAF's a quick check, all looked good. We were both headed to the airport excited about some flight time on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Mike arrived first and strted to uncover 08Romeo. I rolled in and headed to the plane anxious to get the pre-flight started. Pre-flight completed I made the call to Wilmington ground for taxi instructions. Once airborne I picked up flight following with Philly and was handed off to another sector followed by a final hand offf to Harrisburg Approach. Once on with Harrisburg I asked for the GPS RWY 31 Approach for some practice. I asked for direct AYOSA and instead received vectors which worked out with no procedure turn. Mike said I shot a real nice approach and at 800 feet I looked up for the runway and continued in to land.

We parked 08Romeo out front of the Sensenich Propeller Service building and secured. It's a short walk to the SR20 hangar and the wx was great! Mike went through all his checks, ordered fuel and added oil to complete the pre-flight. We each climbed in, geezzzz I love this plane. Climbing into the SR20 cockpit is like slipping into my 90 vette, it feels good and the instrument set up is just waiting on your command. Dang, I really do miss my 81 and 90 vettes!

We were soon launching off of runway three one and man this baby sounds great. Plenty of power and a slight touch of the stick and we are climbing out. First up was the KTHV, York Airport GPS RWY 35 Approach. Mike had us pointed towards the XOPPA intersection and entered the procedure turn with a tear drop for a smooth transition down to the final approach fix YOKRI. I made additional traffic calls since there was a Cessna moving towards the hold short. As we crossed the two mile final point I made an additional call only to watch the Cessna roll on out on the runway. He did announce as he rolled through the hold short. I asked mike to come out from under the foggles and reposition and he did. After once again advising our position the jackass in the Cessna said he didn't see us on the two mile.......ahhhh....but he obviously heard us. I told Mike to relax we'll be reading about that smacked butt in an NTSB report soon enough.

After that exciting episode we headed on in to Harrisburg International, KMDT. Approach was really on it tonight as we requested the ILS RWY 31 Approach and quickly received vectors. Mike shot another flawless approach and ended with a touch and go followed by a climbing right turn to 050, 3000 feet. We ended the night with another GPS RWY 35 approach into Lancaster that ended in a full stop. It was a short taxi to the T-hangar and we tucked Cirrus 1Zulu Echo in for the night.

Always fun flying in the Cirrus! It was time to climb aboard 08Romeo for our ride home to Wilmington. Again, making the hop by plane is so much faster then the drive. It was a quick trip south east and we did see 120 knots at one point but the average was 115ish. I was soon calling the tower to provide our info and was directed to enter a right down wind for runway two seven. I have been trying to keep my patterns tight and this one was perfect. I was looking at .8 miles on the GPS stretching to my base of 1.3 miles. A decent landing in the book and a short taxi to red eagle.