Bangor to Washington D.C.

Departing Bangor for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. Here are some things to do in Washington, D.C.

Descending through 4,200 feet, and heading to intercept the ILS runway 01 approach at Washington.

Level at 1,600 feet, just before intercepting the glideslope. Using the autothrottle to maintain a 90 KT final approach speed.

Nice view of the D.C. area, while inbound over the Potomac River.

Just 3.2 miles out, on the final approach.

Chicago to Bangor

Leaving Chicago for Bangor, Maine

Vectoring toward the Initial Approach Fix for the Bangor ILS-33 approach.

After crossing another time zone, the sun is already setting in Bangor.

Descending through 1,500 feet, and 3.4 miles out, on the final approach to Bangor.

Sweeping view of the Bangor area at sunset, from outside the airplane.

Vernal to Chicago

Leaving Vernal for O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, a long 980 NM trip, which is pushing the range of this little jet. We visited Chicago several years ago, to talk to the University of Chicago Medical Center about the possibility of a transplant. Here are some things to do in Chicago.

I took off in the late afternoon, which gave me a nice sunset behind me, as I climbed away towards The Windy City.

Level at the SF-50 jet's maximum cruising altitude of 31,000 feet. With virtually no winds at this altitude, the fuel totalizer is predicting that I'll have over 600 pounds of fuel after I land. That's about an hour and a half of cruising time - a very comfortable reserve.

As I approached Chicago, and starting flying the initial approach segment for the ILS approach, the circuitous route to the final approach started eating uncomfortably deeply into my fuel reserve, so rerouted myself more directly to the final approach fix. Here I'm established on final approach to runway 28 left.

On the ground at O'Hare airport! Finding my way on the ground at night, at this massive airport complex, is a pretty intimidating task. The moving map display in Foreflight, with the taxiway diagram overlaid, makes it much easier.

Palo Alto to Vernal

From Palo Alto, I decided to head back eastward, toward another destination that jogged some memories. The single-seat biplane that I used to fly, was built by a fellow who lived in Vernal, Utah, so I decided to pay his airport a virtual visit. Here are some things to do in Vernal. The real-world weather in Vernal included broken clouds with a moderately low ceiling, so I planned to fly the RNAV approach to runway 34. The clouds started getting thicker and closer together, as I approached Vernal.

While descending toward Vernal on the RNAV-34 approach, the broken clouds merged to become a solid overcast. The simulator does a nice job of depicting the undercast!

Here's a zoomed-out view of the entire front panel of the new SF-50 G2. You can see on the MFD, that I've entered the holding pattern for the RNAV-34 approach, and am flying outbound, which gives me a little extra time to get the airplane configured for landing. About the only thing left to do, is to extend full flaps, and set the autothrottle to adjust power to maintain a 90 knot selected approach speed.

San Diego to Palo Alto

I had so much fun reminiscing about my days in San Diego, that I decided, rather than pushing the range of the SF50G, I would rather fly to another place with fun memories, so I headed North to Palo Alto. Here are some things to do in Palo Alto. As I was climbing away from Montgomery Field, I remembered the many times I've practiced the VOR approach to Oceanside airport, when I was training for my Instrument rating, so I decided on a whim to fly that VOR approach again, and stop in at that sleepy little airport for a moment.

When I tried to look up the Oceanside airport info in Foreflight, I realized that the old OCN airport abbreviation we wrote in our logbooks so many times, had changed to KOKB, but the approach was still very similar.

Heading up the coast toward the bay area, I saw many familiar sights, including this view of the Los Angeles International airport (KLAX) from overhead, just off the right wing. The view isn't quite as spectacular from 31,000 feet, as it used to be, when I would pass overhead at 8,500 feet in a little Cessna.

Passing over the central California coast, with the familiar town of Atascadero below, just off the left wing. Things started to get a little busy, as I approached the bay area, and neglected to capture any other snapshots on the way to, or even after arriving at, the Palo Alto airport.

Denver to San Diego

My old hometown of San Diego was calling me, since at 720 NM it should easily be reachable, even with the usual 20-30 knot headwind component for a westbound US flight. In the original SF50, this might've been a stretch, as I was previously hesitant to plan a flight longer than 700 NM. And off we go! This pic is looking back toward Chatfield Lake in the Littleton, CO area, as I'm climbing away from Centennial airport.

The westbound flight to Montgomery field was uneventful, and before I knew it, I was approaching San Diego from the east, over the Laguna mountain range that contains the town of Julian, and the Palomar Observatory. I've driven up to Julian more than once, and had a late breakfast at the Julian diner. This approach to the field near my old workplace in Kearny Mesa is so familiar to me, as I've flown it many times in various aircraft, when returning from trips to the east - but never in a 7-seat personal jet!

On the ground at Montgomery field. The old familiar line of hangars, where we used to keep our little single-seat biplane, are visible in the top right of the photo.

USA & South America 2020

Starting a new adventure, first around the USA, and then to South America! An X-Plane flight simulator enthusiast who goes by the handle "Gadflyii" created a newer, Generation 2 model of my favorite Cirrus Vision SF-50 personal jet, which incorporates some of the real world plane's updated features. It has a few extremely helpful characteristics: It can fly faster, higher, and farther, than the original SF-50; it has an auto-throttle to make instrument approaches safer; and it includes more realistic and effective anti-ice protection.

Here's a zoomed-out view of the entire front panel of the new SF-50 G2. The large Primary Flight Display (PFD) is on left, showing the important primary flight information, and the Multifunction  Flight Display (MFD) is on the right, showing the engine health and navigation data, including the moving-map with weather and terrain hazard overlays. These displays look pretty much the same. The big difference in the G2 model shows up in the second line of three smaller displays. While the leftmost display remains the same, the center display now includes some configuration controls for the autothrottle, and the right display has four added controls for individual de-icing equipment activation, a nosewheel steering option, and a cabin pressure dump switch.

I started out this new adventure, with the idea that I would be testing the newly extended range of the SF-50 G2, by flying some longer legs around the USA. According to the write-up on this jet, it now seemed possible to plan flights approaching 1,000 nautical miles (NM) long. Last year's round-the-world trip would have been so much easier to plan and fly, with this extra range. After flitting around the USA a bit, I decided to venture into South America, which is a continent I've rarely visited in real life. After getting partway along on my journey, I started logging each stop on the TripHappy website. At the end of my adventure, I captured this snapshot of the entire trip. As I did for my round-the-world adventure, I posted each flight in chronological order, with the most recent one sorted to the top by Blogger. Click on the Newer Post link at the bottom of this one, to get to the next writeup.

Here's a route summary that I updated after each flight:
KAPA Centennial, CO 1/12/2020
KMYF Montgomery, San Diego, CA 1/12
KOKB Oceanside, CA 1/24
KPAO Palo Alto, CA 1/24
KVEL Vernal, UT 1/27
KORD Chicago, IL 1/28
KBGR Bangor, ME 1/29
KDCA Washington, DC 1/31
KEYW Key West, FL 2/1
MMCE Ciudad Del Carmen, Campeche, Mexico 2/2
MPTO Panama City, Panama 2/5
SEQM Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador 2/6
SPZO Cusco, Peru 2/7
SANT Tucuman, Argentina 2/10
SCTE Puerto Montt, Los Lagos, Chile 2/12
SAWH Malvinas, Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina 2/13
SFAL Stanley, Falkland Islands 2/14-15
SAEZ Buenos Aires, Argentina 2/17
SBKP Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil 2/19
SBSV Salvador, Bahia, Brazil 2/20
SBBE Belem, Para, Brazil 2/22
SOCA Cayenne, French Guiana 2/23
TTPP Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago 2/24
TFFF Martinique 2/25
TAPA Antigua 2/28
TUPJ British Virgin Isles 2/29
MBGT Grand Turk Island, Turks & Caicos 3/1
MYNN Nassau, Bahamas 3/4
KGLH Greenville, MS 3/5
KAPA Centennial, CO 3/8/2020