Life is a Cirrus, or "Spring Break for Pilots"

Got a chance to go to Sun N' Fun, the big airshow in Lakeland, Florida this week. It's a heck of an event -- airplanes everywhere, vendors selling things for pilots, an airshow over the runway in the afternoons featuring the Air Force Thunderbirds, and lots of seminars, forums, and stuff to look at.

While chatting with the Cirrus people today, I got invited to a little reception/dinner after the airshow at the main airport building. The featured guest was to be Dale Klapmeier, founder and Chairman of Cirrus. This guy is a legend in aviation, having basically built an new airplane company from nothing in the 1990's. The Cirrus SR-20 and SR-22 are both known for being entirely new composite designs that go fast, have modern comforts, and take advantage of every possible technological advance.

Klapmeier gave a talk in which he described the philosophy behind the highly successful Cirrus airplane. He said that, when he and his brother started out in the 1990's, they had four or five airplanes between them and his wife didn't want to go anywhere in any of them. Said he discovered that if your wife does not like or trust the airplane, you'll be driving a lot.

So, what did he and his brother learn from this? That they had better design an airplane with the primary goal in mind being to make the passenger, often a non-pilot spouse, happy and content. If the passenger is content, it is easy to please the pilot.

For example, the avionics in a regular airplane don't answer the questions his wife always had: where are we? when are we going to get there? do we have enough fuel? He said that as soon as they lifted off from the airport, with the airport still in full view behind the plane, his wife was already asking, "Where are we?"

So the entire design of a Cirrus was predicated on the need to answer those three questions in a way that is immediately obvious, as well as reassuring. When you look at the moving map screen in a Cirrus, even a non-pilot can see immediately where you are, and there is an indication of when you will reach your destination. And the fuel consumption and remaining amount is easily visible too.

Now, after developing the Cirrus, Klapmeier does not drive anywhere anymore. His wife wants to fly everywhere.

Must be the leather seats. And, the parachute. But that's a story for another day.

Cheers from KLAK,

Looping the Loop -- Around the Washington Beltway in 2.5 Hours

A guy from the running club had expressed interest in going for a flight. The weather was looking very good -- clear and sunny. So, Wednesday, we met at Leesburg airport about 9 a.m. and took off eastbound, departing over the northern Potomac River, going over Gaithersburg, and then following a VFR slot at 2000 feet through the space between BWI (Baltimore) and DCA (Reagan National) airports.

We came out over Annapolis, getting nice bright morning views of the City Dock and the Naval Academy, not to mention all the boat docks and big houses on the rivers. Then we crossed the Chesapeake Bay up by the Bay Bridge and then turned down over St. Michaels. We also had to do a turn or two right over Dick Cheney's place along the way, while admiring all the big houses. We flew on down over the Choptank River to Cambridge and landed there, but it turned out that the airport restaurant is closed on Wednesdays. So much for getting coffee there. (See picture of Brian and plane at Cambridge.)

So, we took off again and continued around the south side of DC, passing by Patuxent Naval Air Station, over the Potomac at its widest point, and eventually coming up over Fredricksburg. There I picked up an IFR clearance back to Leesburg from Potomac Air Traffic Control. Since 9/11 pilots have to have some kind of clearance to enter the Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) around Washington, and an IFR clearance is as good as any to do it.

Now usually, they would send me way out to the west of Dulles, out by Winchester and then turn me east in to Leesburg, thus causing me to avoid the big airplanes coming in to IAD. The big iron lands from the north or the south into Dulles runways 01 and 19, mostly.

This time, however -- and I think it was because it was noon and a relatively quiet time for Dulles operations -- the controller sent us up the east side of Dulles Airport at 3000 feet! (See attached picture from the plane over Route 50 with Dulles in the distance).

This meant that we came straight up over Reston and indeed right over our house and Lake Audubon. I could the Reston Town Center clearly, and all the other landmarks. Except for the fact that I had to be flying the plane with some precision, I could have been taking pictures!

Then she (the controller) turned us west over Route 7 and we flew right out to Leesburg, over the quarries, by the outlet mall, and into the airport. A smooth landing on runway 17 finished the flight in just under three hours.

This was a lot of fun, and I think I've got to try to do it again -- with a camera. If it had been a little less hazy, we would have had good views of DC landmarks while crossing north and south of the city. As for getting cleared to fly over Reston, clearly part of the secret is being at the right time of day, sounding like you know what you're doing, and making it easy for the controller to send you up the east side of Dulles.