Speed

Today was a nice calm morning for a flight, so we took out the DA40 (385DC) for a cross country flight to Crossville Memorial-Whitson Field (CSV).

Crossville Memorial-Whitson Field Airport

The flight went fine, but the highlight of this trip was flying on the way back at 6,500 MSL. Since we were running a few minutes late, I took the plane to the limit and did a power-on descend. This means at full speed we started to descend. This of course made the plane fly very fast, at about 185 knots/hr (my personal record).  The speed limit for that airspace is 250 knots.  One of the advantages of an adjustable pitch propeller is you can increase speed without exceeding the max RPMs for the engine.

Once again, it was very awkward flying this plane and I have come to the conclusion that I want to wait until after I get my license to spend time on learning the glass cockpit of this aircraft. The G1000 is great, but it is just adding more time, cost and frustration and isn’t really getting me closer to my goal.

Flight Time: 1.8 hours
Cost: Plane rental – 268.20, Instructor Fee - $84.00