Good Ol’ Baton Rouge

My first trip in my beautiful new airplane took place last week. We went to the swingin’ town of Baton Rouge for my clients to work for a few days.

We left at 2:00 PM on Wednesday with two people in back. Since we didn’t have our RVSM certification back from the Flight Standards District Office in Scottsdale yet, we climbed all the way up to FL430.

In eighteen minutes.

 

And for those who don’t know, climbing that high that fast is a new record in my book.

We landed shortly after 6:00 PM with a one-hour time difference.

Don’t you love my winglets? Or Gladys’ winglets, I guess I should say.

We left about half an hour late thanks to an SD card uploading problem. When trying to update the database for the flight, the computer didn’t like something on the card and refused to bring up the proper displays on the PFDs and MFD.

You realize this thing is just a flying computer. And if it doesn’t like some of the information it receives, ain’t nobody goin’ nowheres.

Wow, sorry about the hick slang. Baton Rouge affects people in different ways.

Crazily enough, there was nothing to do near the airport Springhill Suites in which I stayed. I love getting out and walking and exploring, but there wasn’t anything to visit within miles of where I slept for three nights.

I didn’t mind and used the speedy internet connection to work on projects for The Cupcake Stand. I got a lot done in two days!

Saturday morning brought a 10:00 AM departure back to Phoenix. We flew at 42,000 feet and enjoyed a speedy flight. Even with a headwind, we were still doing about 400 knots groundspeed.

This airplane cruises at 450 knots True Airspeed. Can you believe it?! In fact, we had over 500 knots over the ground on our flight to Baton Rouge. A tailwind always helps, mind you, but Gladys is fast!

Another Phenom on the ramp…this time a 100.

 

Flying right over Sky Harbor on our way to landing was kind of fun, too. I don’t miss being based there, though it was very good to me for five years!

We landed and had the car pulled right up to the airplane for the passengers. They were on their way and happy before I started to clean up the airplane as part of my post-flight inspection.

I’m still in love.

Scottsdale – Baton Rouge – Scottsdale