A lil' frost on the pumpkins this mornin'

Well, it's been an interesting week so far.  We are supposed to be doing more flying but there have been some aircraft unavailability issues.  So, between some flying studying, this should be a pretty short update.  On the first cross-country day, we flew from St Pete to Jacksonville and back.  Then, our next day of flying we flew to Atlanta and back.  Yesterday, we flew from St Pete to Dothan to Jacksonville and back.  We then did two days of Atlanta and back.

The Atlanta flight is a pretty tough one.  Depending on headwind, it's between 3.2 and 3.8 hours.  The first leg isn't bad but once we are about half way through the return trip, we both start getting a little tired.  So far, I'm loving it though.  We've had some great view and I've heard some pretty funny things.  Here are some of the more interesting radio conversations I heard in the last week.

ATC: Confirm you have weather information Charlie
Pilot: Yes sir, we do have Charlie.  Also, I noted a lil' frost on the pumpkins this mornin'.

ATC: Advice when you are ready to copy your amended clearance.
Pilot: Ready to copy
ATC: Cleared direct Heaven.  Expect visual approach into Heaven.

ATC: Traffic. 1 o'clock 1600 feet climbing to 3000 2 miles.
Pilot: We have the traffic.  Also, that was REALLY close...too close.  We would like a number so we can talk to someone about what just happened.
ATC: Uh, roger.  Here's the number

I felt really bad for the last guy.  I can't imagine the conversation he had with his superior was a very pleasant one after getting that "feedback" from the pilot.  At that same airport, we had a few close calls.  We were lined up on final to land and were about 6 miles from the runway.  The tower dropped a plane in about 2 or so miles right in front of us and let him land and come to a full stop on the runway.  He was exiting the runway right before we crossed over the end of the runway and we still hadn't heard from the tower on our landing clearance.  I made a snap decision to just go ahead and add full power and go around.  We we turned to come back to the landing end of the runway, the tower put us about a mile behind a little Cessna.  The Cessna's pattern speed is probably 20kts slower than ours so we had to slow down so we wouldn't overtake the other airplane.  Not to mention that once we lined up on final, we were faced with a similar situation as the time before.  I was not happy with ATC to say the least.  Well, if you haven't seen the pictures I put up on facebook, check them out.  I am going to add a few more here that are just breathtaking (in my opinion).  You also might see a video or two show up as well.