6b6 and back

Another first, well sort of. I had been assigned two weeks of work in Concord, Massachusetts and driven up and back for the first week.(about 7 hours one way.) Weather permitting 674PS would be used for the second week. The FBO at Minute Man Field was very helpful, but I found out the recommended car rental company was closed on Sunday, and the one trying harder would close at 2:00PM. My flight planning indicated about a 2 hour trip and the weather guessers said I should expect clear sky with a slight tailwind enroute. They lied.

I left Butter Valley with a 4000' broken layer of towering cumulus and was forced to weave my way around toward northern New Jersey to get above most of the clouds at 5500'. I picked up flight following as I was returning back to course and settled in for the journey. All systems were working normally and I enjoyed the luxury of having an autopilot coupled to the navigation system. Super duper cruise control. I found that I could switch to heading mode to steer around some buildups then pus the NAV button to return to course. After a while there were just too many deviations so we climbed another 2000'. This worked well and gave me a clear shot through the NYC class B.

Crusin' with the big boys! "4PS traffic 6 o'clock closing 7000 ft should be no factor." Just wonderful watching these beautiful machines highlighted against towering white clouds. Head on a swivel but comfortably watching the show.

The rest of the flight into 6B6 was uneventful. A nice little field (2700') with great service. When you want to visit historic Concord, this is the place to stop.

Friday morning I got up to beautiful clear blue skies. Weather planning again called for light winds with no issues. When I left work at noon I found a solid overcast with some dark gray imbedded cumulus in all sectors. The weather briefer promised better skies to the southwest so I took off and stayed below the layer at 3500'. True to his prediction the clouds started to break and I found a nice blue hole to pop through while passing through the Hartford area. 8500 put most the clouds beneath me. Again, I recommend flight following is a great resource and they were very helpful pointing out traffic during this long holiday weekend. Traffic around NYC was busy and it must have taken me 10 minutes just to check in! Beautiful views of clouds and airliners for the next half hour.

As I approached Quakertown I called (approaching home plate) for my wife to hear on the handheld radio. I later found out that she had been tracking me on FlightAware, getting updates every other minute or so. I was pleasantly surprised to see her waving at me as I passed over the last tree on final. (Sub par landing, a little nose high and slow..I'll chalk it up to being distracted.) It was so great to have her there...and wonderful to have someone help me tie down the plane. A Great trip!

Miscellaneous Pictures along the way.

Spectacular buildups at 10K ft.

Clear of clouds

KIDI

Beautiful countryside

KBJJ - about 1 mile long, 100 ft wide

KGEZ

KSAR

Mississippi River

Beautiful view

More spectacular sights

Always good to be looking down on white puffies

Big Branson

The Mighty Mississippi

KCIR

KFFT

Capital City (Frankfort, KY)

r

KMGW

Windmills in Pennsylvania

Mountains of Pennsylvanis

KBBG-KCIR-KFFT-KMGW-7N8

Monday morning came too soon. After a wonderful stay in Branson it was time to head back across the Mississippi. Flight planning was more direct this time. It would be just under 1000 miles. The weather was good although very light tailwinds.The system just wasn't there to help push us along.
 
As I taxied for take off I noted something strange, I had indicated airspeed. But I also had get started 'itis' and continued with the checklists. Takeoff on the 7000+ foot runway was normal, but I got to my rotate speed much too early, and she felt 'mushy' lifting off. Higher altitude, humid, full load were all good excuses but not the right reason. During the climb out she continued to accelerate and as I looked again at the digital airspeed the tape was red and yellow instead of Green.  The steam gauge also showed us near the top of the yellow arc. Something was wrong. Called the tower to let them know we would be coming back in to check out an airspeed problem. Interesting to land with an unreliable airspeed indication, so it was VERY nice to have that huge runway in front of me. I taxied back in at about 80kts.

It turned out to be a blocked pitot static system. They have 'mud-daubers' in Missouri which are little wasps that love to build their muddy nests inside of airplane pitot tubes. (My wife had asked if we shouldn't take the cover with us; "Nah, it will only be a few days." Another lesson learned. I also learned how the expert dissembles the system, cleans it, and re-installs it. (The hit to the check book wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be...another good experience.)

So buttoned and ready to go, we tried it again.  This time no additional problems so we were off on course to M30. It was uneventful until I started my landing brief. The on board AOPA airport directory (I love my 696) said that M30 had no fuel! I had checked and planned with Airnav.com so this was a surprise. I'm still not sure what information was more current since I decided not to test it and diverted to KCIR. Just a little place a few miles from the river, cheap gas and stale crackers, we stayed long enough to catch our breath and refuel before getting on our way.

An uneventful flight into KFFT. This would be our lay over point and I had checked to insure multiple hotels in the area. I did not make reservations and was surprised to find my first two choices all booked up. The FBO staff was fantastic. They called and then took us to a nice hotel in town. (A great rest stop!) The Airport Manager picked us up the next morning to take us back to the airport.

Next planned stop was KMGW. Planning showed a large storm north of Pittsburgh making its way south. As we started to begin our descent the clouds got gloomier and visibility deteriorated. My fuel planning was good and was mentally calculating a missed approach and short flight t an alternate when I heard another plane on CTAF. She was VFR shooting touch & goes. We got in just before the rain started. They had a very nice restaurant and comfortable lounge which helped us pass about a 2.5 hour delay.

Fueled and rested we headed for home. Weather was no longer a factor, the HS34 was working, all was right wit the world.  It was a great flight.

997 mile, 53 gallons, 8.6 hours, and 1 great adventure.

PiperSport Fly-in

GA Hanger Space

The reason for the trip was to meet other owners and flyers of PiperSports and SportCruisers.  We arrived on a Thursday, a session was arranged for Saturday to include presentations from US Sport Aircraft (the distributor we purchased from), Dynon Avionics, Rotax, the organizer of the event, Dick Russ from Piper Flyer Magazine. Casual get together's were also planned so that we would all have a chance to meet and talk with each other. I really enjoyed this aspect of the trip.

Business side of the terminal

The second reason was to play. Branson is a wonderful community built on music. We, were able to see SIX, visit Silver Dollar City, ride on the Branson Belle and enjoy dinner at the Dixie Stampede. We highly recommend all of these shows and would not hesitate to go back and do it all again. We had a great time with all of these family oriented shows and it was great to be in a place where veterans are honored and gospel music sung in nearly every show. (Even during the free hotel breakfast.)

Flight planning in the FBO

Inside the FB

The pilot sessions were outstanding. US Sport Aircraft was unable to attend, but did send in some talking points about warranty service. Dynon stressed pilot education using any glass panel aircraft and devoted much time to answer questions. It was good to hear other owners speak about their experiences and have an expert address possible solutions. He even provided business cards with his cell phone number.  Refreshing.

The Rotax rep was just great. He started with a brief presentation about the company, stating that the Rotax engine in our airplanes was built from the ground up to be an aircraft engine. He brought a display model with him so that he could point out areas as he discussed them. Fuel, oil, cooling and electrical systems were all discussed in detail. I've decided to fly down to Mississippi this fall to take the owners course from him (he was just that good).

At the end of the session a raffle  was held to give away two LightSpeed Zulu headsets. My wife won one of them. Thanks to the sponsors (LightSpeed and Piper Flyer) for this fantastic door prize. What a fantastic vacation!

KBBG

We decided to accept the invitation for the inaugural PiperSport Fly-in in Branson, Missouri.

I used Airnav fuel planner to divide up the trip, specifying 220 miles between stops. I initially requested MOGAS but got zero results so had to go with 100LL. Next I used the comments section to check on facilities, restaurants and available hotels. I cross checked that information with AOPA's airport directory and came up with a list and some alternates. I started watching weather about a week ahead of time to get a feel for tendencies.

I also did some flight testing. I new we would have some lines of weather to cross over so did a few altitude tests. 4PS easily climbed to 9500 feet and even though Light Sport pilots are limited to 10,000' I knew I could go higher. (I suspect 4PS could go up to 12,000' if I had to get there...and I do carry a portable O2 bottle in the airplane...Sporty's).

More troubling was an intermittent low fuel pressure warning. First appeared at top of climb, but developed into a truly random event. Turning on the standby electric pump did not increase the indicated pressure. I had Harry put an analog pressure gauge on and compared the pressure readings in the cockpit for different power settings.  The engine driven mechanical pump was within limits while the cockpit indication was approximately 1 - 2 psi lower. We decided this was not a 'show stopper' and I will continue to investigate. (BTW, a few others spoke up during our session in Branson with the same issue, and Facebook has found even more complaining of this common problem. Dynon sensor, Piper plumbing, or Rotax fuel pressure, all have to be pursued.)

Another issue is my HS34. This electronic device gets input from a navigation source and outputs data to the AP74 autopilot. (All Dynon, except the input - Garmin 696 GPS or Garmin SL30 VOR.) This intermittent problem meant that instead of letting the GPS navigate, I would have to manually enter heading commands. This one seems to be heat related, if the plane sits on the ramp for awhile the HS34 doesn't work. Dynon has provided an RMA for me to return the unit for inspection.

So, with all known problems mitigated we took off to the west from our little home field at Butter Valley. It was a very hazy morning but smooth air. First stop would be KIDI (Jimmy Stewart) and as luck would have it the air got bumpy. The haze turned into cumulus with late morning heating and the gusts picked up as well. METAR (I love my 696) read gusts to 24 kts, but right down the runway. No problems except to say that a LSA does feel just about every breeze that comes along.

A short rest/fuel stop and we were off to KBJJ (Wayne County) to spend the evening with relatives. The cumulus clouds were still growing and it took some weaving to stay clear of clouds. 4PS reached her new altitude record of 10,500' with 75% of the tops beneath us. Afternoon heating would grow these clouds into monsters, but after just a few miles we were in the clear. Although we would fight strong headwinds, I elected to stay at altitude to enjoy the smooth air. This resulted in an uneventful flight, I like that.

Just a quick note here to talk about VFR Flight Plans. I don't use them. A very strong believer in Flight Following, I find it a much better tracking resource and I don't have to worry about forgetting to close my flight plan at my destination.

The next day was uneventful. KGEZ and then KSAR (4 hours of flight time plus time on the ground for rest and refueling) and we had a decision to make.  The weather was good. We picked up an hour of daylight heading west (Central Time Zone) and the airplane was doing well. I hate not to take advantage of good weather. She agreed and we pushed on. The 2.6 hours was again uneventful (except for the magnificent views of clouds.) I started looking for the airport about 10 miles out, but all I could see was a brown slash in the green hills, much too large for an airport, or so I thought. KBBG is huge, over 7,000'. I entered an extended left base for RWY 14 while speaking with a very friendly tower.

1014 miles, 64 gallons, 11 hours and about $375 in fuel.

First Day of Spring

Not necessarily according to the calendar, but today was really the first day of Spring. Prior to today the weather has been rotten. Cold, low clouds, poor visibility, rain and thunder-bumpers almost daily, preventing any sort of aviation activity. I bought the plane figuring I would have 8 months of 'flyable' weather. So far it just doesn't look like 2011 is going to be that generous.

Last weekend we did get over to Wings Field (LOM) for the Fly-B-Que. A very nice group of people from far and wide (a mere 20 min hop for us). Proceeds go to benefit Angel Flight East. 4PS got some attention and we were VERY proud to show her off.

The lead video is from a "local familiarization" flight yesterday. After putting 10 gallons in ($41), I made a quick flight down to N47. Then I traveled east for awhile, just checking out a variety of Private/Restricted fields depicted on the GPS. It was fun just to be free...

Some activity on the airplane:

1. Installed cup holders behind each seat. I love that sip of coffee after the flaps come up.
2. A friend posted a picture of a headset storage rail. This looks very interesting and will be investigated.
3. I'm working of the auxillary air scoops and should have them painted and installed this week.
4. I took both upper and lower cowls off to see if anything remained from the birds nests.  I think that problem is resolved.
5. I found that my 'landing light ground wire' was actually a broken (#2) cylinder head temperature probe. Not sure why this failed, but on my list of inquiries.
6. Landing light is still a problem, an intermittent one. I plan to hold off on that until the new Night Lighting Package is available. (Seems to be "soon".) I'll work with Harry to trouble shoot that and get the new package installed at the same time.
7. I need to update the checklist again. It doesn't make sense to 'raise flaps' on the Take Off list. I need to add a "Climb" portion prior to cruise. A few other changes as well.

Blue sky, 80 degrees, very little wind and someone just reported downwind for 34 at Butter Valley. Gotta go.

Pests

It’s mating season for birds, and many are out gathering the materials to build a home and settle down. Just as they may pose a hazard to aircraft in the air, their nests could do damage on the ramp. The nooks and crannies in your aircraft—in the cowling, exhaust, and behind control surfaces—are enticing shelter for cavity-nesting birds such as the European starling and the house sparrow, as Bill Knight explains in “Nesting Birds: Their brains are small but their will is strong.” Birds (and mice) can destroy an aircraft’s insulation and wiring; nests and droppings can cause corrosion.  Here

I've always been fascinated with birds.Amazed at their maneuverability, speed and gracefulness, they make human efoorts at flying pale by comparison. However, this is not where I wanted to find them. What a mess! It didn't take long for them to make this nest. So a good lesson reinforced, always take the cowling off to do the preflight.

I also found a wasp building a nest in the pilot's side air vent.  I thought this protected by the canopy cover but these pests always find a way in. Would not be good to open the vent and invite a swarm of wasps in the cockpit.

I ordered a new landing light. Mine failed to switch on last time, but while cleaning out the birds nest a found a broken connector.  I'll talk with Harry about it since I'm very close to my 50 hour inspection.