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Oshkosh Trip 2011 Part 1

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Rans S-6ES Coyote, Travel2 Comments

I’ve just completed what will probably be my last pilgrimage to Oshkosh, also known as Aviation Mecca.  I visited over 20 airports, flew about 3900 nautical miles (that’s about 4500 statute miles.)  There were some definite points and low points of this trip.

On day 1 I took off out of Oakdale at about 7am.  That’s a little later than I had hoped but I stopped for breakfast on the way to the airport and then had to gas up the airplane.  I had just completed my 40 hour phase 1 flying the day before and neglected to fill the tanks.  The first day’s flying took me over Lake Tahoe

and then up to Lovelock, NV for my first fuel stop.

I then continued on to Elko, NV for my second fuel stop.  By this time of day it was starting to get pretty bumpy, I was beginning to doubt that I would make it to my first overnight stop at Fort Bridger, WY.  The air finally calmed down a little when I got over the Salt Lake.

I headed for Brigham City intending to camp there for the night.  I had my sleeping bag set up in the pilot’s lounge when a woman stopped by and demanded to know what I was doing.  I figured she was the local airport police so I tried to be nice.  I told her that I was tired and that I didn’t think anyone would mind if I slept in the pilot’s lounge.  She informed me that this was unacceptable and then grabbed me by the arm and led me out and over to her husband.  She told him, “he thinks he’s going to sleep in the pilot’s lounge.”  Her husband was far more jovial.  He informed me that I was not going to sleep in the pilot’s lounge, and further, he would show me where I would be sleeping.  They led me into a huge hangar, at the back was a set of stairs, up the stairs and behind the door, was a set of living quarters that looked like a model home.  “This”, he said proudly, “is where you will be sleeping tonight.”

There was bedroom, a full bath with jetted tub and walk-in shower, a kitchen with food and drinks in the refrigerator, and best of all it was air-conditioned.  He told me to help myself to anything I liked but just leave it as neat as I found it.  I then understood the woman’s outrage, she was not about to have me sleep on a couch when she could offer me so much better.  I thanked them profusely and then they left.  Thank you again Pearce and Dorothy!

The next morning I departed Brigham City clean, fed, and well-rested.  I picked my way way through the higher peaks until I was clear of the Rockies.  I stopped in Rock Springs and then Douglas WY for fuel.

When I arrived at Valentine NE for my next fuel stop, the wind was out of the south at 20 gusting to 30.  I made one of my more interesting landings and then decided that I would call it quits.  I asked if there was a courtesy car I could borrow, there was none.  The hotels would not pick up either.  I asked if I could sleep on the couch in the pilot’s lounge, I was told no. Welcome to Nebraska.  I asked if I could pitch my tent in the grass, that was grudgingly acceded to.  They did give me the code to the door to the pilot’s lounge so I could use the bathroom and get a drink.  By about 5:30 the airport was deserted and the temperature had climbed to 103 degrees.

I decided to stay in the pilot’s lounge until the temperature dropped.  By sunset (about 9:30pm in those parts) the temperature had dropped to 97 degrees and the wind was still howling.  This was one of the lower points of the trip.  I decided to go against the wishes of my kind hosts and sleep in the air-conditioned pilot’s lounge.  I got about two hours sleep but at sunrise the wind had finally stopped blowing so I got out of there as soon as I could see to taxi.

I stopped two more times for fuel, once in Rock Rapids IA, my intended camping destination, and then Rushford MN.  Then finally after three days’ journey I finally landed in Oshkosh WI!

Part 2 coming in a few days…

Phase 1 Flight Testing – COMPLETE

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Phase 1, Rans S-6ES CoyoteLeave a comment

I am happy to report that I finished my phase 1 flight testing this morning!  I loaded the airplane up with all my camping gear, food, water, clothes, etc and flew around for two and a half hours.  I wanted to see how the airplane would respond fully loaded.  Also, I needed those hours to be legal to leave my 50 mile test radius.  I’m happy to report that although a little sluggish with all the weight, the airplane performed just fine.  Tonight I will sign off my flight testing as being done and I now have a real-live airplane that can carry passengers and everything.

I leave for Oshkosh tomorrow at first light.  I would appreciate your prayers for protection for my family while I am gone, and for a safe flight there and back again for myself.

Countdown to Airventure

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Rans S-6ES CoyoteLeave a comment

I’m planning on leaving next Thursday morning for my 3rd journey to Oshkosh Wisconsin for Airventure, the Experimental Aircraft Association’s big airshow.  There are a few more preparations to make before I leave.  I have to fly off a couple more hours of Phase 1 flight testing and I also would like to touch up some of the paint on the plane.

Tomorrow and Saturday I will fly off the remaining hours and also try to touch up the paint. Some time before I live I need to pick up a few more last minute survival supplies and also get my oxygen tank refilled.

Phase 1 Flying–34 hours

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Phase 1, Rans S-6ES CoyoteLeave a comment

Had a great flight this morning.  The air was smooth as glass.  Today I calibrated my Lift Reserve Indicator.  It’s not completely accurate yet but it’s close enough.  The LRI can be thought of as either an angle of attack indicator or a an airspeed indicator that is extremely accurate at low speeds.  The instrument is connected to a probe that has two inputs which ram air enters at two different angles.  The LRI instrument compares the two pressures on the two ports and moves a needle accordingly.  You calibrate the probe by changing the angle at which it protrudes below the wing, thus altering the angle at which the air hits the two ports.

I also took the opportunity to do some pre-Fourth of July sight seeing.  Here are a few shots of Lake Don Pedro from this morning’s flight.

 

 

Only 6 more hours and I’m set to carry passengers, and leave my test area!  Oshkosh here I come!

Phase 1 flying–30 hours

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Phase 1, Rans S-6ES Coyote, Travel2 Comments

This morning’s flight was fun.  I’m loading up the plane and getting used to how it handles when heavy.  To do this I decided to load up all my camping gear.  Of course, it has to be out of the plane before you can load it inside the plane.  So I went down to a grassy spot on my airport and set up camp.

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This also gave me a chance to test the tie-down anchors I made this week.  I’d like longer stakes, these are only 12 inches, I’d like 14 inches.  When in actual use the stakes would be driven all the way in, as this was only a test I left them sitting proud.

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After a hard day of air camping, what’s for dinner?  MRE’s!!

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And there’s plenty more where that came from!

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I’m also bringing a couple of items along for safety.  One is a breakout tool to help with egress from the cockpit should the doors become jammed.  The other is my Spot Satellite GPS Messenger.  This device updates a web page with real time position updates.

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Hard to believe most of this stuff will fit into this small plane.

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Now all I have to do is pack my clothes, put in some gasoline and off I go!

The XM WX Aviator Saga

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Opinion1 Comment

About 6 months ago I purchased a portable GPS system for my airplane.  It’s a Garmin GPSMap 396.  No longer sold by Garmin it’s a pretty good value on the used market.  One of the many features this device offers is in-flight weather depiction on the navigation map the unit displays.  So you not only know where you are on the planet, you also know what the weather looks like 500 miles down the road.  The weather is delivered via the XM satellite radio network.  This means you can also listen to their audio channels, a great boredom fighter.

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This past weekend I finally decided it was time to subscribe to the service and start getting familiar with the weather functions.  This way I can be prepared for my trip in late July, I’ll already know how to use the device to view and fly around the weather.  I logged onto their website and ordered an audio subscription as well as their weather data product.  It was all automated and very easy.  The audio channels showed up immediately but the weather screen kept showing that I had no subscription for weather.  Hmmm… Maybe it just takes a while.

I waited a couple of days and still no weather.  I called SiriusXM listener care and they assured me that sending a refresh signal would clear everything up.  It did not.  The next day I called back and spent more time on the phone with them.  After about 45 minutes they assured me that in one hour weather would absolutely show up on my device.  It did not.

Okay, something’s wrong here.  Time to break down and read the manual.  I noted in the manual that came with the XM radio that I need to order the XM Aviator subscription.  I did!  Didn’t I??  I checked and… no, I didn’t.  I ordered the NavData subscription which provides weather data to select automobiles.

I called back again and proceeded to explain that I had ordered the wrong subscription and would like to change it.  After a lot of careful checking the friendly representative told me I would have to talk to their account department and that she would transfer my call there right away.  I thanked her.  After a short delay I was connected to ‘Dan in Marine systems’.  I explained the situation to Dan.  Dan said he couldn’t help me and that I would have to talk to Online Sales.  He unceremoniously said “hang on” and then transferred me. 

I explained my situation to the rep and asked if I could change my subscription.  It took about 15 minutes to explain everything to her but she finally got it and changed my weather subscription to the correct one.  But, she said I would not be able to receive audio channels anymore.   I told her that the website said I could get both weather and audio channels and that’s really what I wanted.  She told me she’d check into a few things.  After about 5 minutes of her checking I suddenly heard ‘Dan in marine systems.”

I told Dan it was me again and that I really didn’t know why I was suddenly talking to him again.  He asked for my radio serial number.  I told him that I was waiting for the other rep to gather some info and let me know if I could get audio channels with weather subscription.  Suddenly we were disconnected.  I don’t want to accused Dan of hanging up on my but I am suspicious.

A different phone number was listed on the XM Weather website so I called that number.  I told the rep who answered that I need to activate my weather subscription and oh, could I add audio to that?  Sure, he said and took care of it on the spot.  He told me to wait 40 minutes and turn on the radio.  I did and there was my weather and my audio!

All’s well that ends well but overall a very disappointing customer service experience.

Phase 1 Flying–26.2 hours

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Phase 1, Rans S-6ES CoyoteLeave a comment

Had a great flight this morning; no squawks and my airspeed indicator problem seems to be mostly fixed.  It’s reading within 5 mph of my actual airspeed which is close enough. No, really.

For the first time in weeks the air was truly calm so I took the opportunity to fly a sawtooth pattern of climbs and descents.  I’ll enter that data into a spreadsheet and plot it.  I’ll be able to use the data plots to find the aircraft’s Vx and Vy speeds.  Vx is the best angle of climb, this is the speed that gets you the most altitude over a given distance.  Vy is the best rate of climb, this is the speed that will give you the most altitude over the shortest time span.  I have a few more flights to gather the data I need tabulated.  Determining Vx and Vy is the last of the formal flight tests I need to conduct.  After that I’m just flying off the time until I get to 40 hours.

Here are a couple of pictures from this morning’s flight…

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Phase 1 Flight Testing–18.9 hours

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Phase 1, Rans S-6ES CoyoteLeave a comment

I had three squawks remaining on the plane and now am down to one.  The biggest squawk was my charging system.  This was repaired by replacing my regulator/rectifier which I fried by not knowing how to properly operate my engine.  The second biggest squawk is that my airspeed indicator indicates a higher airspeed than I’m actually travelling.  I emailed technical support and they suggested shortening the length of my pitot tube (this is the probe that stick out in front of the airplane and is connected to the airspeed indicator).  I shortened the pitot tube by almost half and now I am seeing normal airspeed indications.  I didn’t think it would help much but I’m pleasantly surprised.

The last squawk will be much easier to fix.  The airplane shows a tendency to turn to the left which forces me to hold a little left rudder when I’m flying.  The fix for this is easy, to find a length of tubing that I can attach to the left side trailing edge of my rudder.  I just need to find the right length of tubing and attach it.

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Battery Charging Problem Fixed

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Phase 1, Rans S-6ES CoyoteLeave a comment

I’ve been battling a battery charging gremlin since early on in my phase 1 flight testing.  Initially I thought it was a blown fuse.  It turns out the blown fuse was not the cause but a symptom of the bigger problem.  The bigger problem is that I didn’t read one line in my Rotax engine manual which stated that the voltage regulator should never be turned off while the engine is running.  Since on a Lycoming you can switch off the alternator field switch at will, I assumed you could do the same on a Rotax.  Not so.  The manual clearly states that if you do this you will damage the voltage regulator.

Well, I did, and I did.  So I ordered a replacement voltage regulator and installed it.  I check the voltage today and there is ample voltage now to charge my battery.  I’ll monitor voltage closely on the next few flights but I’m confident I’ve corrected the problem.

HDR effect on photos

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Rans S-6ES Coyote1 Comment

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and is basically a way to digitally adjust the light levels between the lightest portions of a photo and the darkest portions.  In normal use it makes a photo look more realistic.  It can also be used to create artistic effects such as in the following photos, take and enhanced by my friend Emmet Welch.

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This next one is my favorite:

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