Original Posted By: "T White"
I moved my airplane down to the Laredo, TX airport today to leave it with my A&P for its annual. I logged 2.5 hrs. on the flight, less than 150 statute miles. Beautiful day for flying except for the stiff headwind right on the nose (15 mph). Learned a few things.1. This length of flight is about right for me and my airplane, and it's what I will plan on for legs to fly going to Brodhead.2. You guys who have experienced fatigue and cracking of the mounting tabs on your Continental engine cooling eyebrows were right. One of mine fatigued and failed on this flight. I'm wondering about mounting them using tabs made out of pieces of radiator hose or something flexible.3. I can't hear diddly with my cheapie handheld and the headset that I have.4. I now know that the last 2 gallons of fuel in my 16 gallon tank are unusable in flight, but the last 3 are unusable in the 3-point attitude. I know my airplane won't be on the front page of the Laredo Times tomorrow morning, but the airport bums and tower guys will probably be talking about "that experimental that taxied off 17R yesterday without power". Made a great landing and rollout, was decelerating but when the tail came down and we started to clear the active, the engine died as fuel ran out. I debriefed this situation thoroughly with my instructor by cellphone later and told him that if I ever expect to fly this airplane anywhere away from my home field with confidence, I want to know the airplane's limitations and mine. Never was the safety or outcome of the flight in question or danger, but now I know that the red markings on the top inch of my float rod are a "no fly zone". Fuel truck pumped 13 gallons into my tank, but it wasn't plumb full when I left my home field this morning.At least it started up instantly after the fuel truck rolled out and topped me off, and it taxied strong and loud as we passed in full review of the tower, the FBOs, the fire station, and everybody else.Happy 2008; here's to more low and slow flying and 80 more years of Piets!Oscar ZunigaAir Camper NX41CCSan Antonio, TXmailto: taildrags(at)hotmail.comwebsite at http://www.flysquirrel.net________________________________________________________________________________
Pietenpol-List: nice Saturday flight
Re: Pietenpol-List: nice Saturday flight
Original Posted By: "Gordon Bowen"
Oscar,Think any of us who have flown a few miles have had a "runnin' on fumes" safe? landing. Felt the kinda shame of having to pump 20 gal into a 21 gal tank, knowing I did something very dumb, glad when no one was looking. I put a mark at 5 gal left in tank as the no fly zone for fuel. My biggest worry was about the lack of any fuel head pressure feeding the carb when the tank's fuel level gets below about a 1' drop. Had at one time an aux. elect fuel pump in the line just to use in case I hit the 5 gal lower limit. Found out the aux. fuel pump further constricted the smooth gavity flow of the fuel making it even more unsafe when I have low fuel if the elect pump fails, so pulled the pump out of the fuel system. The old rule of old pilots and bold pilots still holds.Gordon________________________________________________________________________________
Oscar,Think any of us who have flown a few miles have had a "runnin' on fumes" safe? landing. Felt the kinda shame of having to pump 20 gal into a 21 gal tank, knowing I did something very dumb, glad when no one was looking. I put a mark at 5 gal left in tank as the no fly zone for fuel. My biggest worry was about the lack of any fuel head pressure feeding the carb when the tank's fuel level gets below about a 1' drop. Had at one time an aux. elect fuel pump in the line just to use in case I hit the 5 gal lower limit. Found out the aux. fuel pump further constricted the smooth gavity flow of the fuel making it even more unsafe when I have low fuel if the elect pump fails, so pulled the pump out of the fuel system. The old rule of old pilots and bold pilots still holds.Gordon________________________________________________________________________________
Re: Pietenpol-List: nice Saturday flight
Original Posted By: Oscar Zuniga
Hi OscarOn your eyebrows, did you make the ends that attach to the valve covers of steel? I Made the 1 1/2" end of steel and rivited it to aluminum. It might help.On the radio, with a handheld, performance will be greatly increased with an external antenna and installation of a ground plate. Try a 18"x 18" piece af aluminun under or behind the seat mounted horizontally and conected to the ground of the antenna. It helped me greatly.Dick N. ----- Original Message -----
Hi OscarOn your eyebrows, did you make the ends that attach to the valve covers of steel? I Made the 1 1/2" end of steel and rivited it to aluminum. It might help.On the radio, with a handheld, performance will be greatly increased with an external antenna and installation of a ground plate. Try a 18"x 18" piece af aluminun under or behind the seat mounted horizontally and conected to the ground of the antenna. It helped me greatly.Dick N. ----- Original Message -----
RE: Pietenpol-List: nice Saturday flight
Original Posted By: "Phillips, Jack"
Re: Pietenpol-List: nice Saturday flight
Original Posted By: Phillips, Jack
Jack,That's what I found out also when I flew from Florida to Tennessee. I made plans to remain aloft for about an hour and that way if I ran into head winds I'd still get down within an hour & a half. If I had tail winds then I could probably fly on to the next airport and still be in the air only about an hour and a half (my butt gets sore after that). Besides, one of the joys of flying a Piet is the reception you get at new airports. For me the more airports the better. Gene in windy Tennessee ----- Original Message -----
Jack,That's what I found out also when I flew from Florida to Tennessee. I made plans to remain aloft for about an hour and that way if I ran into head winds I'd still get down within an hour & a half. If I had tail winds then I could probably fly on to the next airport and still be in the air only about an hour and a half (my butt gets sore after that). Besides, one of the joys of flying a Piet is the reception you get at new airports. For me the more airports the better. Gene in windy Tennessee ----- Original Message -----