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Another long xcountry

Sam Buchanan

been here awhile
The more APRS trackers are installed in RV's, the more it seems the system is viable for long cross country flights. I was poking around aprs.fi in the North Alabama area this afternoon and saw a red trail plotted at ~9.5K msl. Got to following it and it seems N7VD, an RV-7A, made a trip today from Double Eagle in Albuquerque to somewhere in the mountains of North Carolina (Boone?) with a lunch stop in Texarkana.

The track was really solid all the way from NM to NC:

http://aprs.fi/?call=KE5TZM-7&mt=m&z=10&timerange=3600

Impressive not only for the APRS performance but for how the little home-made plane got John safely across a big chunk of the USA today in nine hours. :)

N7VD.jpg
 
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Steamboat Odyssey

I took a trip to Colorado today by the scenic route, due to some wonderful plains thunderboomers.

The track is not that great as we ended up low under clouds and over some pretty desolate country in NE and WY. We did have good coverage in the mountains, though.

I am a weather wimp, especially with family on board, so we ended up putting down in ONL and CDR in Nebraska to let some nasty stuff pass. I forgot to trigger the nav lights/trackker off Chadron..... sorry.

I can't say enough nice things about the airport people in both places - they took great care of us...There are some really great people in Middle America. 3 or 4 RV's are being built in ONL!

IMG_5505.jpg


9er Pop Hotel stares down the storm in O'Neill.....and lost for an hour and a half.....

IMG_5507.jpg


We rode some fun mini waves in the mountains. I had the alt hold engaged and watched the TAS vary from 105-170 knots. When in the rising air, the nose angle down was impressive! My passenger was not impressed and Dramamine is a few bux richer for it.

Mines near Guersey

IMG_5508.jpg


Guys and gals - try to find a way to run that engine LOP, 10.5 K, 170 mph true on 5.1 GPH ~28NMPG with a slight headwind! - not too shabby....

IMG_5528.jpg


XM WX and my new buddy at Denver Flight Watch got us through. Here's what we dealt with - Green meant low clouds that I wanted to avoid over the the bigger rocks. We were never really that close to anything and vis was always 10+, but as the track shows, it was anything but GPS direct.....

IMG_5525.jpg


Finally, KSBS, the Bob Adams STOLport! Yes - RV's qualify...

IMG_5535.jpg


I can report that a -9A near gross is fine performer - even sorta high and pretty hot.

Getting here is at least half the fun....... More to come.
 
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Heading to KFNL

On Sunday..I don't have XM WX so I hope I have a really good friend at flightwatch!

Don't think I fancy flying IFR out in the middle there..and imbedded TS..What?!!

Frank
 
RE:Friendly Reminder

Hi Frank...

Just a friendly reminder......tidy up all those necessary lose ends paper wise before you hit the trail........................Boy am I looking forward to one day following in you air steps....hop in the 7A.....and get there with enjoyment, beautiful views, fun flying, and great things and people to see at the other end. Be safe and enjoy once again the fruits of your labors.:D

Frank @ 1L8 ....RV7A...last 948 details

On Sunday..I don't have XM WX so I hope I have a really good friend at flightwatch!

Don't think I fancy flying IFR out in the middle there..and imbedded TS..What?!!

Frank
 
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APRS Track across the US & Continental Divide

Great stuff Pete and Sam!

I Flew from Rhode Island to Grand Junction CO in the 182 over the last few days with the wife and dog. Some IFR over Western KS and eastern CO. Can't wait for the RV which will be 40% faster! I was impressed at the coverage I got with the Rypole antenna in the rockies at 12,000-14,000 ft. I had it taped longitudinally in the plane to the rear windows. The longest transmission was 469 miles (I think, you guys can check me on that).
The flight through Poncha Pass, Marshall Pass, and over Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado was absolutely AWESOME! Heading to Pagosa Springs tomorrow and Denver on Sunday or Monday, then back east.

Here are the tracks (can you show multiple days with aprs.fi?)
http://aprs.fi/?call=KB1LQP&dt=1213747200&mt=m&z=6&timerange=86400
http://aprs.fi/?call=KB1LQP&dt=1213660800&mt=m&z=6&timerange=86400
http://aprs.fi/?call=KB1LQP&dt=1213488000&mt=m&z=6&timerange=86400
http://aprs.fi/?call=KB1LQP&dt=1213488000&mt=m&z=6&timerange=86400
 
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Track me back to Independence on Friday!

I plan on launching from Salt Lake (Bountiful, kbtf) at about 1300Z on Friday morning. We'll see how good the track is from a thousand feet lower, I plan on flying at 10,500'. www.aprs.fi/N174BK
I sure don't care for the $6.15/gal fuel price at Bountiful, we're paying $4.47 with the BP card in Independence! I took this shot of the Cascade peaks on the way down on Tuesday...

 
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Noah,

What is the format of the "dt" parameter on apri.fi? I cannot find it on their site.

Ted
 
Date

Ted,

On the right margin of http://aprs.fi
Click on "2008" under "Select a day (6 months history):"
From there, select a date to see the track for that day only. The URL will include the date (Julian format?). What I am wondering is how to show 4 days worth of flying on one map.
 
Great stuff Pete and Sam!

I Flew from Rhode Island to Grand Junction CO in the 182 over the last few days with the wife and dog. Some IFR over Western KS and eastern CO. Can't wait for the RV which will be 40% faster! I was impressed at the coverage I got with the Rypole antenna in the rockies at 12,000-14,000 ft. I had it taped longitudinally in the plane to the rear windows. The longest transmission was 469 miles (I think, you guys can check me on that).
The flight through Poncha Pass, Marshall Pass, and over Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado was absolutely AWESOME! Heading to Pagosa Springs tomorrow and Denver on Sunday or Monday, then back east.

Here are the tracks (can you show multiple days with aprs.fi?)
http://aprs.fi/?call=KB1LQP&dt=1213747200&mt=m&z=6&timerange=86400
http://aprs.fi/?call=KB1LQP&dt=1213660800&mt=m&z=6&timerange=86400
http://aprs.fi/?call=KB1LQP&dt=1213488000&mt=m&z=6&timerange=86400
http://aprs.fi/?call=KB1LQP&dt=1213488000&mt=m&z=6&timerange=86400

Not sure about how to display multiple days on aprs.fi, but here is a quick and dirty Photoshop hack of the multiple tracks:

KB1LQP.jpg


Nice trip!
 
Travelin' RV's

If anyone wants to follow some tracks, there are several RV's on the move this afternoon:

http://aprs.fi/?call=N789PH Pete Howell

http://aprs.fi/?call=N4822C Scott and Tanya Card

http://aprs.fi/?call=N714D Dan Checkoway

http://aprs.fi/?call=KI6GII-1

You may need to change "Show Last" to 6-hours in order to see the entire track. Switching to "Terrain" view is especially impressive for those aircraft in the mountains.

By the way, a good way to find moving APRS RV's is to use this link on aprs.fi:

http://aprs.fi/moving

Scroll down the list and look for little airplanes. :)
 
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Made It!

Great Trip! Glad to have some extra set of eyes on me for my first work in the mountains.

SBS-ANE 5 hours on the dot - we burned 26 gallons of 100LL. 760 staute miles, 152 smph, just over 29mpg. Ave burn, 5.2 GPH. I'll take it. Tail winds first 1/2 of the trip, bumps and a slight headwind the 2nd half.

I'll post some pics later. Keep pounding rivets.........
 
Great Trip! Glad to have some extra set of eyes on me for my first work in the mountains.

SBS-ANE 5 hours on the dot - we burned 26 gallons of 100LL. 760 staute miles, 152 smph, just over 29mpg. Ave burn, 5.2 GPH. I'll take it. Tail winds first 1/2 of the trip, bumps and a slight headwind the 2nd half.

I'll post some pics later. Keep pounding rivets.........

Great trip and track, Pete!

However......Checkoway definitely gets the "Iron Butt" award. Somehow he convinced that RV-7 to stay in the air for just over six hours between central TX and CA. :eek:

The reliability of APRS over some empty parts of the country continues to be impressive.
 
Updated Numbers and a few pics...

I just got back from cleaning the plane (my wife Andi thought dinner and a shower were more important than removing bugs when we landed).

Per the Garmin, SBS-ANE flight time was 4:46. Per the Dynon EMS, Fuel burned was 24.6 gal. So here are the new totals for car comparisons:

760 satute miles, ave 160 mph, ave 30.89 smpg

Thanks again for keeping an eye out on us. It is clear we need a digi in western Nebraska. Even at 11.5K that is no man's land for APRS.

Here are a few pics I took on the trip:

Mountain flower
IMG_3885.jpg


Rodeo!
Rodeo%20118.jpg


Great trip, but good to be home.
 
Thanks again for keeping an eye out on us. It is clear we need a digi in western Nebraska. Even at 11.5K that is no man's land for APRS.


Yep, Nebraska is pretty much devoid of digis (and apparently iGates):

nebraska.jpg


One or two iGates in the western half of the state would make a tremendous difference. But in spite of the emptyness, you were only without coverage for about 50 miles. (Crank that MT-8000 up to full power next time. ;) )

Congratulations on the great mileage! You and Checkoway have the economy cruise thing figured out. :)
 
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By the way, a good way to find moving APRS RV's is to use this link on aprs.fi:

http://aprs.fi/moving

Scroll down the list and look for little airplanes. :)

I know that the icon associated with the track is completely up to the operator and wouldn't guarantee anything, but it would be a great feature to have a filtered version of that page that only shows the "airplanes" moving.

It would be even more swell to have something more specific to the RV or experimental community. I've toyed with creating something myself, but I'm not sure it's worth it (or feasible), especially given that something as great as aprs.fi already exists.
 
I know that the icon associated with the track is completely up to the operator and wouldn't guarantee anything, but it would be a great feature to have a filtered version of that page that only shows the "airplanes" moving.

It would be even more swell to have something more specific to the RV or experimental community. I've toyed with creating something myself, but I'm not sure it's worth it (or feasible), especially given that something as great as aprs.fi already exists.

Just go here:

http://www.mail2600.com/cgi-bin/track.cgi?call=KI6GII-1&last=1
http://www.mail2600.com/cgi-bin/ui.cgi?call=KI6GII-1
http://www.mail2600.com/faq.htm

Joe's site is great - aviation specific and I think he even reads these forums...
 
Home

Thanks Ted! It was a heck of a trip, just returned home from 15 days of flying! Man, what a vacation for me, the wife, and Cleco the Chocolate Labbie. I have a buddy in Clarksburg, and he's building a Cozy. He says I probably owe his employer some money, because evidently quite a few of his office mates were watching the flight yesterday. It was great to see him and yes, the diversion was for wx as you mentioned.

Just managed to get out WV this afternoon before some big thunderstorms hit, and had to around some weather in PA, NY, and CT. Learned a lot on this 4500 mile saga, but I really can't wait for the RV to be done since it will be 40% faster than the Skylane! At one point we had a huge tailwind and I said "Honey, see how fast the ground is going by? Get used to it, because that's what the RV will look like"! ;)

Thanks for the post Ted, and for running an IGATE!

If anybody is interested, here is yesterday's long 10 hour flight (3 legs really)from Denver to WV around thunderstorms in OK:
http://aprs.fi/?call=KB1LQP&dt=1214524800&mt=m&z=6&timerange=86400

and the grand finale today back home:
http://aprs.fi/?call=KB1LQP&dt=1214611200&mt=m&z=6&timerange=86400
Wouldn't you know it, there is a huge airshow on at my home airport (Quonset RI) and the Snowbirds are here, Mike Goulian, a bunch of F-18s, etc etc. WAY cool homecoming!

Back to pounding Rivets!:D
 
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