N941WR
Legacy Member
With a few weeks off between jobs, I decided it was time to stretch my legs. Nothing like what Vlad does but still a bit longer than the usual BBQ run.
After installing a new battery in the -9 on Wednesday, my wife dropped me off at the airport Thursday, just before lunch.
At 17:15Z I fired up the O-360. While the oil was warming up, I plugged in IKW (Midland, MI), dialed in the altitude (8,500’) on the Dynon AP, did a control check and basically waited for the oil temp to climb into the green.
With the oil up to temp I taxied to the end of runway 5 and checked the ignition. Everything seemed normal, so it was time to launch.
While still under the Charlotte Class Bravo I called up Charlotte departure and requested flight following. They were kind enough to give me a squawk as I was passing through 3500’. Then, just about as I cleared their mode C ring, they canceled flight following and suggested I contact Atlanta Center, if I wanted flight following. Heck yes, I wanted flight following, I was heading up over the mountains and wanted to make sure someone had my back, if things got quiet.
Atlanta picked me up quickly and asked me to squawk 7142.
Knowing I was planning on a 520 nautical mile flight I dialed back to about 145 KTAS and LOP. I thought fuel wouldn’t be an issue. Remember, the -9 holds 36 gallons, and is really designed for miserly O-320, not the fuel gulping O-360. At those speeds, the engine uses about 7 GPH.
Up at 8500’ I realized the winds were basically right on the nose and blowing at 30 knots. Thank you Dynon for the wind velocity vector, it is really helpful in calculating the expected fuel (and runway) usage.
Knowing I might have to deal with headwinds on this flight, I had planned ahead and decided to use AOH (Lima, OH) for a fuel stop, if needed. An hour into the flight, after doing some simple math, I called up ATC and changed my destination to AOH, and made a slight deviation to the west. No need to wait until the fuel situation got ugly to decide to use my “out”, so I started heading there, while notifying ATC of the change in destination.
Once clear of the Appalachian Mountains and over Ohio, ATC asked me to drop down 4500’ and deviate east to duck under the Buckeye MOA, which just went active. While it was bumpy down there at 4500’, the wind was now a left crosswind and not a headwind. So, that was good news.
Almost immediately after ducking under the MOA, ATC called to say the MOA just went cold. WTF? So, with the cold MOA above and bumpy air at 4500’, I quickly climbed back up to 6500’ and realized the winds were still on the left wing and not on the nose. Once again, some more calculating and I asked ATC to change my destination back to IKW.
With the slight detour I took towards Lima, OH my flight path was now lined up to scoot over Toledo and just to the west of Detroit’s Class Bravo. So, no deviation required to get around / under Detroit.
As I passed FNT (Flint, MI) the scattered clouds became a solid undercast. A quick right turn lined me up with a BIG hole where I was able to drop under the clouds and continued the rest of the flight at 2500’
The landing was uneventful and when I checked the Hobbs after shutting down I realized it took me exactly 4.0 hours to fly from IPJ to IKW.
The numbers from the flight are even more impressive:
598 SM (520 NM)
4.0 hours from engine startup to engine shutdown
27.42 Gallons of 100LL (60% power LOP)
$150.83 cost of fuel
2 transponder codes
15 frequency changes
7 fuel tank changes
1 snack
Here is where this gets interesting. If I had driven my truck, it would have been a 729 mile drive, taking 12 hours 17 minutes, 39.4 gallons of regular unleaded (based on 18.5 MPG), which works out to $141.86 (based on $3.60/gallon). Add to that the cost of tolls, food, etc. and it would have cost me a lot more to have driven.
For those of you who are still pounding rivets, keep going! It is all worth it!
After installing a new battery in the -9 on Wednesday, my wife dropped me off at the airport Thursday, just before lunch.
At 17:15Z I fired up the O-360. While the oil was warming up, I plugged in IKW (Midland, MI), dialed in the altitude (8,500’) on the Dynon AP, did a control check and basically waited for the oil temp to climb into the green.
With the oil up to temp I taxied to the end of runway 5 and checked the ignition. Everything seemed normal, so it was time to launch.
While still under the Charlotte Class Bravo I called up Charlotte departure and requested flight following. They were kind enough to give me a squawk as I was passing through 3500’. Then, just about as I cleared their mode C ring, they canceled flight following and suggested I contact Atlanta Center, if I wanted flight following. Heck yes, I wanted flight following, I was heading up over the mountains and wanted to make sure someone had my back, if things got quiet.
Atlanta picked me up quickly and asked me to squawk 7142.
Knowing I was planning on a 520 nautical mile flight I dialed back to about 145 KTAS and LOP. I thought fuel wouldn’t be an issue. Remember, the -9 holds 36 gallons, and is really designed for miserly O-320, not the fuel gulping O-360. At those speeds, the engine uses about 7 GPH.
Up at 8500’ I realized the winds were basically right on the nose and blowing at 30 knots. Thank you Dynon for the wind velocity vector, it is really helpful in calculating the expected fuel (and runway) usage.
Knowing I might have to deal with headwinds on this flight, I had planned ahead and decided to use AOH (Lima, OH) for a fuel stop, if needed. An hour into the flight, after doing some simple math, I called up ATC and changed my destination to AOH, and made a slight deviation to the west. No need to wait until the fuel situation got ugly to decide to use my “out”, so I started heading there, while notifying ATC of the change in destination.
Once clear of the Appalachian Mountains and over Ohio, ATC asked me to drop down 4500’ and deviate east to duck under the Buckeye MOA, which just went active. While it was bumpy down there at 4500’, the wind was now a left crosswind and not a headwind. So, that was good news.
Almost immediately after ducking under the MOA, ATC called to say the MOA just went cold. WTF? So, with the cold MOA above and bumpy air at 4500’, I quickly climbed back up to 6500’ and realized the winds were still on the left wing and not on the nose. Once again, some more calculating and I asked ATC to change my destination back to IKW.
With the slight detour I took towards Lima, OH my flight path was now lined up to scoot over Toledo and just to the west of Detroit’s Class Bravo. So, no deviation required to get around / under Detroit.
As I passed FNT (Flint, MI) the scattered clouds became a solid undercast. A quick right turn lined me up with a BIG hole where I was able to drop under the clouds and continued the rest of the flight at 2500’
The landing was uneventful and when I checked the Hobbs after shutting down I realized it took me exactly 4.0 hours to fly from IPJ to IKW.
The numbers from the flight are even more impressive:
598 SM (520 NM)
4.0 hours from engine startup to engine shutdown
27.42 Gallons of 100LL (60% power LOP)
$150.83 cost of fuel
2 transponder codes
15 frequency changes
7 fuel tank changes
1 snack
Here is where this gets interesting. If I had driven my truck, it would have been a 729 mile drive, taking 12 hours 17 minutes, 39.4 gallons of regular unleaded (based on 18.5 MPG), which works out to $141.86 (based on $3.60/gallon). Add to that the cost of tolls, food, etc. and it would have cost me a lot more to have driven.
For those of you who are still pounding rivets, keep going! It is all worth it!
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