Flew from C56 just south of Chicago with my ultimate destination McAllen Texas down in the Rio Grande Valley. A distance of about 1050 nm. All was well until I hit Carthage TX on Thursday 12-27 when IFR ceilings at 400ft socked me in for two nights.
All was not lost though because I made two new friends. Panola County Airport manager John DePresca was a big help by hangaring my plane and shuttling me back and forth from the hotel. The fuel delivery system is out of service at the airport for now so before you fly in to take advantage of their super low fuel price ($4.20) check Notams. Other than that it is a beautiful facility with no shortage of friendliness.
My other new friend is Harold Campbell, also based 4F2, who as a 15,000 hr. Stearman crop duster pilot gave me pointers about landing my 6 without bouncing too much. He helped me also by letting me plug in my sump heater and using his forced air heater to preheat my engine after it sat in a T hangar for 2 nites and would not start on Saturday morning temperatures 35 deg. F. I have to add a primer.
Harold built a beautiful IFR, 200 hp RV-8 and was a big help by letting me sit in his airplane, taking me to lunch and shuttling me back and forth. His airplane is for sale by the way.
When I departed Panola County for MFE I had a big tailwind and to my delight I was seeing 180kt plus groundspeeds. I was going so fast I thought my GPS was broke. I made the 420nm trip in just over 2hrs. What a nice little plane.
Down in the Rio Grande Valley the weather was warmer than in Chicago but temperatures were cooler than what I expected. Any thought of swimming was out of the question. Left the plane at McCreery Aviation at MFE and they were easy to deal with and reasonably priced. Fuel was about 6$ per gallon and tiedown fees were $6 a nite with the first nite waived with a fuel purchase. Ramp attendants were very helpful and hangared the plane for a small charge on the nite before I left. So that made it easier to start. I will stay there again as it was a good experience.
Departed Thursday morning under a 3500' ft overcast and all was good until I decided to stop at Navasota TX to top off with fuel and use the restroom. Even though they have a credit card reader and a fuel tank which I saw and prompted me to stop, there is no fuel at Navasota. Very disappointing. So I stopped at Huntsville TX (UTS) and fuel was $5.29 and service was friendly and quick.
Flew from UTS to Kennett MO on 20 gallons at 9500' and was startled to see fuel dripping out of my cowl by the exhaust pipes. After a couple of drops it stopped and I wiped it down real good. I think it was because I shut down the engine with the ignition switch to check my mags for being grounded. So I shut the engine down with the mixture at home (C56) and there was no more fuel dripping. I made my first nite landing at home and was very pleased to see my landing lite was positioned perfectly. The landing was bouncy as usual though.
So looking back I have to add a primer and pay more attention to sealing the cockpit because it was drafty in there. Also have to find a way to duct the heat which comes out between the rudder pedals to warm my feet more. It was getting way too cold in there and for some reason the heater went from providing warm air at 9500' to merely lukewarm air when I descended. Perhaps because of the reduced power in the descent. The plane is easy to fly; light on the controls and very stable. Not twitchy at all and as fast as or better than what I expected. Even with the usual 20kt headwind I still see 140 kts on the GPS. I estimate my fuel burn to be 8gph and in 14.5 hrs of flying I probably used one quart of oil. I will check it again as it probably hadnt drained down when I looked at it after the flight. Thanks for reading this and put me down as a very please customer of Van's aircraft.
All was not lost though because I made two new friends. Panola County Airport manager John DePresca was a big help by hangaring my plane and shuttling me back and forth from the hotel. The fuel delivery system is out of service at the airport for now so before you fly in to take advantage of their super low fuel price ($4.20) check Notams. Other than that it is a beautiful facility with no shortage of friendliness.
My other new friend is Harold Campbell, also based 4F2, who as a 15,000 hr. Stearman crop duster pilot gave me pointers about landing my 6 without bouncing too much. He helped me also by letting me plug in my sump heater and using his forced air heater to preheat my engine after it sat in a T hangar for 2 nites and would not start on Saturday morning temperatures 35 deg. F. I have to add a primer.
Harold built a beautiful IFR, 200 hp RV-8 and was a big help by letting me sit in his airplane, taking me to lunch and shuttling me back and forth. His airplane is for sale by the way.
When I departed Panola County for MFE I had a big tailwind and to my delight I was seeing 180kt plus groundspeeds. I was going so fast I thought my GPS was broke. I made the 420nm trip in just over 2hrs. What a nice little plane.
Down in the Rio Grande Valley the weather was warmer than in Chicago but temperatures were cooler than what I expected. Any thought of swimming was out of the question. Left the plane at McCreery Aviation at MFE and they were easy to deal with and reasonably priced. Fuel was about 6$ per gallon and tiedown fees were $6 a nite with the first nite waived with a fuel purchase. Ramp attendants were very helpful and hangared the plane for a small charge on the nite before I left. So that made it easier to start. I will stay there again as it was a good experience.
Departed Thursday morning under a 3500' ft overcast and all was good until I decided to stop at Navasota TX to top off with fuel and use the restroom. Even though they have a credit card reader and a fuel tank which I saw and prompted me to stop, there is no fuel at Navasota. Very disappointing. So I stopped at Huntsville TX (UTS) and fuel was $5.29 and service was friendly and quick.
Flew from UTS to Kennett MO on 20 gallons at 9500' and was startled to see fuel dripping out of my cowl by the exhaust pipes. After a couple of drops it stopped and I wiped it down real good. I think it was because I shut down the engine with the ignition switch to check my mags for being grounded. So I shut the engine down with the mixture at home (C56) and there was no more fuel dripping. I made my first nite landing at home and was very pleased to see my landing lite was positioned perfectly. The landing was bouncy as usual though.
So looking back I have to add a primer and pay more attention to sealing the cockpit because it was drafty in there. Also have to find a way to duct the heat which comes out between the rudder pedals to warm my feet more. It was getting way too cold in there and for some reason the heater went from providing warm air at 9500' to merely lukewarm air when I descended. Perhaps because of the reduced power in the descent. The plane is easy to fly; light on the controls and very stable. Not twitchy at all and as fast as or better than what I expected. Even with the usual 20kt headwind I still see 140 kts on the GPS. I estimate my fuel burn to be 8gph and in 14.5 hrs of flying I probably used one quart of oil. I will check it again as it probably hadnt drained down when I looked at it after the flight. Thanks for reading this and put me down as a very please customer of Van's aircraft.
