I shot this picture of my EIFS today after climbing to my initial cruising altitude of 11.5K over west Texas, headed to Houston.
A few things to note...
1) Range is showing 956 (nautical) miles! With 368 miles to go to Houston, I could have kept going along the Gulf Coast for quite a lot farther if I'd wanted!
2) Endurance was showing 5 hours, 20 minutes. Later on, after I'd climbed up to 13.5K, I was showing a combination of Endurance (to go) and Elapsed Time (since take-off) of greater than 6 hours!!
3) Elapsed time since engine start (not shown in this shot, but it's on another screen I looked at moments later) was 22 minutes - and that included a very long taxi to the active, as well as the climb to 11.5K'....
It's hard to argue with performance like this - these really are traveling machines!
This weekend's travels included a Saturday flight from Houston to El Paso to pick up Louise who had flown in from D.C. I stopped for fuel in Pecos, TX because it was better than a dollar cheaper than in El Paso. I was showing 45 minutes to go to ELP, with over 2 hours fuel remaining when I stopped in Pecos, so I could have made it non stop! After picking up my passenger, it was a quick trip over the Guadalupes to Carlsbad. We flew almost over the site of our lost RV-6 Aviator - the CAP and local pilots are still looking when weather permits, but it is really rugged terrain. An interesting thing for me was a small thundershower over the northern part of the Guadalupes that never showed up on teh XM radar picture. If you were relying on the XM at night, you'd have thought nothing was there, and you'd have been very wrong! I try to remember that NEXRAD coverage does have holes - and that was one of them! As much as I praise XM weather, and believe it is revolutionary, it (like all tools) has limitations we must keep in mind....
Later on Saturday, Larry Pardue and I took a flying trip up into the Guads (You can see the video
here), and Louise took another friend up in her -6. After our respective sightseeing trips, we met up on top of the scattered clouds for a few pictures - a very nice flying afternoon. Sunday included another trip to the Guads with Larry in my back seat, and Louise solo, followed by a loose formation trip over to the little West Texas Andrews airport - cheapest fuel around! Larry climbed in with Louise to return home to Carlsbad, and I headed on back to Houston. Not bad for a day and a half trip! No weatehr problems to speak of - some very isolated thundershowers, but the XM kept me well clear of them
In other words....keep pounding those rivets folks - you're not just building an airplane, you are weaving a magic carpet!
Range Performance !
Linear Mode
