A Beautiful RV Day?.

[Ironflight]

What do you call a day where you head to the airport after breakfast, pull two airplanes out of the hangar (one for you, one for your sweetie), launch for a lunch spot with great friends, fly five hours total and return as he sun is setting? Oh, and all this is done at RV speeds and ranges, with clear blue skies and almost unlimited visibility!

For those still pounding rivets, we call that ?an RV day?!

Sunday in Texas dawned clear with winds aloft from the northwest blowing up to 35 knots at 4.5K ? I don?t know how strong they got above that, since we were headed in to them, and I didn?t want to find out! Louise was ready to take her newly-renovated -6 out for a good stretch, and I hadn?t taken the Valkyrie away from home for almost a month, so we decided to fly the ?light twin? around the state, and the heck with the fuel bill. It would give us some time to work on very rusty formation skills, take a few pictures, and exercise the machinery well.

We set of for the RV lunch spot at Stephenville, plotting a dogleg course around the presidential TFR that was expanded to 30 miles for the holidays. A direct line would put is right overhead the Crawford ranch, so the detour is a pretty good one ? Weathermeister said it was 7% longer than direct. The winds were on our port quarter until we made the turn ? then they were on the nose. Fortunately the air was smooth as glass most of the time, and since I was navigating (that means I had the autopilot tracking our planned course), Louise played #2, flying in tight for awhile, then relaxing out at a distance when she wanted a break. Since both airplanes now have full digital instrumentation, it was interesting to compare power settings and fuel flows. I was backed off about an inch of manifold pressure from my normal cruise, and she had about an inch on me. This translated to a little more power for the slightly draggier -6, and this of course was reflected in a couple of tenths more fuel burn per hour. Enough to notice, but not enough to worry about.

The group we found at KSEP was great ?RV friends of both Louise?s and my acquaintance, a chance to get caught up on trips folks had taken, and an opportunity to get some air-to-air photography of Mikey and the Valkyrie together. Danny King volunteered to fly Doug with the camera in his back seat, and it is very comforting knowing that you don?t have to worry about any lack of talent in the guys maneuvering around you! The only problem was that right after we lifted off, Louise?s trim failed (dead), and my Comm went nuts ? I could occasionally hear a call to move in or that we were starting a turn (I was on Louise?s wing), but in general, I was nowhere near the position I should have been. Doug fortunately knows how to compensate for this a little, and came away with a couple of usable shots.

The trim problem was perplexing, but hardly surprising, considering the surgery we had done on Mikey in the past month. I figured that the problem was going to be under the seat panels, and I really didn?t have the tools to tear into those on the ramp at KSEP. Louise was confident that she could continue the trip, so we launched for our future airpark home at Kestrel and found smooth air up above 5K?. The Tru Trak autopilot was able to handle the out-of-trim condition (she was stuck in landing trim) at speeds up to about 120 knots, so we continued across Texas like a couple of Skyhawks. With weather as nice as it was, I really didn?t care, and it gave me a couple of hours to work on my formation skills. Since we were powered back, I had lots of opportunities to work on joins and cross-overs, generally getting comfortable again with the plane in formation. The hill country slid below us as we listened to a couple of different flights of folks out enjoying the scenery together. I guess that we are all tourists when the weather is nice, and the chatter on 122.75 is proof!

Fuel at Kestrel is usually the cheapest around (Shhhhh?.we try and keep that a secret), and proved to be this trip as well. I had put in a splash at KSEP, but the -6 hadn?t taken any since Houston, so there was plenty of room to fill with $3.49 100LL. We decided that with the trim still stuck on Mikey, Louise would set the pace all the way home, so that gave me more time on the wing as the Texas plains went by. Of course, by late in the day, the brisk winds had died away, and the most we saw on the tail was about 15 knots. It didn?t matter, as we weren?t in a hurry. In fact, Houston appeared on the horizon not long after leaving the Hill Country, proving the visibility to be in the 80 mile range. Since I was limited to my short range Comm (wingtip antenna on #2), we stayed close in case I didn?t have good enough capability when we got to our home airport to announce my position, It turned out fine, and there wasn?t any traffic. As we turned in to the hangars, the clocks ticked over to five hours for the day ? not bad, especially when you consider that we saved a lot of fuel flying slow for a change.

Just to wow you with some numbers, as we left kestrel for Houston, I was showing 40% power burning about 5.5 gph, truing about 129 knots. My endurance was over 6 hours, and range up near 1100 miles ? and this was at 7.5K ? hardly what you would call high. It?s easy for me to forget that I can get numbers like that by pulling back and slowing down ? but that?s hard to do in these airplanes.

Smooth air, good friends, a couple airplanes, and a day to go wander ? yeah, it?s all SO worth it. Louise left her plane with me as she headed home on the ground (we haven?t figured how to put a 100 lb malamute in an RV yet), but she managed to get enough time with the new panel to feel comfortable when I can get it up there to her. (I?m sort of looking forward to seeing how it works out on a long cross-country myself.) This was the kind of day an RV?er lives for ? total immersion in flight from sunrise to sunset. Lots of miles, lots of smiles, and the chance to share it all with a special person. Doesn?t get much better!

Paul

[Danny King]

Paul,

Good write up, and a good read as usual. My kudos to Louise for flying such a steady formation lead in an out of trim airplane. I hope the pictures Doug was able to shoot were what you hoped for.

Flying, food and friends.....it makes for a great RV day.

[Louise Hose]

[quote=Danny King;185863]Paul,

Good write up, and a good read as usual. My kudos to Louise for flying such a steady formation lead in an out of trim airplane.QUOTE]

Thanks, Danny. I quickly figured out that using the elevator trim and staying slow helped make the flying managable. I have to say that I wasn't particularly excited about getting an autopilot (that's the one thing that Paul kinda pushed on me), but I sure have begun to understand its value!

Thanks, also, for flying the photo ship.

[DarylT]

What a great writeup Paul. We really enjoy your very descriptive reads. It really helps keep us motivated. Someday huh.