R

Rutus

Yesterday at about 2PM local time 727JW squeaked back onto the runway at Bremerton National Airport, and my big trip of 2009 came to an end. This combination of business and personal travel began May 10th (Mother's Day), when my long-suffering wife Laurie urged me to leave that afternoon (rather than wait until Monday's scheduled departure) because of the usual sloppy weather heading for the Seattle area from the Pacific. So, here is how the itinerary worked out:
May 10: flew from Bremerton to Mountain Home, ID.
May 11: Mountain Home to Rawlins, WY for fuel, then to Wichita, KS.
May 12: business meetings in Wichita
May 13: Wichita to Dauphin Island, AL, with fuel stop at Raymond, MS
May 14-15: Relax at Dauphin with my cousins Jean and Sue at Sue's waterfront condo, and - by happenstance - my sister Jane is there visiting as well. Client meeting in Atlanta was set for May 15, but client canceled due to schedule conflicts. Oh well - it was not a critical meeting, and it still served as a good excuse for having the office pay for most of the trip.;)
May 16: Dauphin Island to Warrenton/Fauquier County, VA, with fuel stops at Eufala, AL and Roxboro/Person County, NC.
May 17: visit with my sister Margo at her place in Fairfax, VA, and tour some of the capitol.
May 18: Warrenton, VA to Farmington, MO with fuel stop at Georgetown, KY. Tour the Farmington area and Pilot Knob, MO, where my grandfather Henry was born.
May 19: Farmington, MO to Laurel, MT with fuel stops at Columbus, MO and Spearfish, SD.
May 20: Laurel, MT to Dillon, MT (change in plans due to weather in the Butte-Hamilton area being worse than advertised); after topping the tanks and planning a new route, on to Salmon VOR and Lewiston, ID and thence direct to Bremerton at 10,500 MSL, coasting over the Seattle Class B with flight following (the only time ATC has called out a B-757 crossing below me - I bet a few of the pilots on frequency had a good laugh over that one) and then pulling the plug for a very steep and fast descent into Bremerton.

So, here are the numbers:

Total trip length: 4,801 NM
Fuel used: 295.4 gallons 100LL
States flown over: WA, OR, ID, UT, WY, CO, NE, KS, OK, AR, LA, MS, AL, GA, SC, NC, VA, WV, KY, IN, IL, MO, IA, SD, MT

Observations and lessons learned (in brief):
  1. The FAA has LOTS of people there to help - weather briefers, FlightWatch, ATC, etc., and I made use of a whole bunch of them. All were courteous, helpful, and tried to do what they could to make the flights easier and safer.
  2. Our great little planes are only useful if there are airports and FBOs to provide the infrastructure to make RV travel practical. The density of airports in the midwwest and southern and eastern staes is pretty amazing, whereas out home in the west things can be fewer and further between.
  3. Weather is always a factor. I did not have to make any major changes in plans due to weather, but it WAS an issue. The flight from Alabama to Virginia was mostly low level MVFR stuff through murky skies, with lots of help from ATC - especially warning about towers ahead!!
  4. Supplemental O2 is something I need to really consider. Getting on top of the mountains and clouds here in the west often requires flying at 9,500MSL or better, for hours at a time, and that is really tiring without O2.
  5. Flying long trips, day after day, is tiring and does NOT leave the pilot in the mood to open the laptop and get business/work done in the evening. Future trips will not mix work and pleasure like this.
  6. We live in a big, big country with an enormous amount of natural beauty in many variations. Looking down on it from 5-10,000MSL for days on end makes you want to take better care of it.
  7. The RV is an amazing machine, considering what it can do. I added 1 qt oil in Alabama, and that was it for maintenance issues on the trip.
  8. Long XC travel like this would be really taxing without GPS. My Garmin 296 was worth its weight in gold. Even though I kept charts and AFDs in hand, the situational awareness the 296 provided, terrain warnings (those towers again!), frequencies and nearby weather, etc., really enhanced the overall safety of the flight and made it workable for a typical GA pilot like me.
  9. I purchased a SPOT messenger before the trip, and the frequent OK messages (I sent them every ~30 minutes and at arrival) to family were appreciated. Coverage and transmit times were fine everywhere I went. While not a substitute for a 406ELT or PLB, it was a handy and useful addition to the trip.

That's all for now - time to rest, and think about the major washing the plane needs this weekend to get all the bugs, etc, off. :rolleyes:
 
Wow, John. That's quite the hike! Thanks for sharing. I live in Atlanta and I dream of taking a trip out west in my RV.

Let us know the next time you're around here...we can almost always find hangar space for RVers overnighting in Atlanta.
 
Glad to here about your trip John.

I am a little surprised the the miles per gallon is only 16.25. Am I figuring something wrong?

Kent
 
Fuel Burns . . .

Kent, you are right to notice that number, as it seems low. Here is what I can say for sure:

1. I typically ran at ~23 inches (give or take) at 2400-2440 RPM for cruise, although at higher altitudes I was not getting that much MP, of course. Fuel burns were usually anywhere from 8.2 to 9.2 GPH depending on how much power I was making and how aggressively I leaned.

2. Fuel flows at high power settings, used for those long climbs to 8,500 or 11,500 MSL, are anywhere from 12 to 13.5 GPH, and that tended to add up.

3. I had OK tailwinds eastbound, and winds up the eastern seaboard were not too much of a factor. But I had pretty strong headwinds most of the way from Farmington back to Bremerton, 20+ knots quartering for much of yesterday's flight, and 25+ knots just off the nose most of the day before. For example, on the outbound leg from Rawlins to Wichita I flew 3.1 hours and 529NM on 27.3 gallons. Yesterday, the run from Dillon to Bremerton was also 3.1 hours and 27 gallons, but only 467 NM covered over the ground.

4. True and indicated airspeeds were where I would have expected them to be, generally speaking, at various power/pressure/OAT conditions. A typical average for my -6 at cruise is about 8.5 GPH and 170-175 KTAS, which gives the 20NMPG average that I usually assume for my plane. But that is only the cruise value, not the climb or descent

So, I think that winds and leaning technique, coupled with high fuel flows on those long climbs, added up to make the difference. Somehow you don't seem to save the fuel on the descent from up high that you spent getting up there..:confused:

I have to say that having an accurate fuel totalizer and fuel flow data is really great for planning, in-flight evaluation of progress and options, and helping to lean properly and keep an eye on general engine health and performance. I would hate to have to go back to flying a plane without that instrumentation :eek:
 
I'm surmising you do not run Lean of Peak. I see about 7.2gph at 24"/2400, which would have yielded you a tad over 20mpg based on those figures. That would make a marked difference.

Mags or Electronic?
 
LOP - Not Quite There

No, I tend to run ROP, or at or near peak if <75% power; my O-360-A1A is magged and carbed, and my limited experiments at LOP have not produced acceptably smooth operation so far.
 
John, I know what you mean about learning to lean.

I now have over 130 hours on my plane and am just starting to get the hang of it. I hope to get even better. I haven't made any long trips yet to get real world measurements, but it sure is nice to see the numbers from my engine monitor / FF to guide my attempts to lean properly.

Kent
 
Thanks John

John,
Thanks for the write-up. That was quite a trip!

I want to visit Dauphin Island sometime soon and have a few questions.
I'm in Northern Louisiana so it's less than two hours for me to get there.
I'm thinking of making it just a day trip.

Questions:
How's the condition of the runway?
Plenty of tie-downs?
Do you know how close the public beach is to the airport?
I assume you left your 6 tied up there for a few days, so security is ok?

Thanks,
Mark
 
Boy, do I feel like a bum... last week I did a 6 day West Coast trip and only covered around 3,500nm, but I cheated a bit by starting out from Houston instead of going coast to coast. From Houston I made it to San Diego (Montgomery), then Palm Springs, Lodi/Sacramento, an SFO aerial tour, Camarillo, Santa Paula, back to PSP, Tucson (Pima Air Museum!) and then home. While in PSP I did some local putzing with my brother; Victorville, lunch at Mojave, Kern Valley, Inyokern. I hit a grand total of 17 airports on this trip, and by the time I got home I was actually ready to park the thing and not see it for a few days.

My long haul observations?

  • Getting lucky with the weather is a good thing. The only clouds I had to deal with was an easy IFR departure outta Houston; the rest was clear skies.

  • 29 hours flying time with no autopilot; I'm starting to want one. Perhaps Santa will bring me a TruTrak ADI Pilot this year. Either that or a paint job...

  • My RV (carbed O-360, Pmags) likes to cruise up high and run LOP. From 9500 to 12500 ft it seemed pretty happy leaned back to 7.5 to 8 gph at 165 ktas.

  • Ditto the previous GPS comments. I have just a basic Garmin 296 with an updated database; that plus a Flight Guide and a WAC chart atlas from Air Chart Systems works well for navigation.

  • Circling the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in an airplane I built in my garage? Priceless. I really dig flying in California since there are actual hills and mountains and such. Real terrain to look at; in Houston, not so much.
 
Great story John. What a privilege life you have. :) How did you manage to cross the rockies with no O2? Did you have to go around some tall mountains?
 
Dauphin Island Details

Mark, in answer to your questions about Dauphin Island:

1. Runway condition is fair to good; a few cracks and lumps but nothing too noteworthy, at least to me.

2. There are about 8 tiedowns at the ramp next to the runway end, near the fence, and they have new ropes installed. There is also space available to tie down in the grass, but you need to bring your own.

3. Don't know about the public beach, but nothing can be very far away on Dauphin. There is a bird watching area and other public access right next to the airport itself, though, so maybe that is what you are looking for.

4. No security at all - a chain link fence and easy to use gate. I did not worry about security the 3 nights I was there. The only other plane I saw there was a Maule on amphibs parked there.

I enjoyed the visit there, it is a nice spot, and we had good weather overall during my short stay, though it was hot and humid for a guy from the Pacific Northwest. And, I am not sure whether that stuff I was flying when I was down low, below the broken layer with building cumulus, can legally be called "air". It was like flying though a combination sauna and fog machine as I came down past McComb and Picayune at ~2000MSL and got flight following through Gulfport, then followed the coast past Pascagoula and - a few miles later - saw Runway 12 appearing our of the murk, which was a very welcome sight indeed.

You'll have a great time there - enjoy the trip. And, if you land on Runway 12, don't land short or you will be in the water :D
 
Autopilot or Paint?

John B, that was the same choice I had this year - and I went for paint. Hand flying the -6 for the 32 flight hours (per my 296) that this trip took was a tiring aspect of the flying, especially when things got bumpy.

Maybe next year.....
 
O2 in the Rockies

Aviator168, you can do it in some areas of the Rockies, but not in all. I like either a northern route across Idaho and Montana, along Pullman WA - Hamilton MT and continuing eastward, as an example, or even further north with the crossing from Spokane WA to Missoula MT, more or less. The other solution is the southern route through Boise, ID and then generally east/southeast across the plateau and through Wyoming. That is the one I took when I headed out on the trip, because of t'storms and rain/snow forecast for the Montana Rockies later that day.

MSL heights are not too different on these routes, as I recall; one difference is that the Montana route puts you over the mountains for a shorter period of time, I think, but while you are there you have very few options if something bad happens - such as your Lycoming stopping. The Wyoming route seems to have mountains spanning a longer east-west axis, but the mountain ranges themselves ares interspersed with valleys and flats that would give you more options in a forced landing. Although, in some parts of Wyoming on that route, it might be months before someone came by .... :eek:

In my experience 9500 or 10,500MSl will get you over these areas for the most part, although an occasional hop up to 11,500 may be needed depending on the specific routing and how much terrain clearance you are trying to achieve. Although these are legal altitudes without O2, I find that 2-3 hours or more at those heights is not very fun, physically, and leaves you with a headache and very dragged out feeling at the end of the flight.

So yes, it can be done, but you have to pick a routing that allows it, get good weather so that there is no mountain obscurement and you can see exactly where the terrain is (since you are not clearing it by very much, relatively speaking), and be willing to put up with a nagging headache when you are done. And, pressure gradients across the ranges (from east to west) and winds aloft can create lee side downdrafts that require more altitude to give a safe margin for terrain clearance.

And yes, I guess I am fortunate to have been able to make this trip - though there were many times, as I motored along somewhere in the sparsely populated areas, far from my family, that I wondered whether I was a little crazy instead. :)
 
Rutus said:
Hand flying the -6 for the 32 flight hours (per my 296) that this trip took was a tiring aspect of the flying, especially when things got bumpy.
Click to expand...

That reminds me of one of the bigger observations that I missed earlier;

  • when crossing the desert southwest, launch early in the morning before it heats up!!
When going westbound from the El Paso area to San Diego, I found a nice smooth ride at 12.5K at around noon or a bit before. Eastbound, however, I screwed up. I departed Tucson at 2:30pm or so, went up to 11.5K and got my butt kicked in the bumps for 2 hours until I was well east of El Paso. Judging from the scattered cloud level, even up to 13.5K would have done no good. Had my wife been in the back she'd have been puking up her toenails... woof.
 
fatigue and fuel burn?

i was wondering if you think your fatigue problem would of been less if you had oxygen on board.
also did you lean on climb out to the higher altitudes? that may have saved some fuel there. i have leaned to 8 gph in a slow climb at 150 fpm.
great trip though. best part of owning a rv.
 
Autopilot, especially 2 axis, will greatly reduce fatigue. Add O2 for high altitudes and your trips will be mucho mas pleasurable.
 
No doubt at all that O2 would greatly reduce the fatigue on the high altitude legs - I have been considering portable systems off and on over the last few years. Aside from the fatigue issue, it would allow you to legally get over 12,000MSL to top a cloud deck, which is a capability that would be nice to have out here.

Ditto the autopilot - this year, the choice (financially) was paint, or an AP. I went for paint.

As for leaning in the climbs, yes, I do that, but probably not as aggressively as I could.
 
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