Well some nasty weather rolled through early this AM, hopefully going easy on Lakeland, but by 8:30 the skies were clear and wind was calm, and I got to fly N313GT for the first time - it was pleasantly uneventful. She flew hands-off and as expected the only hard part was slowing her down.
Take-off roll was extremely short - I had a friend setup at the first taxiway to shoot pictures but was off well before I got there. Climbed out at 100 knots and was at 3000' before I knew it. I have 4 new ECI cylinders so I watched the CHT's - #3 topped out at about 406 for about 20 minutes and then I noticed a distinct drop. The others were in the 365-395 range. I kept power at about 70-75% for 35 minutes and then did a brief slow-flight test, with a full flap stall right at 40 knots. Came back into the pattern and flew final at 65 and then 60 knots. Just like Jan Bussell said it would, the plane landed itself and made me look good.
Thank you to everybody here for answering what started as dumb questions and hopefully at least became slightly less so over 3.5 years. I have learned immensely. Thanks to Jan for excellent transition training, and to Vic Syracuse for a thorough inspection and the confidence-inspiring kind words. And it doesn't hurt to have an amazingly supportive wife.
As they say, it's all worth it. And now, the grin....
Take-off roll was extremely short - I had a friend setup at the first taxiway to shoot pictures but was off well before I got there. Climbed out at 100 knots and was at 3000' before I knew it. I have 4 new ECI cylinders so I watched the CHT's - #3 topped out at about 406 for about 20 minutes and then I noticed a distinct drop. The others were in the 365-395 range. I kept power at about 70-75% for 35 minutes and then did a brief slow-flight test, with a full flap stall right at 40 knots. Came back into the pattern and flew final at 65 and then 60 knots. Just like Jan Bussell said it would, the plane landed itself and made me look good.
Thank you to everybody here for answering what started as dumb questions and hopefully at least became slightly less so over 3.5 years. I have learned immensely. Thanks to Jan for excellent transition training, and to Vic Syracuse for a thorough inspection and the confidence-inspiring kind words. And it doesn't hurt to have an amazingly supportive wife.
As they say, it's all worth it. And now, the grin....