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Thread : Sliwa's Trip from FL to WA [June 2009]
Started at 21st-June-2009 02:54 AM by Steve Sliwa
Visit at http://forum.xopa.org/showthread.php?t=31
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Author : Steve Sliwa
Date : 21st-June-2009 02:54 AM
Thread Title : Sliwa's Trip from FL to WA [June 2009]
20 June 2009 [Saturday]
Yesterday I departed for PDX at 11AM from the office. My hope had to arrive at MCO around midnight. Then my buddy and co-pilot on this trip, Paul McDuffee would pick me early and we would get to Spruce Creek about 8AM and hopefully depart around 10AM.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10010.jpg
Before going to sleep I organize my accessories ...
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10011.jpg
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Author : Steve Sliwa
Date : 23rd-June-2009 05:44 AM
Thread Title : Sunday June 21
June 21 -- Sunday
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Well the day came and I didn't sleep well and we got up early. We got to the plane about 7AM. Unfortunately, it was already like 86 deg and 86% humidity, only it felt worse. One thing I have learned in my business when we send people into harsh conditions, they tend to not be at full performance. I will give hints of that .... Here we are packing:
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10014.jpg
Here we are about ready to go, drenching in sweat at 8AM.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10016.jpg
Paul McDuffee and I fueled the bird, loaded up, and started to the end of the runway. We didn't like the way the run-up went so we returned to the start point and discussed some items with Chuck. I now know what happened on that one, but will save it for another posting.
We are cooking in the heat and humidity. We take-off and contact Daytona Approach to get flight following to Quincy (several MOAs and Restricted Airspace on the direct route) but the radio sounded terrible and approach said they could barely understand us. We came back and landed (clock shows 8 minute flight). Excellent landing BTW.
I had a Blulink connecter in the Bose headset line and we took it out. Radio sounded a bit better, but our sideband was being overmodulated. We decided to give it a try. So we launched back in the air and proceeded toward Quincy.
We are cooking in the heat and humidity. We climb to 6500' and the haze is so bad we can see pretty much only the ground. I 'thought' I got the plane into cruise but was only getting 105 knots. It was at this point, which was probably the lowest point of the trip, I was thinking that I should have planned the trip for a cooler period. However, the trip has gotten progressively better and we are having a good time ... so keep reading. <g>
We got to Quincy. It was Paul's turn for a landing and I guess he tried to get about 3 in on this one. Manny Sousa was there waiting and radioed us on how to get to the pumps.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10018.jpg
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10019.jpg
I am so glad we decided to stop there. We had just complete our first leg in tough conditions and had some issues to work out. So we fueled up and went into the A/C and unwound. Manny helped me understand several issues (like tricks for the pitch change). Actually, I had heard his advice from Heinz and Chuck before, but my first flight did not have the RPMs hooked up so we used Heinz's trained ear. The second time we were mostly pattern hopping. So getting into a real mission I was a little too flustered.
My plan is to document to my embarassment and hopefully the benefit of future Ximango owner's all the little mistakes I made or misunderstandings that I had. I will create that post later ...
In any case, anyone who picks up a plane should be required to stop and visit with Manny Sousa and Jerry Owens at Quincy. It really helped us consolidate our learning for the next legs.
So we launched out of Quincy and headed for our next landing spot, Jackson MS. Good news, the take-off and climb out went much better ... in a couple of spots I circled in lift to help the climb.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10022.jpg
This time we cruised at 8,500 feet. Prior to taking-off this time we pulled out the sun shield that Keith Phillips made for us. Wow,that made a huge difference.
We arrived Jackson with about 3 hours of flight time. Did I say it was hot in Florida at 8AM? Quincy at 11AM? Welcome to Jackson at 2 PM. It was a scorcher. Sweat was dripping from us as we climbed out of the plane.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10020.jpg
But we climbed back in and made it to Texarkana (about 2:20 ETE). Now we regularly get 118 to 120 knots at altitude. So we are making better time, but we still have headwinds. We secure the plane and get a taxi to a new Hampton Inn. It's next door to an Outback Steakhouse. Did you know they serve beer in 22 oz glasses? We put fluids back in ... and that's why this report didn't come out last night.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10026.jpg
All in all we are doing much better, better utilizing the systems. I am getting good at using my Garmin 696 which is tied into the system. For example, I can find an airport and load it's frequencies directly into my Garmin SL30 ... not need to twist dials. More on the goodies on future posts.
Mission done and we slept well! [No editting ... pardon spelling and grammar and etc.]
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Author : Steve Sliwa
Date : 23rd-June-2009 06:08 AM
Thread Title : Monday June 22
We leave Hampton Inn at 6:00AM and arrive at airport. Left main is a little low, but I couldn't find the valve stem to make it easy to add air. So we decide it's within acceptable standards and depart.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10027.jpg
We climbed to 8,500 again in two stages and head toward Childress TX. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture. My landing was kind of mediocre with a bounce. Minor crosswind. In any case, it's really a crop duster strip and service was friendly but pretty spartan. We get some fluids for us and the plane and head out.
Here is video from in the cockpit: Large (http://www.xopa.org/videos/parowan/FL-WA_Video01.mov) | Medium (http://www.xopa.org/videos/parowan/FL-WA_Video01b.mov) | Small (http://www.xopa.org/videos/parowan/FL-WA_Video01c.mov) [QuickTime Player for .mov files (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/)]
This time we decide that 10,500 is the way to go since there were some mountains near the endgame with Santa Fe. The last 2 thousand feet were really slow. The density altitude is tough on us. However, the winds shift around to a cross-wind so we don't have the headwinds we had been seeing and it eventually turns into a tailwind. At one point we see 132 knots ground speed. Seems like we get about 117 to 119 cruise here and about 118 to 121 when at 8500.
As we get closer to Santa Fe we see terrain alerts on the GPS and later feel grateful we chose 10,500. As we get closer though, the thermals are getting stronger. Paul didn't have his shoulder straps cinched down and he nearly hit is head on the canopy at one point. He's not so sure he's going to like western thermals.
We let the altitude creep up to 11,500 or so as we get closer to the mountains. Of course, now it's a headwind as well. The winds have picked up and are shifting all over the place.
We call in and tell him (the friendly controller) that we are Motorglider 175XS with Information Oscar 20 miles to the East inbound landing. We couldn't decide if in a previous encounter he had guided a motorglider to damage or he had heard about our less than stellar landings enroute.
In any case, he told us the winds were shifting all over the place with gusts over 20 and we should consider flying over the airport, looking at the wind socks ourselves, and choosing our own runway.
At this point, Paul informed me that he was going to skip his turn on the landing. The controller was friendly and seemed knowledgable. He asked what altitude we would overfly Santa Fe and I said about 9000'. He said that was good and conservative. Once overhead he told us the wind readings on all 3 winds socks. They all conflicted so I chose the long runway.
He asked some traffic to take a longer downwind to clear space for us. Man he was nervous. In any case, I came in high and used divebrakes. There was a strong wind gradient and turblence. But I nailed the landing, perhaps and 8.5 out of 10. The controller even said "Nice job!" when I was rolling out. He really was anxious. Paul was surprised as well, so he said lunch was on him.
Even though this was 12:45 and we could have made it to Parowan I had to stop and do a conference call at 3:30 local time (board meeting). We decided not got to the next waypoint (Page AZ) and wait for the morning. BTW they were reporting a density altitude of 9200' when we landed.
I have been talking with Chuck Cheeseman at XimangoUSA and getting his support and advice as well.
The plane is flying well. Paul can not believe how easy it is to start the engine. He says it's like turning on an elecric fan. Even so, he's not sure how he's going to like that soaring stuff.
For those that want to see my SPOT page can see it at
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0ZVHkPhgD4qMOoGkQtymWrnfALdZ0QTtx
However, it expires after 1 week. I hope to take snapshots of it and put it in an album I will create when I get home.
I get lots of positive comments on the bird where ever we go. We are in a good routine and are getting more comfortable all of the time.
Tomorrow we head to Page AZ and then Cedar City UT, which is right next to Parowan. We will get rental car there and our hotel is nearby.
Looks like with some work issues I will only be able to stay a couple of days.
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Author : Steve Sliwa
Date : 24th-June-2009 06:58 AM
Thread Title : Tuesday June 23
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10033.jpg
Paul and I got up early (again) and departed the hotel at 6AM. We were up in the air just after 7AM. The controller we had yesterday was just coming on duty. He was friendly as yesterday and talked with us on our way out. A Lambada came in after us and was parked near us. He mentioned that as well. Nice guy. I highly recommend Santa Fe.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10030.jpg
I was a little nervous about the take-off since it was dead calm and the winds were nil with a density altitude of over 8,000 feet. It was my turn and I need to report it went about as well as if Heinz was doing it ... very smooth and nice climb out. No heating problems and a nice shift into cruise pitch.
We headed 250 degrees for awhile for terrain clearance and climbed to 10,500 (about 12,500 density altitude). Then turned 270 deg and eventually 290 degrees to Page AZ. It has tall smoke stacks viewable from far away. The terrain between Santa Fe and Page was quite interesting and varied. Several times Paul and I called out interesting landscapes to each other.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10034.jpg
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10035.jpg
Page was interesting to fly into because it was the busiest airport we have flow into yet, even though it was 9:30AM. Seems like there was 3 or 4 planes in the pattern at any one time (CTAF/Unicom) because of the Lake Mead tourist/sightseeing business. We vectored in and landed between planes. The terminal was busy.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10039.jpg
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10041.jpg
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10046.jpg
We fueled and headed for Cedar City UT, just a few miles away from Parowan. We wanted to get a rental car and we had a hotel arranged. Unbelievably I had forgotten but I had stay at the Hampton Inn before. We landed at about 12:30PM and headed to the hotel to check in after a nice lunch at a Chilis. Finally, we had arrived so we could stop pressing. Here we are on the flightline at Cedar City:
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10047.jpg
We returned to the airport at 3PM and I took 5XS to Parowan solo. This was my first solo flight in the plane and my first soaring flight. Winds were gusting over 20 mph but down the runway, so takeoff was no problem. It was almost 90 degrees so the climb wasn't spectacular but I used some thermal bubbles to help it along.
I felt rusty in my soaring as it was hard to get more than one turn in the lift with it solidly cored. I later found out that was a common problem in the local area. I was relieved.
Paul was going to drive the car over, but I decided to stay up for a couple of hours soaring and practicing. I have to admit, that even though I was a soaring pilot originally, turning off the engine for the first time and soaring miles away from the airport took some time to initiate. But it worked well and I spend most of the time zipping between 10,000 and 12,500. I didn't have my oxygen hooked up and decided to avoid higher as a precaution ... potential oxygen depivation, dehydration, heat, and advancing age (I am no kid anymore) don't mix.
I talked to Ron Snedecor who told me that he was about 40 miles away in wave lift at 15,000 feet having a great time.
I landed and cleaned the bird with Paul. Ron landed soon thereafter and got to meet him in person for the first time.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10051.jpg
The crew had a dinner for the pilots and great social time. Paul and I hooked up with Tom Muller (Ximango owner), Martin (Golden Eagle trainer and raptor rescue director), Ron Snedecor (Ximango owner), Lisa Marie (manager of Victoria's Bed & Breakfast). Lisa Marie flew with Ron and was ecstatic and Martin flew with Tom.
We later went to the B&B for some libations and great conversation. It was great fun. When you buy a Ximango you get some great people with whom to interact.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10055.jpg
We hope to do some soaring together tomorrow. Paul and I have to depart for parts north on Thursday, so we hope to get some fun in tomorrow, although now Paul has a 2PM conference call to break up the day.
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Author : Steve Sliwa
Date : 25th-June-2009 06:08 AM
Thread Title : June 24 - Wed
Today we soared. Perhaps for the first time in North America, we had 3 Ximangos together in the same thermal pover 15,000 feet. We also individually each made it to about 17,500 feet. We have photographic evidence (video on my little camera) and photos on Ron Snededor's hand-held camera. We will post these later. Here is one of the video links. Note that I am thermalling with my left hand and holding the camera with my right hand across the empty seat:
Large (http://www.xopa.org/videos/parowan/Parowan09_Thermal03b.mov) | Medium (http://www.xopa.org/videos/parowan/Parowan09_Thermal03b.mov) | Small (http://www.xopa.org/videos/parowan/Parowan09_Thermal03c.mov) [QuickTime Player (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/) for .mov files]
Tom Muller with Martin Tyner (raptor expert) took off about 12:30PM or so. Ron Snedecor with his buddy Mark took off shortly after me. I went up about 2PM and soared until 5:30PM
Lift had patches of strength to 10 knots. But as has been the case the lift was difficult to center. Several of the pros went 800km in their racing format.
I went into the valley and tried to join a street. I made a save at about 2,000 feet over the deck (not super low, but the terrain is scary). I heard that Ron and Tom were busy over the mountains but started to work their way toward me. So I headed to them. Tom and I rendezvoused over Cedar City at about 10K and headed back west. About 10 mintues later Ron joined us in the thermal
I would say we soared about 1.5 hours together bouncing between 9,000 feet MSL and about 16,000 feet MSL. Since I was the Ximango newbie, I violated one of the soaring protocols, the guy on top looks for the next lift. I exploited my lower weight (Paul had to stay on the ground and attend to business) and hung near the top of the thermals.
I got several good movies (defined as white dots in the distance successfully framed in the picture) and we did some 3 in a row flying.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10090.jpg
It was a fun day. Paul and I are leaving tomorrow. At dinner we talked about designing future fly-ins and rallies for touring motorgliders. We refined the converstation over daquiris at the B&B.
Ron and Tom are going to keep flying for another couple of weeks in the West. It should be fun for them.
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Author : Steve Sliwa
Date : 26th-June-2009 06:33 AM
Thread Title : June 25 - Thursday
June 25 - Thursday
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We got up early and departed the hotel at 6:15AM. We had the code to enter the ramp and got ready as the sun was coming up. Here is a picture of sunrise on the Cedar City ramp:
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/518/medium/CedarCity_25Jun09_01.jpghttp://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/CedarCity_25Jun09_011.jpg
We took off at 7AM and flew about 2.5 hours to Winnemucca NV. Refueled with good attention from the flight line.
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10103.jpg
Then flew 2.6 hours to the new home for N175XS, which is Dallesport WA (KDLS). Weather was great, but the terrain was desolate (Utah, Nevada, and Eastern Oregon). We made good time as the winds were most just a cross-wind. Here is a view of the SpotCasting for the last day:
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/Spot_UT_to_WA.jpg
When we arrived the winds were 20 knots gusting to 29 with a 30 deg to 40 deg crosswind to the runway. I carried extra speed but as I was getting ready to flare a gust hit and ballooned us up about 15 fifteen feet (Paul McDuffee let out a sound, but I promised I would not report what it sounded like) so I retracted dive-brakes, re-flared and manged to just kiss the runway in a 3 point landing. I swear that I must have hit a down gust just as I settled on the runway so it could hold me down, even though it was very soft. Pauls says I was lucky, but ...
In any case we parked the bird and completed the trip to the west coast. It was a great trip. Here is a picture of the bird packed in new home:
http://gallery.xopa.org/data/518/medium/KDLS_25Jun09_01.jpghttp://gallery.xopa.org/data/519/medium/SDC10119.jpg
Our flying time was under 23 hours. I will summarize the trip in a follow-on report and post some pictures.
Very tired at the moment ... time to head for bed.
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Author : Steve Sliwa
Date : 6th-July-2009 07:22 AM
Thread Title : Flight Profile Pictures Loaded
I was able to find a way to download the flight log profiles from my new Garmin 696. They are in the album (http://gallery.xopa.org/showgallery.php?cat=519), but let me post a couple of interesting ones here:
http://www.xopa.org/gallery/data/519/thumbs/Flight_Log.jpg (http://www.xopa.org/gallery/data/519/Flight_Log.jpg) http://www.xopa.org/gallery/data/519/thumbs/08_KCDC-IL9.jpg (http://www.xopa.org/gallery/data/519/08_KCDC-IL9.jpg)
http://www.xopa.org/gallery/data/519/medium/01_7FL6-2J9.jpg (http://www.xopa.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=273)
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Author : Steve Sliwa
Date : 12th-July-2009 07:56 AM
Thread Title : Statistics
I computed some interesting statistics for the trip:
Total Distance: 2413 nm
Total Time: 22.68 hrs (trip time)
Ave. Groundspeed: 106.4 knots
Total Gallons: 123.21
Ave. Gal/Hr: 5.43
Ave. Statute-Miles/Gallon: 22.5
Total Fuel Cost: $554.17
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Author : Steve Sliwa
Date : 12th-July-2009 08:14 AM
Thread Title : Flight Log
I uploaded the flight log sheet used to compute the statistics as an image:
http://www.xopa.org/gallery/data/519/thumbs/Trip_Worksheet_Jun2009.jpg (http://www.xopa.org/gallery/data/519/Trip_Worksheet_Jun2009.jpg)
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