Ragsf15e

12v in the baggage, solid idea!

Exactly how I plan. Start with direct, then adjust just like you did. I fly ogden to Spokane a lot and your route is almost exactly like mine. I cut the edge of the valley maybe 10 miles north of Boise, but almost exactly the same. Just be careful about the weather this time of year. Lots of fog/freezing fog in kpuw. Klws is almost always better if kpuw is bad.

Yes for sure. My wife and I both have pulse oximeters. I dont think a concentrator is gonna work much above about 15k for me, but it’s been great from 9-12,500 since I’ve been using it. Around 10k I’m at 90% or maybe even 88% without it, but Above 95% with it even on a low setting. It has 6 settings, I haven’t had to use anything above 4 yet to keep myself above 95%. Higher settings do use the battery faster for sure. At 10500, my wife and I both used it for 3+ hours on setting 3 and were both upper 90s. It’s nice for NA airplanes on long flights where you might normally feel fatigued, because that’s eliminated with a good O2 sat. Its designed for 1 person, so 2 people isn’t perfect, but it’s been fine so far 10-12,000. Powering it is difficult if you want to plug it into the cigar lighter because it draws like 120watts and mine is only 60, so I’ve been battery only which is about 4 hours max.

Another good oxygen option (admittedly more $$) is the inogen g5 concentrator. It’s almost $2k but doesn’t need refills and works great for 1 or even 2 people (with splitter tubes) at NA altitudes.

Yes, an Aerox system with oxy saver cannulas like @wombat posted would be perfect. It lasts a long time. There are lots of places that can fill it, but you have to search around because some will charge $30 and some will charge 200. Highly portable and works well. Bring an oximeter from Amazon. They are cheap and work well. I found Ogden Utah a reasonable stop with good fbo options. Maybe hangar space for you? Be careful of the busy airspace around Salt Lake Hill, Air Force Base, and all the military ranges.

It doesn’t cost much more but there can be stipulations with smooth. I asked about it this year and it was only a few hundred bucks but it required a yearly ipc in type. Not a huge deal, but it’s there.

Yes, you probably won’t notice it much unless you do a mag check at cruise altitude above ~7,000’. If you’re running peak or leaner it might get your attention as the SF is basically doing all the work and switching to the mag it will get rough and you’ll see your speed dropping off(depending on how lean or high you were). You can tell the advance is doing something.

It’s definitely doable but you’ll have to watch the fronts coming through. Crossing is easier North of Colorado, then south into Utah and across to Reno, and then into central California. Having oxygen is really nice. You won’t need to cruise above 14,000, but you’ll definitely be above 10,000 for a long time. If it’s really cold and/or the weather is bad, south of Colorado is a great option. It might depend on where in California you’re headed. If you stop overnight, make sure you have a preheat plan. Take some winter survival gear because utah/nevada is remote!

Did you use the timing advance?

Sometimes you’ll find minor irritations if you don’t fully integrate display types from one brand. My example is jpi/garmin and the oat temp probe… you need two temp probes if you want the temp on your engine instruments and TAS/winds displayed on your pfd if you’re using a jpi as primary and a g5/g3x. If you go all garmin, it will share it within the system from one probe. I suspect there are similar limitations with fuel quantity, fuel flow, and warnings.

Occasionally people get lucky and it’s a bad battery, alternator or vr. More typically, these electrical gremlins take some reasonable troubleshooting with a digital voltmeter. Replacing parts before really nailing down the problem can get costly and frustrating. Ask me how I learned that one!

Normal! That was a good, cheap fix!

After getting to a safe altitude, most people transition to a cruise climb for better cooling and visibility. Around 115-120mph. Less rudder will be required than at initial takeoff/climb. You will find the caution range unavoidable for some parts of instrument approaches and vfr patterns. I just try to minimize it when possible.

We put in a connection kit for a battery minder at the same time. It was nice to have everything open to route the connection into the baggage compartment.

That use to be the USAF technique as well. Do the walk around, then walk 20-30 paces in front of the airplane and look it over from in front of the nose while you strapped on your parachute harness leg straps and zipped up your G suit. Look for red streamers, leaks, missing panels, etc from much further back than the walk around.

Yeah, then you’ll need to check behind the carpet below the door line as others are saying.. there’s a whole technique to fixing leaks around the inboard senders or pickup. Once you find the leak, look for that tread on this site.

Yeah definitely. Removed most of the interior and strung the wiring for the Surefly back to the battery along the pilot side. Passed it through the firewall through one of the holes freed up by the sos. Sf has to connect to the battery or hot side of battery solenoid, so it’s connected near the battery.

My sos was a little tricky to remove as I had to get a wrench on the nuts up under the instrument panel while my IA tuned the bolts in the engine compartment. Other than that and capping the wires, easy.

What phase of flight were you in? Were you leaning for cruise?

Or, (tongue in cheek), if you need right rudder in cruise, try a lower cruise altitude with higher IAS! Another solution (obviously after the rigging)… the gfc500 yaw dampner will correct for small variations in yaw at cruise. Maybe Skip just thinks his plane is rigged perfectly !

I think there will still be some very minor variations based on cruise IAS? For example 115kias at 12,500’ might require a little right rudder while 150kias at 4,500’might require slightly left rudder even though they are about the same cruise TAS. Since we have no trim, the rigging aims for the middle of “cruise”, but that might vary, no?

Possibly ditch the gma345 for a pma450b which has built in usb c, ditch the additional usb ports and continue to use cheap usb adapter from cigar lighter. Won’t save 25% but it’s something, and pma450 is really good.

Have you guys drilled out and replaced the receiver end too or did just replacing the “male” end work?

Well what about the rubber intake boot for the engine? Do you have electric gear? You’ll need a set of gears (20/1 or 40/1), an airspeed switch and maybe an emergency gear cable. There are more im sure…yes, it’s worrying, but I’ve had mine (68 F) for 10 years and it’s been ok. You should try to get an edm900 and ditch the mechanical gages.

How’s it looking?