Ned Gravel

Carusoam: I use Foreflight with a Stratus 2 ADS-B in box. The ADS-B function feeds my iPad with the winds aloft data.

+1 Shutting up now.

Final Entry: We made it home just fine and we learned quite a bit about how we would like to travel in our "travelling machine." First, here are the stats (right out of Flightaware). 28 Mar 2015 Ottawa/Rockcliffe (Rockcliffe) (CYRO) to Carl R Keller Field (KPCW) 2.53 hrs. 28 Mar 2015 Carl R Keller Field (KPCW) to James M Cox Dayton Intl (KDAY) 0.97 hrs 30 Mar 2015 James M Cox Dayton Intl (KDAY) to St Louis Downtown (KCPS) 2.18 hrs 30 Mar 2015 St Louis Downtown (KCPS) to Wichita Dwight D Eisenhower National (KICT) 2.98 hrs 01 Apr 2015 Wichita Dwight D Eisenhower National (KICT) to Tucumcari Muni (KTCC) 2.72 hrs 01 Apr 2015 Tucumcari Muni (KTCC) to Albuquerque Intl Sunport (KABQ) 1.22 hrs 02 Apr 2015 Albuquerque Intl Sunport (KABQ) to Sedona (KSEZ) 2.55 hrs 02 Apr 2015 Sedona (KSEZ) to Henderson Executive (KHND) 1.43 hrs 05 Apr 2015 Henderson Executive (KHND) to Ryan Field (KRYN) 2.60 hrs 05 Apr 2015 Ryan Field (KRYN) to Dona Ana County At Santa Teresa (5T6) 1.62 hrs 06 Apr 2015 Dona Ana County At Santa Teresa (5T6) to Kerrville Muni (KERV) 3.00 hrs 06 Apr 2015 Kerrville Muni (KERV) to Stinson Muni (KSSF) 0.52 hrs 09 Apr 2015 Stinson Muni (KSSF) to Skylark Field (KILE) 1.15 hrs 10 Apr 2015 Skylark Field (KILE) to Memphis Intl (KMEM) 3.37 hrs 10 Apr 2015 Memphis Intl (KMEM) to Evansville Rgnl (KEVV) 1.62 hrs 10 Apr 2015 Evansville Rgnl (KEVV) to Fort Wayne Intl (KFWA) 1.48 hrs 11 Apr 2015 Fort Wayne Intl (KFWA) to Windsor (CYQG) 1.03 hrs 11 Apr 2015 Windsor (CYQG) to Ottawa/Rockcliffe (Rockcliffe) (CYRO) 2.78 hrs Total 35.75 hrs (about the same as my entire 2014 flight time) Made some good time on some legs and not so good on others. We have decided that 18 flights in 14 days is pretty much our limit and we are not really keen on repeating that. If it was just me alone, not so bad, but not with the two of us. Second, we have decided that making good use of the legs of our travelling machine means travelling up to 6 hours in one day and then stay put for a while. Distances such as Killeen to Fort Wayne above are about it. About 900 miles. Those are the travelling days and the days in between are the days given to us by the advantage of flying there. Alternatively, two four-hour flying days are OK. That puts us on the ground for good stretches and rest between flying days. Allows up to 1200 miles over the two days. For example, that would put us into Tampa from Ottawa with a night in Virginia along the way. Next year, I plan to take Ute to Orlando, hopefully around the same time of year. Third, we flew IFR for all legs. I only got about 4 hours actual IMC during the 35 or so hours flying, and two real IMC approaches, one into Kerrville and one into Killeen. Both broke me out about 500 feet or so above the minima for each of those two approaches (and well above my personal minima) - so it was good. Note that both were VOR approaches - I do not yet have a 430 or equivalent. Fourth, our plan for "rain days" was spot on. We gave ourselves four extra days for the trip and we used all of them - two before we departed Ottawa because of icing, one in Wichita to install a new fuel pump and one in San Antonio because of CBs. Fifth, Foreflight is a lifesaver. It allowed me to make reasonable flight planning decisions and then to amend them as necessary in the cockpit. Combined with my Stratus 2 (apparently immune to the glitch cause by Apple's most recent IOS updates) I was able to steer away from bad things during the planning phases for each leg. No scooting between cells for me. Sixth, we only had one mechanical problem and that was the fuel pump failure noted during startup in Wichita. To me, that means that the aircraft is in pretty good shape mechanically. Seventh, it does not matter how well you prepare for putting down on the USS Sedona, you will always have a tendency to stay shy and high until you are certain you are not going to smack into the fantail (cliff face). The result is being high, which when a correction is attempted, one gets "hot" onto the actual strip. Bounced twice. Not large bounces but embarrassing nonetheless (prostrating self in painful acknowledgement of this mistake made). Wind was 20 degrees off the runway at 15 gusting 25 on the day so it was already a bit tricky. But nonetheless, I should have known better. Three days later Ute and I met the owner of the J model that actually bounced off the other end in 2013 in similar conditions. See the report on youtube at https://youtu.be/nruN4F9WGB0. He had rented it to a school and it was being used for training by the school when it happened. He is just now in search of a replacement. I promoted the Caravan to him, but I do not think he will take the time this year. Finally, we found the use of O2 in the cockpit to be a non-issue with one exception. Mountain High equipment was chosen because of their reputation and some comparisons made earlier this year with other portable O2 systems - but the promised 13 hours of use per person (with Oxymizers and MH-4 regulators) did not happen. We set the flow rate based on our Pulse Oximiter readings to make sure our (well mine anyway) was above 90%. We got a max of about 6 hours per person on our way to Las Vegas from Wichita and less than 4 hours per person on our way back to Texas from Vegas. I may have to order the MH-3s (with more precise resolution for Oxymizer flow) and use those for the Oxymizers. If we ever have to use masks (doubtful) then we are back to the MH-4s, which are the only ones allowed with their masks. I think I can now start practicing with Yves for formation flying in preparation for the Caravan and I now have enough hours to actually register for the Caravan. Thank you all for your help and generosity. Tom in Port Clinton, Pat in Dayton, Dave and Phil in Wichita, Lacee and Billie in El Paso and all the others we did not meet, but provided very useful advice to us during the planning and execution of this complex evolution (navy talk for "activity"). One pic - why I like my Foreflight/Stratus 2 combo. Getting out of Killeen with the junk behind me.

No pics today. We are on our way home. Out of Killeen to Memphis. Quick stop for lunch and then on our way to Fort Wayne. Halfway to Fort Wayne, had to divert to Evansville and we spent 45 minutes on the ground there. Landing in Fort Wayne was through an icing SIGMET (or is it AIRMET) on 23 with winds at 250@20G32. Yeehaw!! Tomorrow the high pressure system parked overhead will make for cloudless skies for the hour flight to Windsor (for customs clearance) and then the 2.5 hours to Rockcliffe. This has been a great adventure. Good people. Wondrous places. Breathtaking landscapes. Energizing flying. And my girl is happy too!!

Update 14: Made it to Killeen. Nice and easy flight of one hour. Few pics of what the beginning of a layer looks like. Tomorrow, we head home. It will take two days. We will be behind the front headed east as we travel north.

+1. I had to replace my GMA 340 with the PS 8000 because the Garmin unit is insufficiently shielded against radiated emissions from within the two Narco radios (known electromagnetically dirty devices) in my panel. The 340 is cheaply engineered in my opinion - to save them money and charge us more. Just my opinion.

Update 13: Still in San Antonio. I do not normally fly in this. Clouds OK. Rain OK. Lightning strikes and thunderstorms headed to where I am going - not OK. Tomorrow we will try again. If it gets complicated, we may just lift off and head east for 60 or 70 miles and put down out of all this c__p. Then we can pick our way through widely spaced systems to come home. Two pics that tell the tale. In San Antonio, yesterday, we were remembering the Alamo. Today, we are remembering Scott Crossfield.

Ahhhh... Would that it were so.....

What part about "I cannot afford it" is so difficult to understand here??? Although I would love to watch that happen......

Folks: I think the E model was called the Chaparral only from 1969 on, according to http://www.mooneyevents.com/chrono.htm. Before that, it was just called the Super 21.

Update 12: The Alamo. This has been a bucket list visit of mine for some time. I am an old soldier and I came to look at ground and hear about the actions that fired the creation of a nation - now known as the Lone Star State. I am apolitical and I will not offer any judgement or comment beyond the fact that significant sacrifice was made here. And now we move on. Few pics today. Tomorrow we fly to Killeen, Texas and visit the 1st Cav Museum. I am going to buy a hat.

Tom: Sorry. Not a gambler. The only chips we saw were the ones in all the little corner shops. You know the ones - with $100,000 written on each one. Box of 25 costs about $8.95? Do you think the folks at Mooney would have accepted seven or eight of those?

Clarence: Thank you for the kind words. I have not really considered getting a new one, although this trip has convinced me of the utility of a turbo normalizer. If you, and any others, feel I should now have one, I will be willing to commence accepting donations to purchase one. It should take about 15 years or so of fundraising to get the amount needed. What do you think?

Update 11: We left Lacee and Billie this morning, climbed to 9000 feet and headed east to Kerrville. Yesterday was a real success even after we found Todd's restaurant (Ryan Field) was closed. Lacee and Billie were great company and fantastic hosts. A little shy of three hours later, it was time for the LOC 30 approach into Kerrville with 1200' ceilings. I chose this one because the MDA is 100' lower than the other circling approaches which were only 300' below the forecast ceilings. Bringing C-FSWR home after 50 years felt good. The folks at Mooney were very nice. Rick Bossner has only been there one month, but he seems keen. He was very willing to show us the line. In all there were 15 aircraft in various stages of completion. The tour was sufficiently short that we were able to file and depart for the 30 minute flight to Stinson Field around 4:30 pm. This allowed me to take Ute to dinner on the Riverwalk. She was happy with that. Tomorrow we visit the San Antonio de Valero Mission - otherwise known as The Alamo. We will have more pics then. Today's pics.

I am flying in today for a tour. It will be interesting. One feeling I have is that whatever diection they take, it has to make sense in terms of viability.

Update 10. Not much to report today. Two interesting flights with lots of turbulence. Henderson field in Los Vegas to Ryan field near Tucson Arizona. Then Ryan field to Santa Teresa airport near El Paso, Texas. See the fight path pics. Then, Lacee (RocketAviator) took us in when we landed in Santa Teresa. Lacee has now taken in one Canadian Family flying their mooney through during each of the past two years. Such generosity and consideration should not go unnoticed. He has made it known that he would like another star or two. So I gave him one. Tomorrow, we leave for Kerrville, Texas. We will have pics from the Mooney factory.

Bob: I am with you up to "go ahead...". I write it on the Foreflight scratch pad and then read back. After looking at the first waypoint they have given, I look at the heading I am supposed to use. If it is a VOR or NDB, those get tuned in next and now the autopilot has two references to stay on course - the one from the VOR or the one from the heading bug. Less than 60 seconds after the readback, the aircraft is on course and things are good. Now I can go and fill in the rest, such as GPS or Foreflight etc so that both I and the autopilot have useful information to get on with it. The only problem with this is not being able to indicate that a route or a route segment is not acceptable for one reason or another, until I have plugged in all the waypoints. When that happens we are back to the table some 5 to 10 minutes after I initially accepted the clearance. Does not look good.

Update 9: Grand Canyon. I was disappointed that we could not overfly the Canyon on the designated corridors, but today I got over myself. Going in by helicopter was the better approach. No personal restrictions. No worries about flying or communications. Just enjoy the views from a cabin that can go places mine cannot. It is said that Hoover Dam is the most visited tourist trap in the US, but I think that is because it is far more accessible than the Grand Canyon. While Hoover Dam is a testament to what we can accomplish, the Grand Canyon is a site that tells me how small we actually are in the larger scheme. The Canyon forces me to take a few moments and ponder the force and power that created those painted walls. For Ute, it was a bucket list event and the smile on her face in the pictures is evidence of that. My mission there was accomplished. I am good. Tomorrow, we will depart relatively early for Ryan Field in Tucson, AZ. It will be dead calm compared to the two days it took to get here from Wichita. See the windsock pic from our stopover in the Canyon. 11,000' with oxygen and a two knot tailwind. Planned flight time is 2:27. We will get there at 11:30 or so (in the same time zone). After lunch and some Todd's Prickly Pear Iced Tea, we are headed to Dona Ana County airport (with the hour added to change time zones) to meet Lacee (our own RocketAviator on Mooneyspace). I need to call Mooney tomorrow from Tuscon to arrange a visit to the factory the next day. My bucket list event was to take my transcontinentally-capable machine and cross the continent with it. Did that. Now we just enjoy the ride with the places we have left to visit before we go home. More pics.

Dave: That makes sense. I should have seen it.

Bonal: Mohave would be a good little jaunt for us, but it would have to be tomorrow, because Monday we start the trip back to Ottawa. However, we had already booked our Grand Canyon tour for tomorrow so it will be difficult for us to fly over. It is one of those things where life is getting in the way of flying....

Dave: Just so you know that is exactly the route I had already considered. However, for some reason ATC does not wish us to travel V105 between BLD and DRK. They made me divert to Kingman (IGM) when inbound past the the Prescott VOR (DRK) during our arrival from the USS Sedona. Something special going on that creates a restriction (almost TFR-like). I will see what happens when we depart. We will plan for Ryan field. Just for the heck of it.

Update 8: Hoover Dam. Don't know if it really rates being a Wonder of the World, but it is darn close. Being an engineer myself, I am kinda biased. Over 700 feet tall and over five years to build. A marvel in my books. No story to tell today. Just wonder to show. Pics.

Thanks Dave and Bonal: Will keep these in mind when I do the flight planning tomorrow evening. Current forecast is for rain on Monday. As for pictures, there are some, but they are all G-rated. Wait for it.

Yves: 21 deg C here in Las Vegas today. We brought the plane to someplace warm so it would remember what that was like. Ute too..

Clarence: works fine. Not really a lot I can tell you to make a comparison..... It has a different operating sound. Sounds more rugged? Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, by the way, to talk me through my options when the Dukes quit on me. It allowed us to triage our way through the options so that a shop could easily diagnose the problem and get us on our way. They also gave me the paperwork for entry into the logs. I will bring them with me for the annual.