Sun and Fun 09-Scheduling the Trip

21^st is a Tuesday and the show runs to the next Sunday. We should plan a sliding window that starts a few days before and plan on leaving before the final weekend.

Ideally we don’t want to fly on the weekend unless weather dictates otherwise. Mechanics\parts\overnight delivery  are generally unavailable on the weekend.

So if it were me and Judy going and she was asking for time off from work I’d tell her to take off Friday the 17^th to the 26^th.  Looking at the weather starting on the 15^th we’d make our departure time based on when the best weather window  and plan it so we’d have two good flying days in a row or starting on one day and flying until we encroach on bad weather then set down and depart after the weather clears.

As this is a southwesterly trip, it’s unlikely that we’ll have to split it into multiple days, you can fly a light airplane from DXR to LAL in a day and I’ve done it multiple times. Bruce Lansburg has an article in this or last month’s AOPA Pilot where he goes into this weather window concept.  I read it and realized that what he was talking about was something that I have been doing for years.

We were at the Sun and Fun one year and Ann R flew down with a student. She was the newly minted Chief Flight Instructor at Danbury Flight School and had arrived in 2149F. She was heading back and I looked at the weather with her. The weather was miserable all the way up the coast and the aircraft was incapable of IFR flight. She was pressing to get out of there and I remember telling her to wait two more days when the weather was forecast to be clear for the entire route.

I said Jeez Ann, your camping spot is paid for here at the show, we’re all having fun, and it look like with the weather and a VFR only airplane it was likely to take you three days to get home. Why don’t you stay another two days and fly it in one?   I remember her anxiously telling me that I didn’t ‘get it’, she was the chief flight instructor and had to get back because the plane was rented on Saturday , she had a roster full of students and after all she was the Chief Flight Instructor.  

I said well then we’ll see you in DXR and they blasted off. They made it to Virginia in a day and had to spend the night in a hotel. Then they blasted off from there and made it to MD or South Jersey and spent the day and a night there.

They made it in for mid afternoon on Saturday. On the other hand we blasted out of LAL on Saturday AM and made it in a few hours after she did, only because at the time I would only fly 2.5 hour legs so we stopped twice on the way home. Today I make that trip with one stop (fuel flow computer and GPS).

So unless the weather is absolutely horrible -if you allow for the entire week and plan on two days at the show (it ain’t Oshkosh you can see it in a day) you should be good.

First Impressions - Aspen PFD equipped Archer 3

Scott spung for a Aspen PFD. Lanmar Avionics in Groton (GON) installed it in his Cherokee and we flew out in the Mooney yesterday to take delivery of his airplane after the modifications. He also had them dial in his Autopilot and add  the WAAS options on his Garmin 430's so it was a great deal of work. This is on top of the Mode S transponder and traffic and terrain he had installed last time.

 

First impression - its bigger than I thought. It sticks out from the panel about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. There is also a big honking EFIS Master switch that fills the hole where his ST-180 controls were. I don't know if this is a mandated switch type or if it is a Lanmar thing. The switch is huge. I'm wondering where it would go on my Mooney.

 

The plan was to fly around the the patch a few times at 2000 so if anyting was remiss we could decend to pattern altitude and make a normal approach and landing.

 

It seemed to have a nose high pitch with about a 3 to 5 degree up indication. We took off with that and compensated for the new picture. After a couple of tracks around the pattern we loaded the GPS 5 approach into the Garmin and let the autopilot fly the approach.

 

The approach overlay was immediately depicted on the Aspen. The display was a little small for me but the horizon and hsi were big enough to be confident controlling the aircraft in clouds from the right seat. I'm sure if I was sitting directly in front of it the size would be appropriate. I'm actually wondering if that feature is pilot definable. 

 

We selected Mondi as the Initial Approach Fix and the Stec 55X flew the plane there. We were coming from the opposite side and the garmin depicted a teardrop entry to the procedure turn/hold. We intervened and disconnected the AP when it tooks us to far east of course and reengaged it when we were established again on our way inbound.

 

The GPS 5 in GON is a LPV approach so the glideslope came alive outside of the intercept point and was centered when we encountered the FAF @ Pinet. We engaged the ALT and VS modes of the Stec and the autopilot flew us down the glideslope better than we could have done it ourselves.

 

Scott circled  at 1000 and we landed on 23. They adjusted the nose up poition a bit as his instrument panel was not completely square to the datum.

 

I'll write more about this as we have an opportunity to fly it more. Scott wants to take it to Sun and Fun but Judy wants me to fly 58V down and camp so...

 

Christy at Microsoft asked me to take some pictures of the flight. All I had was the camera in my blackberry. I posted these to a photo gallery