It's been a real heat wave here, with temperatures over 100 degrees every day. I've been doing touchups and repairs in my metal sauna/hangar all week watching the few brave souls flying struggle to get off at our 2200 foot runway with density altitudes in the thousands.
I've decided to base the plane at KMQS, Chester County airport, which has over twice the runway and is only 12 minutes from my house. This was tough as I really love Smoketown and have been here for years. It's the kind of airport community that is tough to find these days- great people.
I don't know exactly how much runway I'll need to take off, especially in this heat and I'm nervous about getting out. Add to that the fact that this is going to be my first solo flight in a Velocity in 10 years.
Any way, I convinced my wife to drive me out to the airport at 7:00 yesterday morning while it was still relatively cool.
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Well, here goes. I taxi down to the end of the runway. Stand on the brakes, full power, 2700 rpm and......
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Wow! I'm off in 1/3 of the runway. This thing really accelerates.
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Back for a low pass at Smoketown, rock the wings to Nancy and Sean, then off to Chester County.
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My Lancair buddy Scott flew his family down for the day for a visit and some fun flying together. We realized that we had never flown in each other's planes when we built our first Velocities.
Here I introduce him to Sean's "My Daddy's airplane is faster than your Daddy's airplane" shirt.
Next, it's off to the airport.
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Scott and I flew for a few hours and then at about 8:00, it's time for them to head home. I got a bunch of great tips and techniques from Scott. He got a queasy stomach. I'll only get better from here, Scott.
Here Sean checks out the Lancair IV cockpit.
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We decide to follow them North a bit and get some air to air pictures. Here Scott taxis up to join me in the run up area prior to takeoff.
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Scott pulls up on the left for pictures, then heads North as we turn back for home.
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Great shots of our plane in flight. Thanks Glema!
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Sean manages to spot our house as we head back to the airport.
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"Chester County Traffic, Velocity 929X is downwind for 29 Chester County"
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The view on the taxi back from landing to the hangar. It's 8:30 and the best part of the day with that great golden light. You can't beat taxiing with both doors open and the breeze blowing through.
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Here she is tucked back in her new hangar for the night. What a fun day of flying.
I'm still not sure about making Oshkosh. I shimmed the right rudder out to get rid of an incipient flutter, then tested the plane up to 210 knots indicated today. However, this fix caused an uneven rate of flow from the tanks which I have to fix. I still have to program and set up more GRT functions. I'll see how much I can get done and take it day by day.
In the meantime, I'm finally starting to get to enjoy my airplane. I might take a day trip to the beach next weekend. It's 2-3 traffic filled hours to drive there and 22 minutes to fly to the airport in Ocean City, only a quick walk from the beach.
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1 comment:
Yea for ocean city!
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