ventana7
07-09-2007, 02:26 PM
I just got back from a fantastic weekend cross country trip.
I left the Chicago area on Friday and did a 280 mile cross country to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The Xenon would probably just make that in one leg with a bit of fuel to spare but stopping at interesting airports is part of the fun so I did make one fuel and lunch stop at Effingham where I shared the ramp with several ag tractors who were filling their spray hoppers and fuel tanks.
Cape Girardeau was having a big airshow and I thought it would be a perfect excuse for a X-C trip. When I arrived they asked if I was part of the airshow and I said no I was just a spectator so I taxied away from the show area to transient parking. Before I even got the gyro shut down the airshow folks arrived and insisted I put the Xenon on static display right between the new Cessnas and the guy with the jet backpack!
The show was great with lots of the local people seeing their first ever gyro and asking the usual questions. I gave quite a few demo rides and sold a Xenon so the weekend was a big success.
One highlight was meeting and flying with Doctor Paul Salmon who has a nice Magni. Like me Paul loves cross country flying (he's tougher though as he does it in an open frame). Paul had just returned from flying from Missouri to the Grand Canyon and back-- awesome trip!
Paul took a ride in the Xenon then we did some formation flying with hte Magni alongside while another friend who is a gyro student and FW pilot did some air to air pixs of the Magni-Xenon formation from his Thorp FW.
As if that was not enough of a great weekend I then stopped in to see Stan Foster and his beautiful red Sparrowhawk on the way back to Chicago.
That leg was about 215 nutical miles and used 3/4 tank of gas. Flying time was 3 hours and 5 minutes. Most of the time I was cruising at 75 knots on the GPS (85 mph) with probably a 3-5 kn tailwind.
At one point I wanted to check out the upper speed range and did 92 knots (over 105 mph). That is pretty good for the non turbo Xenon with the short rotor blades. Bit more vibration but still very stable and comfortable.
More in part 2
I left the Chicago area on Friday and did a 280 mile cross country to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The Xenon would probably just make that in one leg with a bit of fuel to spare but stopping at interesting airports is part of the fun so I did make one fuel and lunch stop at Effingham where I shared the ramp with several ag tractors who were filling their spray hoppers and fuel tanks.
Cape Girardeau was having a big airshow and I thought it would be a perfect excuse for a X-C trip. When I arrived they asked if I was part of the airshow and I said no I was just a spectator so I taxied away from the show area to transient parking. Before I even got the gyro shut down the airshow folks arrived and insisted I put the Xenon on static display right between the new Cessnas and the guy with the jet backpack!
The show was great with lots of the local people seeing their first ever gyro and asking the usual questions. I gave quite a few demo rides and sold a Xenon so the weekend was a big success.
One highlight was meeting and flying with Doctor Paul Salmon who has a nice Magni. Like me Paul loves cross country flying (he's tougher though as he does it in an open frame). Paul had just returned from flying from Missouri to the Grand Canyon and back-- awesome trip!
Paul took a ride in the Xenon then we did some formation flying with hte Magni alongside while another friend who is a gyro student and FW pilot did some air to air pixs of the Magni-Xenon formation from his Thorp FW.
As if that was not enough of a great weekend I then stopped in to see Stan Foster and his beautiful red Sparrowhawk on the way back to Chicago.
That leg was about 215 nutical miles and used 3/4 tank of gas. Flying time was 3 hours and 5 minutes. Most of the time I was cruising at 75 knots on the GPS (85 mph) with probably a 3-5 kn tailwind.
At one point I wanted to check out the upper speed range and did 92 knots (over 105 mph). That is pretty good for the non turbo Xenon with the short rotor blades. Bit more vibration but still very stable and comfortable.
More in part 2