Me n Ed to Santa Paula.

Vance

Gyroplane CFI
Staff member
Joined
Oct 30, 2003
Messages
18,357
Location
Santa Maria, California
Aircraft
Givens Predator
Total Flight Time
2600+ in rotorcraft
Ed cranked herself up, took her meds and off we went to the hanger.

I feel like a preflight should happen before I fly so we did a full preflight and I cranked up the front of the oil cooler another half inch.

I called Lockheed Martin and got a briefer that was very familiar with the area. She knew what to look for and she said it was the best flying weather she had seen around here. I got to use my new PST briefer sheet.

We were lifting off the ground at 16:13 Zulu and I set the throttle at 2,350. 60kts gave us a hundred feet per minute climb and a very pleasant exhaust note. I showed Ed how we could climb by just slowing down and then I advanced the throttle and we began to climb in earnest.

I flew IZA’s pattern altitude at 70kts and announced to no one my intentions and progress. We taxied over to fuel and filled her up for the journey east.

The pilots lounge emptied out to watch our departure. I announced a 210 departure with a turn to the east along the river bed. We fly over the least sensitive houses that way. Take off with fuel and Ed has been a little challenging in the past but today we were off quickly and climbed with alacrity.

I again set the throttle at 2,350 but pulled the speed back to 50kts and we climbed to about 3,500 feet by the time we cleared the pass. It was nice to know that I had plenty of throttle left if we hit some sink. I skirted the Santa Barbara air space and let approach know what I was doing. They never talked to me again. We flew close to the ridge line in order to stay out of SBA’s airspace and eventually made it to 4,500 feet. We headed inland and over another lake when I picked up Santa Paula Unicom. They were using runway 4 so I headed to the east so I could enter the right pattern down wind.

Things were really hopping and there were as many as six planes in the pattern at any one time. I flew the pattern at 85kts so that the challenges would be in front of me.

When I announced mid field downwind I suddenly had the pattern to myself. I ran it up to 90kts as I turned final and dove at the runway over the fence. I flared at my target and floated for several hundred feet as I bled off the speed. Touchdown was as nice as could be and we cleared the active at 18:30. We used 22 gallons going down including Oceano, L52 to SMX from the day before.

Al Ball was there to greet us but there was no place to park. They let us back in at the end between a Pitts and some very small homebuilt and we went off to see what Al had been doing in the last three months.

Ed told me her camera had stopped working so I loaned her mine.

We eventually found a place to park and as I was tying her down John Ready made a somewhat inelegant landing in his Acrosport. John joined us for lunch

As usual the atmosphere was festive with lots of aviation passion in evidence.

We stopped by my old racer friend’s hanger and oddly enough he had watched us land and thought to himself that he knew someone with a gyroplane. He had not seen the Predator before so he didn’t know it was me. He commented on the way it sort of floated in. He is working with Rob North to get one of his road racing sidecars that he ran at the Isle of Man TT running again. He also wants to add some power to his airplane and he was interested in my recent experience. He was there to see our new high performance take off.

We made the rounds and it was time to go. I let Al know because he had requested seeing our take off and after a call to Lockheed Martin and a quick preflight we were ready to go. A crowed sort of gathered as I warmed her up and did my magneto check. Ed stopped counting at 30. I held her on the ground and then let her leap into the air abeam the primary crowed. Climb out was brisk and we departed to the west climbing at 65kts.

I called Santa Barbara approach from 20 miles out and they had trouble understanding my radio transmission because I was too close to the mountain. First it was a she and she didn’t seem concerned and then she was relieved by a controller and he gave me a code to squawk and asked me to ident and verify altitude. I was at 4,500 feet and climbing.

We cleared the pass at 5,000 feet and kept climbing, we eventually reached 6,500 feet over the mountains where we had tried to visit the snow last year. We ran into some severe down drafts. I pulled the power and let her coast all the way to Santa Maria. ATC asked a Piper to slow up for a slow experimental and I picked it up to 85kts. We landed at the taxiway and were to taxi to parking via right on Foxtrot, left on Alpha, right on Alpha 10 and monitor ground.

We used 14.5 gallons of gas on the return trip which worked out to 9.6 gallons per hour but was clearly better than the trip down or any trip to Santa Paula in the past.

Conclusions:

The ceiling with Ed in the back is somewhere considerably above 6,500 feet where I stopped. We were eventually climbing at 2,400 rpm. I still had lots of throttle.

I don’t know how to lean her properly and I need to get some learning tools.

She uses less fuel with the new engine, 15% less.

Ed doesn’t like more than 70kts indicated air speed without goggles. I hit 94kts, 108 miles per hour, and she felt the wind was abusive.

The Predator feels like she could wander across the country. She is relaxed and composed.

I need to continue to experiment with my oil cooler. Cylinder head temperature is typically below 360 degrees F but my oil creeps up past 200 degrees F if I use more than 2,450 or lean her out improperly. I don’t know if it will stabilize at a higher temperature because I didn’t want to hurt her new heart so I backed off every time the oil temperature would pass 200. She never overheats with me solo.

Ed is not feeling well so I don’t know if she will add something.

I downloaded some of the pictures she took with my camera.

Thank you, Vance
 

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a few more pictures from the Santa Paula trip.

a few more pictures from the Santa Paula trip.

Thank you, Vance
 

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Beautiful scenery Vance. I am glad you like the new hearth :) Inelegant landing.... Love it! Have you heard of JPI? In my humble opinion the single best gauge you can have on board. Constant cylinder by cylinder data and a real help fine tuning the engine. Down loadable data for analysis and it would help you with proper leaning of the fuel since it is a digital momentary data not the lagging analogue. J.P. Instruments makes it.
 
One could seldom see the islands off the coast when I was living in the area. Smog was everywhere and flew special VFR most of the time. It sure looks like fun…..
 
Wonderful Vance.
 
Vance and Ed- Glad to see you two enjoying airspace again! Ed, you get feeling better, ok? Vance, give Ed a big hug, she deserves it. Stan
 
Thanks for the ride along Vance, missed your flight reports when you where down for the engine upgrade.
 
Ed is a little better this morning.

Ed is a little better this morning.

Hello Gabor,

I am trying to get Phil to part with a second hand JPI EDM-700. I should probably just bite the bullet. This engine swap has kind of used up my mad money.

Hello Terry,

I would hope that our adventures would inspire you to do what it takes to get in the air.

It is funny you should mention that Ed,

We can usually see the Channel Islands but for the fog and then we see the tops sort of floating on the fog.

We have only seen smog around Santa Barbara a couple of times.

There was an odd mist everywhere yesterday and yet you could see a long way.

The view from 6,500 feet was spectacular but my camera wasn’t able to capture it.

It seems that the world expands with altitude.

Glad to have you along Leigh.

We used to be somewhat restricted by the mountains and it required a certain amount of planning. Our world has expanded.

We would like to have a practical ceiling of around 12,000 feet. We found some down drafts on the lee side of the ridgeline and were able to fly out of them. The last one at 6,500 had us level at full power.


Thank you Stan,

Ed is a little better this morning, she was rough last night. I will share your thoughts and give her a hug for you.

Glad to have you along Tim,

We missed our flights too.

Thank you, Vance
 
Ed,
Excellent pictures as always. When my luck is good I get 1 out of 10 usable, yours are all great. Thanks for sharing.

Vance,
Once again you portray the adventure so well.
You'd better take care of that young lady. Like I told you before, she's a keeper.
 
OOPS, I left the expression of emotions out.

OOPS, I left the expression of emotions out.

Thank you Rocky,

I am glad you liked it and I am glad to have you along.

I went back and read my post and edited it this morning. I realized that I did not describe the feeling of freedom with the enhanced performance. I felt so much freedom with flight before the engine change, how do you describe unimagined joy with her new heart?

I am also pleased that we have had so few challenges after all the things I had apart and all the experiments. The first motorcycle I ever assembled from pieces in a box was a Norton Dominator 99 in 1962. After my short first ride I spent several hours looking for the very expensive whitworth nuts and bolts that had fallen off. This comes to mind as I pile up the hours on the engine change and the cloud of trepidation slowly lifts.

I feel fortunate that most of the people reading this can relate to their own experience and fill in the emotions.

I am showing off more now because I have had more to do with her capabilities. I think this can be trouble.

I am working hard at maintaining my quantitative approach to things to keep my overconfidence at bay.

I forgot to mention that my 90kt IAS approach to landing was with an 8 to 10kt tail wind. They started using the runway 22 shortly after we landed.

I love Ed and I agree she is a keeper. That is my desire and intention.

Thank you, Vance
 
Hi Vance,

Another great flight to KSZP! Happy to read that Ed was able to go along. Three weeks ago, I became ill (a mild case of H1N1 perhaps) and I'm still experiencing some of the effects of an upper respiratory infection. Twice in the past couple of weeks, I was invited to fly a friend's Bonanza but I had to decline. It sucks to be grounded.

Vance, the photos are fantastic and definitely illustrate the recent weather here in So Cal and is the reason why we all live here. Your photos captured the almost glass smooth view of why the Pacific Ocean has it's name. Pacific meaning peaceful.

For those in other parts of the country and around the world, the Channel Islands pictured are a group of four islands off the Ventura and Santa Barbara County coastline. Anyone who remember the old TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep, the islands often shown on screen are the Channel Islands.

By the way if anyone wants to read about the history of the Islands, check out the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Islands_of_California

Before I forget. Always make a purposeful visual observation of the windsock when on downwind and on final approach. This will eliminate the accidental down wind landing because of changing winds.

Keep the photos and stories coming Vance!

Thanks,

Wayne
 
Thank you for adding depth.

Thank you for adding depth.

Thank you Wayne, you know enough about around here to give the photographs meaning. Thank you for adding depth of experience.

Ed is feeling better today and trying to shake whatever it is. She is having internet download challenges. She took a lot of great shots until her camera stopped working and she will post them when she can.

He daughter, Savannah, had a sciatic challenge today and Ed took her to the doctor and that used a lot of her day.

I love the weather we have been having and the most wind we ran into was 9kts at SMX. There is still some turbulence over the ridgelines and where the weather systems come together.

Thank you, Vance
 
Ouch. Sciatic can be very painful. I am no doctor but I do know a lot about myofascial triggerpoint therapy.....I am a certified therapist... She might want to try to put a wet towel into the microwave and heat it up. Moist heat penetrates the skin and goes nice and deep into the tissues. After that she need to stretch the muscle to restore the range of motion. And apply cold in the form of ice ina plastic bag with a piece of textile under neat ro protection of the skin. Heat again and stretch again and ice again. 5 times at least following one another. 3 time a day. It's like magic.......although it's not :)
 
Glad to see you back in the air Vance, glad everything is going well.
Hopefully I will no be too far behind. :)
 
Thank you Gabor, I will let her know.

Things are going very well Scott; I hope they go as well for you.

It feels great to be back in the air and the new worlds that are open to me are very seductive.

Thank you, Vance
 
Hello Everyone,
I have been very under-the-weather these days...I just don't bounce back like I used to...Vance likes to tell me it's because I'm getting old!
I know it's true...sucks to admit it though!
Here are some pictures of our flight before my camera gave out on me...
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Tail Shot!
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Great pictures Ed. Hope your camera issue is temporary.

We do need to have Vance clean and polish his helmet, though. It detracts from your pictures. :boink:
 
You are such a liar Vance .
I didn't see any photo's of Ed .
 
You are such a liar Vance .
I didn't see any photo's of Ed .

I didn’t intend to mislead you Gary.

I am sorry for your frustration and need to impugn my veracity.

I am not able to identify the words that led you to imagine that they were pictures of Ed. I endeavored to be clear that they were pictures she took. She is not inclined to take pictures of herself.

I will strive to be less ambiguous in future posts.

Thank you, Vance
 
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