Airventure 2011

For the second year, I made it again to AirVenture. Last year I hooked up with the other Glastar and Sportsman guys the Sunday before the show but the weather didn't cooperate. There were storms and low ceiling along my route so I delayed my trip one day, the another then another. Finally I left on Tuesday the 26th. I would be making the trip solo for the first time and was excited and nervous about what I might expect especially arriving at the field.

My route was slightly different than the year before as I tried to go as direct as possible to shorten the trip. Traveled from KISP to KDUJ (Dubois Regional in Pennsylvania) in 3.2 hours and after a quick fill up direct to Valparaiso KVPZ Indiana in 2.9.

Since I arrived in Indiana at about 3 pm local time, I decided to wait an hour or so before making my final leg to Oshkosh. With the air show going on daily till 6 pm, I wanted time my arrival so that I didn't have to hold very long for the field to open. So while waiting at KVPZ, I was able to see the two of the planes from the Collins Foundation before the headed to Oshkosh.

Arriving at AirVenture was probably the most nerve wracking thing that happened the whole trip. My timing was good but there was a delay in opening the airport so I still had to do some loops around Rush Lake. When I was finally cleared to the field, I found myself on the base leg of 36L when a DC-3 was coming along on final in front of me. With no place to go and no one responding to my radio I decided to abort the landing and just turn final at 1000 feet, make a right turn out over the lake and rejoin 36R, (the taxiway) for a landing. I was so nervous because everywhere I looked there were planes landing and I had to find my spot in-between them. Whew…. that was hairy.

Had a great time over the next few days. Burt Rutan was honored and saw all of his classic designs.

 Or course there were the warbirds and some really beautiful kit planes and amphibians (the Grumman Widgeon is my dream plane).

Even saw a Sportsman on floats!

I left on the 30th with tons of pictures and a wonderful experience. Hope to be there again next year.

It's been a while....

Time has gone by quickly and needless to say, I haven't been very timely in updating my blog. But here's what's happened since then...

Since AirVenture 2010, I continued to fly regularly with some minor issues with the plane. Actually, not with the plane itself but with the avionics. First, I noticed that the back up battery on the AFS3500 was dead so it was time to change it. No big deal I thought as it's just one of those small flat batteries that you can get anywhere. Well, it turned out that replacing the battery lost all my personal settings for the plane, engine, etc. What a disaster! Had to go to Islip Avionics to get everything set up again. An expensive lesson.

Secondly, On a wonderful flight to Provincetown, MA KPVC, (BTW, a really neat place to fly to. I was there on October 13th and the weather was calm and beautiful. Something I'm told does not happen too often. There's always wind there)

I noticed the ALT breaker pop. Reset it and thought nothing of it until I landed back in Islip. Stop for fuel then taxied back to the hanger. When I shut down, the prop kept turning! The started was still engaged! To make a long story short, I had a spring failure in the starter switch which wasn't a big deal, except the starter was barely turning over to start the engine. I decided to change out the starter, which fixed everything.

Another thing that came up was a tail wheel shimmy. In the beginning, I really though it was just my poor landings that were causing the shimmy but upon further inspection, the bracket was loose and there was a lot of play in the wheel itself. The tire was starting to get worn pretty good so I had that replaced. One thing I learned was it's real important to keep the tire pressure right on the tail wheel. It may look good and even feel firm during pre-flight but you really have to take a gauge to it to make sure it's ok.

Oh, and one other minor thing was a loose wire on the lead from the MFD engine monitor to #1 cylinder. I wasn't getting correct readings there but it was an easy fix.

I was also having trouble with the autopilot. First, the link to the GNS 530 was dropping out. As a default, it would hold the current heading and altitude but I would have to reset it about every 10 minutes so something wasn't right. Sent it back to TruTrak and get it repaired but then a few weeks later, the display started to crap out on me.

So back to TruTrak it went. I'm happy to report that that was the end of my problems with the autopilot. I think Trutrak just replaced the whole guts of the unit and display. It works perfectly now.

The last big thing I did was to upgrade the AFS3500 to the AFS4500. Besides the faster CPU, the brighter display and extra joystick, the real compelling feature was the synthetic vision. I just couldn't think of a better safety feature then having terrain and hazards on the display. This really makes my set up as advanced as anything out there. The only thing I don't have is weather and traffic but that's another story. Here's the link At AFS to the site describing the features.

The installation took a while as I had to send my old unit back for the upgrade but it was worth the wait. I couldn't be more pleased with it. It's taken some time but I really am getting very comfortable with all the features and options when flying. It sure makes the long trips easier.

Another Annual and some updates

Well, February is here and just finished my second annual. Nothing major to report, plane still is in great shape after putting about 100 hours on it last year. Rotated the main tires as the outboard tread was worn, nothing in the oil. A good inspection with little issues.