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.

Airventure 2010

Well, I finally was able to make it to Oshkosh for the first time and in my own plane to boot! After planning and putting the week aside on my calendar, I was anxious to make the trip. As many of you might know, flying into Oshkosh can be frightening and I was not going to do it for the first time alone, so I asked Karl Findley, an instructor at Heritage Flight Academy to join me. Another way to minimize the "pucker factor" was to go with a group in a mass fly in. Well, the other Glasair/Glastar owners were meeting in Madison on Saturday, the 24th for a Sunday arrival, the day before the official opening. This would be a great time to meet the other owners whom I relied on so much during my first year of ownership and to plan the actual arrival. Turned out to be a great decision. Here's my flight track for the trip from KISP to KMSN. We made two stops; first in Johnstown, PA (KJST) and then Wabash, IN (KIWH). We stayed a little bit south because of the weather, but it didn't add that much to the flight. We flew for 7 hours and 50 minutes and covered around 954.8 miles.

The weather in the Mid West was just awful the weeks leading up to the event. Oshkosh became "splashkosh" as the rains closed most of the parking area before anyone could arrive. Planes were being rerouted to Appleton and only vintage, classic and homebuilts were allowed to fly in on Sunday. This turned out to be a blessing in a way as there was little traffic over the first arrive point, FISK. The other owners were telling of horror stories of planes cutting each other off, coming in from above, below, flying to fast, etc., but for us it was smooth sailing.

I have attached a short clip on my arrival. It really was just awesome to land my plane at AirVenture and I ended up staying through Thursday. I can't wait to do it again in 2011.

Flying to Oshkosh - Getting Ready

Well with my trip to Oshkosh just 5 days away, I've planned my trip and now eagerly watch how the weather will be. It's been a wet summer in the mid west but I hope there's an opening for my flight to Oshkosh.

Conversion to Conventional Gear

Well, having owned N9GZ for about a year and starting to get real comfortable with it, I was ready to do what I wanted to do ever since the day I bought it. One of the beautiful things about this plane was that it could easily be converted to trike, conventional and amphibian gear. I had about 100 hours in a Citabria and really enjoyed the challenge of tailwheel flying (or landing I should say..) According to Glasair, the Sportsman could be converted to tailwheel in "about an hour". I must admit that I was a little nervous about going back to tailwheel flying. I wanted to wait till the winter was over, the winds to calm down, and those grass strips to open before I got back into it.

So back to Ed at A&P to make the conversion. On April 13th, 2010, I dropped N9GZ off and worked with Ed to make the change. When I bought the plane, the previous owner gave me a tailwheel conversion kit as well as an extra set of main gear struts. I thought it would be a simple change. Well, nothing is quite as easy as it seems.

All in all, after a few starts and stops for some missing parts, the conversion was done in about a day. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd do this back a forth all the time, but I now know what to expect. Boy, does it look neat! I couldn't be happier with the plane (at least the way it looks!) How would it handle in the new configuration?

The weather here in NY was still a little raw and I knew there was no way I could take it up myself. So I contact Adam Rosenberg at Heritage Flight Academy and made an appointment with him in the Citabria once again. It had been a year but I was confident that I would jump right back in like I never left. Boy was I wrong. Well I must first say that the weather just was not cooperating at all. Every day was windy ( 10-12 kts, gusting to 18) and it never seemed to be down the runway, but I went up 3 times with him and did about 25 landings and felt pretty good. But now it was time for my plane.

On April 23rd, Adam and I took N9GZ in the new configuration for my first flight. The winds were forecast to be moderate but once again, while taxing out, we both realized that this was going to be a borderline day. Again gusting to 15 kts, but at least it was somewhat down the runway. As I taxied by the tower, the controller commented on the plane, which made me feel great. There was a lot of play in the taxi, as the brakes seemed to take a lot of pressure to get it to go where I wanted. But soon enough we were lined up on runway 15R and in the pattern.

I wish I could say that it was a great day and I transitioned easily. Nothing of the sort. In fact, I was downright miserable. It was the worst landings I had ever done, worse than when I started out in a tailwheel years ago. Ok, granted the wind was swirling but I've been in worse before. I landed hard several times and I swear I saw something fly off the plane once. I must have broke something! But I was never close to losing it and for what it's worth, Adam said considering the wind, I did just fine.

I went up with Adam a few days later and still was not comfortable. Again the winds were gusting and again I had a hard time. First my three pointers were bouncy, then my wheely landings were hard. Again and again I went around the pattern, determined to master tailwheel landings, only to be disappointed. It was at that point that I started to question my logic in making this conversion. What was I thinking? Every error in tailwheel landings is exaggerated while errors in trike landings are minimized with that front wheel. Boy was I discouraged.

Finally on the third day with him, I stared to get a sense of what I was doing. Even though I was not close to where I wanted to be, Adam pronounced me safe to fly solo again. He cautioned to pick a good day with little wind and I'd be fine. Sure enough, the next time out was a beautiful day and I nailed everything. It was like I had been flying tailwheels all the time. That was over a month and a half ago and I must say I'm having a ball.

One thing is for sure though, I realize that once I think I got it all figured out, I bounce another landing. So it goes with the tailwheel.

Next up, will I make it to Oshkosh this year?

The First Annual

Toward the end of January, 2010, it was time for my first annual. There were a few minor things that needed work and I wanted to replace the landing lights with new HID lights. I did some research on HID light and I decided on Rigid Industries 50 W MR16. They are made specifically for Vans, Glastars and Sportsmans and the word around the forum was that they worked well.

The annual went pretty much as I expected. The total time on the aircraft was 218 hours and the compressions were 75,76,76,75. I was having intermittent use of the electric elevator trim and did find out through Glastarnet forum that the original Ray Allen relay switch was too small and replaced it with a larger one (REL-2). That solved the problem. A couple of missing Vortex Generators, tighting a few couplers, screws where minor leaks were, and that was pretty much it.

I have to say Ed did a great job on the light installation. There was a perfect spot on the firewall for the ballasts and with the new HID lights, the brightness was incredible. Unfortunately, the wires were too short and we had to get extensions which solved the problem. The other real problem was heat. The HID's were too hot and the plexiglass lens might not fair too well if I was on the ground with the lights on for too long. We needed a solution. Again checking the forums showed several people with this issue and Ed and I labored with a how to best solve the problem. He came up with a guy in Brooklyn who could make a lens out of Pyrex that would work perfectly. When it was all said and done, the lights were great.

Next up: Time to go to conventional gear.