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Kai's amazing flight

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 11:29 am
by Robin
Hi Kai

Very impressed with your recent flight that you posted on the reports page - report 127. That looks amazing! I guess with your other experiences that was a pretty short flight!

I hope you have some photos.

Cheers

Robin

Re: Kai's amazing flight

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 12:56 pm
by Jean
Robin wrote:Hi Kai

Very impressed with your recent flight that you posted on the reports page - report 127. That looks amazing! I guess with your other experiences that was a pretty short flight!

I hope you have some photos.

Cheers

Robin
Kai
I agree with Robin. Your flight is amazing.
I flew to LFSN this summer (have posted the report), but it was a 1.5 hour flight from my home base.
I had planned to fly to Reus (Spain) during this summer (but our plane was grounded for Prop Gov A/D). With my 40 USG tanks, I needed a fuel stop at Clermond Ferrand.
I guess you still have your "Thailand trip extra tanks" to shoot such long legs.
And, most of all, you flew that trip without autopilot.
We, autopilot flyers, are mostly drone passengers. We almost only fly take-off's and landings !

Re: Kai's amazing flight

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 7:37 pm
by Robin
Jean

I agree with you, I am very impressed with Kai doing these long flights without an Autopilot. A friend of mine flies corporate jets, at a recent sim session he decided to handfly the aircraft for a couple of approaches, and was told that the company prefers that they have the autopilot fly them...Apparently if hand flying and they descent below LSALT or the published minima in the sim they fail...

Cheers

Robin

Re: Kai's amazing flight

Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 11:03 pm
by Kai
I was amazed myself, but had very strong backwinds of up to 40 kts and corrected my flight plan's destination twice.

So, yes, that's the only amazing thing. If you go deeper into the logs you will see an extremely high fuel flow, which is a wrong indication thanks to a problem with the fuel flow indicator which is being fixed now.

You will see very slow IAS of around 100-120 kts and this corresponds to an actual fuel flow of 6.5 gph. I landed after 5 1/2 hrs and a go-around because of a runway incursion with minimums. So I made good use of the 40 gallons in my tanks. :D

Jean, if I would have had my ferry tanks installed, I wouldn't have bothered to stop in France. As you might have seen, the final destination was EDLD another 200 nms further North, in Germany (Dinslaken, that's where they build Extra aircraft). We just had a quick fuel stop in Nancy and took off again.

Robin, unfortunately I don't have any interesting pictures of this flight for two reasons: when flying long legs over water, there is nothing worth taking a picture. And in France, I was over the cloud tops nearly all the time or had to focus on keeping the wings straight in turbulence while adapting my flight plan to the new destination.

Flying without an autopilot long legs isn't really a problem. After a while you don't even notice anymore you are flying the plane... just like driving a car but easier as you don't have traffic.

Flying an IFR approach also isn't a big problem as the G1000 is a great help and except for the beginnings of my IFR days, I never felt overwhelmed again. I recognize it is a lot more convenient and I am waiting for the the day when things are not as easy as I they were until now.

Re: Kai's amazing flight

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 9:18 am
by Jean
Kai wrote: You will see very slow IAS of around 100-120 kts and this corresponds to an actual fuel flow of 6.5 gph. I landed after 5 1/2 hrs and a go-around because of a runway incursion with minimums. So I made good use of the 40 gallons in my tanks. :D
How much fuel remained in your tank when you landed in Nancy ?
Did you try to run a tank dry ! :roll:

Re: Kai's amazing flight

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:15 am
by Kai
Jean wrote: How much fuel remained in your tank when you landed in Nancy ?
Did you try to run a tank dry ! :roll:
Both tanks were in reserve, maybe also because of the approach turns. I guess there were still 2-3 gallons left and I was prepared to practice Lance's fuel tricks, but it wasn't necessary. :P