The short of it is a good morning. First time around the pattern I had to
go around as I was faster than I wanted to be over the numbers (about 85
mph) The second try was better and she settled in for a good roll out. So
I took off again and called out of the pattern to the west and ventured
away from the home airport for the first time. I did a slow climb to
4500' at 120 mph and that yielded about 450'/min climb. I wasn't able to
get the automatic fuel terminal to work so I only had about 3/4+ full
header tank when I started. I turned around and headed back and pushed
the go to button on the gps and had a dotted line to follow straight home
(pretty cool). During the climb I had not leaned out at all and the
exhaust span alarm came on the EIS. I leaned out some and the alarm went
away. I would not have ever thought about it until I landed if the alarm
had not shown. The oil temp was on the cool side all through the flight,
topping out at 145 deg. in the cold air(25 deg.) I may have to dam off
some of the oil cooled for winter. The sun through the canopy kept me
pretty toasty with just a little cabin heat. I think that I will fly all
through the winter. On the way back I circled home 3 times with my
youngest son waving from the front yard. I entered the pattern an got all
things ready. This is where I started to see some things that had been
messing me up. At the slower speed with my KR the nose is up a little. I
think this is where I was starting to build speed before by trying to
lower the nose. This time I held 80 mph went to full flaps on finial,
throttled back to 1100 rpm. The nose did not change much with the flaps
but it slowed down at a steady pace and the decent angle steepened I
crossed the numbers at a little under 75 mph and was on the runway before
my lift off point which is also before the one nasty bump in the runway.
The bump skipped me back up a couple feet but I just held for straight
and level and she chirpped back on for my shortest roll out yet.
Total to date is 4.3 flight hours and I can fly straight and
level at altitude without much attention to controls.
Feeling Great
Joe Horton, Coopersburg, Pa.
joe.kr2s.buil...@juno.com
