Some of you know that I am building a White Lightning as well as flying a KR-2. Yesterday the weather looked favorable so I flew down to see my White Lightning mentor, Bill Fields, a youngster in his mid 80's. Had lunch with Bill and his son Joe after they showed me their latest project, a radial powered CH701. Winds were favorable with cruise ground speeds ranging from 170 to 185 kts at 11500 ft, and up to 195 kts on my decent after clearing the mountains. (This is with about 130kts TAS cruise.) My planned route from KHAO to KCEU was 294 nm. Elapsed time from take off roll to engine shutdown was 1 hr 58 minutes. (It's amazing how much time those one or two degree course errors can eat up.) Fuel used was 9.8 gal. I'm pretty conservative about fuel reserves, knowing (and unfortunately having known) pilots who weren't conservative enough, so I try to plan on using only 10 of my 14 gallons. On the return, ground speeds were only about 85 kts at 8500 ft but picked up to about 105 at 6500 ft and a little better as I got lower and closer home. Made one stop about mid-way taking on 8.1 gallons of fuel and probably used another 7 on the last leg. Flying time about 3 hrs 15 minutes. All in all another successful day in the Porkopolis Flying Pig.
BTW, on Tuesday I saw as low as 39 kt ground speed in a Cherokee 140 at about 105 kts TAS. The big rigs on the interstate were passing us. We took about 5 hrs to fly 250 nm, but made the return in less than half the time. Many of you have seen the Pig, so you know that looks aren't everything. So get those KR's finished enough to fly and get them in the air. Sun 'n Fun will be here before you know it. Ken Jones, kenbjo...@cinci.rr.com Sharonville, OH N5834, aka The Porkopolis Flying Pig
