Often times builders will post about the lack of KR flying stories. I just completed what seems like an epic journey over the last 11 days, so thought I would post a log from the adventure. The weather kept me from flying to the KR Gathering as that was planned to be the front end of a 2 week vacation.
I finally left Los Alamos, NM on Saturday morning with a new destination of Lake Elmo Airport just outside of St Paul, MN. The first leg took me north east out of Los Alamos and up over the mountains and fog near Angel Fire, NM, cruising at 11,500'. Once I was east of the mountains, I found the usual eastern slope fog covering eastern Colorado and into Kansas. I flew northward along the eastern slope of the Rockies finally stopping for fuel and a weather check in Akron, CO up near the Wyoming border. The fog extended about 100 miles to the east, but after that was clear, so I launched again from Akron out across Nebraska towards my next fuel stop in Norfolk, NE. Made a quick turn around in Norfolk, then was off to Lake Elmo, where I spent a couple of days visiting family. Total of 7.3 hours logged on the hobbs for the day. Monday morning I launched from Lake Elmo, MN and flew to Centerville, IA where I was able to refuel with Mogas. I visited more family there, then flew to another town nearby to see more family and friends. After two more days of catching up with family and friends, I launched for Jackson, TN with an intermediate fuel stop for more Mogas in Mexico, MO. 3.4 hours later, I got to spend the day with fellow KR Builder Steve Bray and his lovely wife. The following day I flew over to Greeneville, TN to visit with a fellow Cub owner. We decided to do a bit more flying, and since we were in the area of Hemsley Air Park, we were going to just buzz the air park. Someone that sounded a great deal like KR Builder Jack Cooper came on the radio at Hensley to give us winds. When I asked if it was Jack, the man on the radio answered yes and invited me to land. Hensley was an interesting landing. Approach down over a hill, drop the plane in and stand on the brakes. For some reason, I had it in my head that Hensley had 4000' of runway. The reality is that it is only 3000', which made my slightly fast landing into a real brake heating tire chirping event that used up every bit of the runway. When I taxied over to visit Jack, I found that it wasn't the Jack I knew. The fellow said there are three Jacks at Hensley, so he called Jack Cooper who came over to visit for a bit until the hangar owner's wife where we were visiting shooed us out. I was supposed to come back to Hensley and spend an evening with Jack, but cancelled the next morning after checking weather. The weather was good for that day, but it looked like if I came back for the night, Jack might end up with a house guest for a few days longer than expected. I spent the next day visiting numerous airports around the Western VA, Western NC and SC areas, ending up in Greenville, SC, where I did get weathered in at my brother's place. Finally, yesterday afternoon the weather in Greenville and along my flight path cleared enough that I could get away. I left Greenville, SC and made a fuel stop in Hamilton, AL before arriving at my next destination in Hope, AR where I was to meet up with my wife at her parents place so we could celebrate our 30th anniversary. This morning I left for home making two more fuel stops in Hinton, OK and Dalhart, TX before arriving back home in Los Alamos. I tried to get together to spend some time with Dan Heath and Mark Langford. I also wanted to spend a bit more time with Jack Cooper. The weather fouled those plans. But otherwise I was able to accomplish all of my goals for this trip. It's really good for me to get out and travel in the KR. I am always awe struck by how quickly I can move around the country when the weather cooperates. Yesterday afternoon I was sitting on the ground in Greenville, SC waiting on weather. This afternoon, I home in Los Alamos, NM. That's some serious travel capability. All told, I made stops in: Los Alamos, NM Akron, CO Norfolk, NE Lake Elmo, MN, Centerville, IA Albia, IA Mexico, MO Jackson, TN Greenville, TN Hensley Air Park, TN Greeneville, TN Mountain City, TN Jefferson, NC Hillsville, VA Greenville, SC Hendersonville, NC Greenville, SC Hamilton, AL Hope, AR Hinton, OK Dalhart, TX Los Alamos, NM Facts and figures. The SkyVector flight planner says I flew 3333 nautical miles. Of course that doesn't include flying patterns in and out of the airports or the horsing around and diversions that I did. I would round that up to roughly 3600 nautical miles or 4150 statute miles. The hobbs meter recorded 30.9 hours. That includes all the taxiing around and all the time spent on the ground when the master switch is on. For actual flight time, I should have used the Tach, but didn't record it before I left. I would estimate 28.9 actual flight hours based on my fuel burn. All told, I burned 158.9 gallons of fuel at a cost of $861.62 for an average price of $5.42/gal and an average mileage of 26.1 mpg. I've got an iFly 720 GPS and a SkyRadar ADSB weather receiver. If there is any interest, I'll be happy to write a summary about flying most of the country and what I learned about flying with ADSB weather and specifically, some of the issues I ran into with my iFly and SkyRadar ADSB receiver. Jeff Scott Los Alamos, NM
