It has 25 hours already?

Yes, our Phoenix just got it's 25 hour inspection, but it's only 23.1 hours old. Actually, it was just the inspection required by the engine manufacturer (Rotax) to meet warranty terms, including things like inspection of the external parts, examining the oil and oil filter for metal particles, checking carburetor synchronization, testing the propeller clutch, and more.

No, I did not put all those hours on it: it had about 11 hours when I got there, some if it by the factory in the Czech Republic, some of it by the dealer for flight testing of the instrumentation installed after it got here, and licensing requirements. The remaining hours I spent with Jim Lee, the dealer and a flight instructor. The engine inspection trip was similar to many of our flights.

The maintenance facility is Lockwood Aviation in Sebring, FL (yes, where they race cars) about 62 miles from Melbourne, FL. We planned a cross-country flight to Sebring for today. A restricted airspace area used by the Air Force lies between the two cities. A call to the FAA Flight Service determined the restricted area wasn't active, saving us the 25 miles needed to fly around it. The weather looked good: low winds, sunny.

We made a couple of touch and goes at Melbourne before departing for Sebring. Along the way, I used the autopilot to fly us most of the distance, including the climb and descent, and used some of the other features (and it has many!) of the "glass panel" (LCD screen displaying maps and instruments). Lots of learning going on, but with one pilot watching outside and the other working the panel, it's safe. It's a real asset, once learned, but it has a steep learning curve.

The return leg of the trip mirrored the first leg: a few touch and goes landing practice at Sebring, a direct flight to to Melbourne, a couple more touch and goes, and back to Jim's hangar. We spent an hour looking for the cause of mild radio interference with weak radio transmissions from other aircraft and ground stations.

The flight time was about 1.5 hours, but the inspection took over 3 hours, so with the preparation, it was full day. 

We kick back for a day

May 22 - Saturday

I was ready for a break from the training, and Jeff Macki needed a full day to finish his training to keep to his schedule, since he's not retired. Well, I kicked back - Jan has had to kick back most of the time we've been in Melbourne, so she was ready to go somewhere! There are only so many quilt shops one can go to, and a latte a day doesn't take up much time. Her love/hate relationship with her new iPad has settled down so she's been able to keep up with personal emails and her various sewing and quiliting newsgroups.

Jan and I drove along the barrier islands east of Melbourne, stopping at some of the beaches, but skipping the surf shops. Florida at it's best, I think.

A short cross-country flight

Jim had me plan a flight from Melbourne to Sebring, FL, and return to Melbourne, about a 55 NM (55 Nautical Mile = about 64 miles) and 40 minute trip. A Restricted airspace lay in the way, requiring a substantial detour or using Flight Following, an ATC (air traffic control) advisory service. Glider pilots, even motorglider pilots, don't normally use the service because we wander too much to fit into the ATC system, but a touring motorglider in "airplane mode" does fit well. 

We took off, and with Jim leading me through the steps of contacting ATC on the radio, we obained flight following for the trip to Sebring. ATC determined only a portion of the airspace was active, requiring only a minor deviation from a direct flight that cut 20 miles off the trip.

Approaching Sebring, it's automated weather station was reporting winds that were not aligned with the runway. They weren't too strong for Jim, but I don't have his experience. We diverted a few miles to Avon Park Executive airport (I have no idea what "executive" means in this context - it was a normal small airport), where one runway lined up perfectly with the wind.

After landing, I added 5 gallons of fuel to each wing, the first time I'd fueled it. Most small airports have self service pumps, similar to the gas pumps we use for our cars, but able to pump at a much higher rate. Rate isn't an issue with the Phoenix holding a maximum of only 26 gallons, but a faster four seat airplane might hold over 70 gallongs.

The return to Melbourne along the same path was unevertful, but visually striking as we climbed much higher to fly over the clouds, rather than below them. "On top" the air is smooth, cool, and clear, allowing higher airspeeds (about 125 mph in this case). 

Just the short tips on today, to make the landings a bit easier in the wind.

With the autopilot holding it on a steady course, and the motor purring at cruise power, all the pilots have to do is smile...

Jim Lee on the left, Eric on right.

Another Phoenix owner starts training

This post is for Aug 19, even though it was created Aug 27 (still catching up, or at least not falling behind).

Jeff Macki, a partner in a Phoenix with another pilot in the Seattle, WA, area, arrived to begin his flight training. Jim was busy, alternately flying 2 hour segments with Jeff and myself. Jeff has less gliding experience than I do, but his 300 hours in a Taifun motorglider is far more relevant than my experience, and he's adapting more quickly than I am.

Jeff (left), waches John Sepulveda add fuel to the Phoenix. John is a pilot working on his CGI-G (glider instructor) rating, so he can help train customers in addition to his other responsibilities with Jim.

Aug 20: More landings and takeoffs at the Melbourne International airport, and then at Sebastian Municipal airport 18 miles to the south. The "commute" between the two airports provides time to use the electronic flight instruments for navigation, detecting other airplanes that might be conflicts, and using the autopilot. In some ways, learning the basic flying skills is the smaller part of the whole aircraft experience.

Catch-up continued...

Mar 18 (cont): Jim and I flew a couple of hours, getting familiar with the Phoenix. It's quite different than the gliders and motorgliders I've flown before, including:

Side-by-side seating vs a single, centered seat: The sight picture (what it looks like ahead and to the sides) means I have to relearn where "straight ahead" is, and be able to determine drifting left or right of the runway center line, even though I can't see the runway on the right side of the glider (the pilot sits in the left seat in the Phoenix).

A main landing gear with two wheels about 5 feet apart (left and right side) vs a single, centered wheel: The two wheels mean it's best to land with the wings level, so the wheels touch down on the runway at the same time; the single main wheel of most gliders is insensitive to the wings being off-level. The advantage? When the wind doesn't blow directly down the runway, it tends to push the glider towards the downwind side. Banking the glider slightly into the wind will counteract that drift, and - if it has a single main wheel - it can be held in that bank while it lands on the runway. The Phoenix, with the two wheels spread apart, makes that manuever very difficult, and a good landing harder to do.

But before we dealt with the landings, we took advantage of the sea breeze induced lift to do some soaring with the engine off:

At the end of the day, Jan and I visited the beach near Melbourne, where the sea breeze produced a "Kramer effect" with my hair.

So how come no updates?

Well, it turns out, being on vacation is way more time consuming than staying home. Irony, isn't it, that when you aren't doing much, you have plenty of time to tell people about it. I'll skip the part about how the ever so elegant iPad mini can fumble some of the simplest stuff, like updating a blog, that an old  XP laptop can do easily...

I'll try to catch up with a synopsis, then fill in some details over the next few days. Mar 13 was the previous entry, so continuing with ...

Mar 14: We spent this at Seminlole Lake Gliderport, where the Seniors Soaring Contest was in progress. I flew in it in 1999, a couple years after I retired. Some of the same people where there, along  with friends we don't see very often anymore, now that I haven't competed in contests for several years. About 50 pilots were competing during the 6 days of the contest.

 

Mar 15: The AAA guidebook made the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg seem worth the trip. It was an easy drive through the middle of Florida, which has several large wildlife management areas nearly devoid of human habitation. The museum was quite new, beautiful, and I had no idea Dali had such a range of paintings. 

Mar 16: We spent the day at friend's hangar, admiring his new glider, then helping his hangar partner remove the engine from his glider preparatory to replacing the fuel lines.

Mar 18: We meet Jim Lee, the Phoenix dealer, at his hangar at the Melbourne International airport, where we see our Phoenix for the first time. Here you see it with the short wing tips, giving a 36 foot wingspan that let's it fit into the hangar:

Now it has the long wing tips for a 50 foot span, making it a much better glider. The transformation takes only two or three minutes.

We are in Florida - one week to go

It's Thursday evening in Groveland, Florida, about a week before we start home with the Phoenix, our new touring motorglider.

There's a limit to how much the plane can bring back, so even though it's going to be at least a three week, and maybe a four week trip, we pared our luggage down as much as possible:

• A carry-on (mostly clothing) for each of us
• two smaller personal bags with the usual necessities (tickets, prescription meds, iPads and Kindles, cameras, etc)
• one checked bag with the things we'll need in the Phoenix (portable aviation transceiver, non-polarized sunglasses, cables to charge cell phones and iPads in flight, a multimeter to trace any electrical problems, oximeter, and so on)

It was a bit of a grunt getting here, getting up at 3:45 AM, then 14 hours of travel from Richland - San Francisco - Chicago - Orlando, and finally getting to the Orlando motel at 11:50 pm. The morning found the motel overwhelmed by people getting breakfast (how can that be surprise?), but we got some ceral and coffee, then back to airport for a rental car, and off to see our friends in Orlando.

By evening, we were comfortably settled in their motorhome at their nearly completed home on Lake Lucy in Groveland, and our rythyms began to return to normal

It's on! Getting our Phoenix, that is...

Our Phoenix has flown, so it's on it's way to being a licensed aircraft, ready to fly across the country. The avionics installation is complete, and after just two flights for a total of 45 minute, it's back in the Merill Island avionics shop to get the position and landing lights installed (the fuselage was trailered from the avionics shop back to the Melbourne airport, where the wings and tail were installed so it could fly back to Merrill Island).

(click any image to enlarge it)

To the left is the instrument panel in the Phoenix, with the "glass panel" LCD screen to the far left; the soaring computer display in the top center, with the radio and intercom below it; and the backup airspeed and altimeter mechanical gauges on the right.

To the right is the "TV set", the LCD screen that displays the aircraft parameters (left side), the "moving map" used for navigation (center), and the engine parameters (right side). The layout can be changed in-flight, allowing any combination of the three elements, and in different sizes, according to the pilot's preferences.

 

I've bought our one-way tickets to Florida; tomorrow I'll reserve a car and find a motel for the first night in Florida. My training in the Phoenix is scheduled to start March 18, but we'll go to Florida a few days early to spend a day at the glider contest at Seminole-Lake gliderport (30 miles west of Orlando), see some sights, and visit some friends.

Above - 25 feet of carbon fiber and epoxy wing shine in the Florida sunset. The other wing is just as long, of course  :^)