Thread: Rock Chips, Wing Covers, SL 30 and Other Stuff

Evening All: I was just catching up on my Forum reading and I agree with Roger that FD and its US network is responsive and I personally know that they can ad will make changes rapidly. Also, Roger imparts a bit of important advice in that adding weight unnecessarily is not the best thing to do. For example Nancy and I like to travel and getting high enough to go over mountains really helps--here as Roger alludes to--weight is the enemy. I just ticked over 180 hours in our tenth month of ownership--damn we like this machine.

Oh yes, I did mean to cover the items in the title. The other day while refueling, I noticed a few chips on the leading edges of the wings, wheel pans, and stab, I think it is because we go into a lot of different air fields. Anyway, I was curious if anyone had some information on how I can keep things "touched up."

It seems that the shade hanger I now occupy will be sacrificed for progress here at 82J (Ferguson Field, my home base in Pensacola) and I will be out in the sun soon. The shade hangers will not be replaced, they have survived 45 years, but now are considered (by the insurance company) obsolete/unsafe. The good news is that I just spoke to Bruces' Covers and they are shipping me my new covers in a couple of weeks. Six weeks ago I got a set and they did not fit, so sent them back. Today I got a call and they said the new pattern is set and I get the 1st set. Anyway I will have to figure out how to store auto gas in my hand pump in the open--the owners are reticent to let me keep the pump in the big hanger.

Lastly, today was a banner flight as I got to do 4 ILS approaches in Mobile today; the glide slopes were finally working and available. The Garmin SL 30 works well and it was fun to do instrument stuff again. I will go over the airspeeds and such with anyone who is interested.

I must apologize to everyone, we had planned to attend the McCall flyin and wander around the west this summer. Unfortunately we will not be able to make the McCall do. Nancy has come down with a malady and it will be a couple of weeks before we can think about a cross country. So I will have to content myself with continued flying around here. Anyway, the CT is flying great and I am giving rides to people who are curious. Well I gotta run. Enjoy, Ken and Nancy Nolde N840KN

Ken:

I was interested in the issue of IFR power settings and speeds and put up a thread once, but not much interest. I just got instrument current under the hood in my bird, and here is what I am using (I also have the SL30 and a nav head with glideslope).

Holding and non precision level off: 90 knots, flaps zero, 4600 rpm.
ILS: 90 knots, flaps zero, 3800 rpm (450 '/" down).
Nonprecision: 90 knots, flaps zero, 3200 rpm (1,000 '/" down).

I find that I can land out of these configurations from 200 agl if I go power off and land at flaps zero. I have not yet tried a "big airport fast" ILS, which I am guessing would be 5200 rpm and 110 knots on glideslope, but I am not sure how to land out of that at 200 agl.

How does that compare with your experience?

WF

207WF:

My learning how to fly a decent ILS has been in the Pensacola/Mobile areas and I am unsure what you mean "big airports." I assume that an airport with an ILS has 5000+ feet of runway so landing out of an approach seems fairly easy. Here's what I do: I get vectors for approach (in fact I did two approaches at BFM Downtown Mobile AL, this morning) I fly pretty much the same speeds I did in our old Cherokee 140. Pattern is around 4500-4600 around 105 kts, on the vector to final I slow to around 85-90 kts, then on localizer in decent I use 15 degrees of flap and 75 kts, at minimums I have a choice--land with 15 degrees or lower to 30 degrees.

I find that I really don't have to put more flap in and I make it a point to do a T&G for each approach. Let me put in focus as I see it: first using an ILS in a CT to get down is, basically and emergency proceedure; I have no intention of flying IFR on purpose any more--but I am aware of the vagarities of the weather and that on occasion we might make a shakey go decision. So with this in mind, I purposefully purchased the SL 30 to preserve the capability. I am now in the process of regaining my proficiency, besides I find going out and doing a couple of VOR or ILS or GPS approaches keeps me proficient in hand flying/besides I really like it.

Hope this Helps, See ya, Ken Nolde, 180 hours, N840KN

[quote="knolde"..... Anyway I will have to figure out how to store auto gas in my hand pump in the open--the owners are reticent to let me keep the pump in the big hanger. ... Ken and Nancy Nolde N840KN[/quote]

Hi Ken,

A similar dilemna and the prospect of having to juggle half a dozen 20 litre jerry cans saw the need for a dedicated system with a transfer pump and ground so a couple of months down the track and whalaaah-Fuel Trailer.

Peter

Ken:

On the ILS's, I agree, its proficiency and emergency stuff and its also fun to try to stay current. But I find that after working them out I am using the same configurations now when I want a known speed/descent profile in normal operations, so it is good stuff to do. By big airports, I meant the ones where they ask you to keep your speed up as much as possible during an approach (which I have seen at Chicago Midway, SFO, OAK and others). I am just curious how fast we could fly an ILS and make it work out.

WF

You might check out Brian Longwill's fuel truck option. He had it at Oshkosh/Airventure and it looked very nice. Details at his web site :

http://www.longwillaircraft.com/serv03.htm