SF Bay Area / Portland Oregon round trip

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Chris B
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SF Bay Area / Portland Oregon round trip

Post by Chris B »

My youngest son is on spring break, so my daughter & I visited him over the weekend in Portland.
Much to my surprise we were cleared directly through the standard Bravo departure airspace out of SFO. :shock:
Apparently it was a slow morning!

With a ~30kt headwind, the flight north was a kidney-testing 5 hours. The return flight was considerably faster! :D
We returned inland past Mt. Shasta as high as the overcast allowed, eventually climbing to 13,500 by the CA/OR border.

This was my first long trip since installing the Tempest fine wire plugs. LOP works a *lot* better now! The fuel savings enabled us to reach Portland non-stop, in spite of the headwind.

Here are a few pics that turned out OK.
For high-resolution annotated versions (plus some extras) check here: Link
Golden Gate.JPG
I've never been cleared into this section of Bravo before.

Point Reyes.JPG
Mendocino.JPG
Oregon Dunes.JPG
This is actually a small fraction of the extensive dunes along the Oregon coast.
Hundreds of people were out in dune buggies enjoying the sand.

Mt Shasta.JPG
We were cruising at 13,500', but Mt. Shasta is ~14,200'.

SF Bay sunset.JPG
In the higher-resolution version you can see the Farallon Islands past the Golden Gate Bridge.

No pics, but during this stretch the airspeed indicator was at Vne! :D

Chris
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Re: SF Bay Area / Portland Oregon round trip

Post by CFIDave »

Really beautiful pictures!

But why would your airspeed indicator ever be at Vne? Did ATC give you a slam-dunk approach vector in preparation for landing, so you dove in smooth air?
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Gasser
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Re: SF Bay Area / Portland Oregon round trip

Post by Gasser »

Fantastic trip. Glad the fine wires helped that much. I've got a brand new set sitting in mine waiting on testing. She's still in the avionics shop fixing a few squawks.

On the way home from annual ill do my gami spreads and do the induction leak test. If all is well and less than 0.5 gph spread and still rough LOP ill take it by GAMI for advice. George said there are a few other reasons these lyccos could run rough. Either way were gonna get her purring for LOP operations.

What TAS, ALT,IAS and fuel flows were you getting on your trip while LOP? my best effort at 10,500' was 129 TAS @ 7.3 gph. Ias was 109 KIAS. I was at 25 gallons fuel load and close to gross weight. Had a 5 knot head wind and oat was around +3.



As for your vne experience, must have been so e really smooth air. I'm afraid to push way up there as ya never know when your gonna hit that rough spot. Hate to rip something off :D
Jeff

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168 KTAS 9,000' msl @ 13.6 gph LOP. 1005 pound useful load.
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Steve
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Re: SF Bay Area / Portland Oregon round trip

Post by Steve »

The only times my airspeed has been near Vne is during the post-maintenance check flight following an annual inspection (if the air is smooth). I do that to ensure that nothing falls off (with just me in the airplane).

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Chris B
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Re: SF Bay Area / Portland Oregon round trip

Post by Chris B »

CFIDave wrote:Really beautiful pictures!
Thank you!
CFIDave wrote:But why would your airspeed indicator ever be at Vne? Did ATC give you a slam-dunk approach vector in preparation for landing, so you dove in smooth air?
Yes. The air was very calm. We were descending at about 155kts, and been cleared through the Bravo shelf. I guess we were moving a little faster than they expected, because at the last minute NorCal decides that we need to go under the shelf!
That required 1,500 FPM... :(

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Re: SF Bay Area / Portland Oregon round trip

Post by Chris B »

Gasser wrote:What TAS, ALT,IAS and fuel flows were you getting on your trip while LOP? my best effort at 10,500' was 129 TAS @ 7.3 gph. Ias was 109 KIAS. I was at 25 gallons fuel load and close to gross weight. Had a 5 knot head wind and oat was around +3.
I'm still new at this, and haven't measured injector balance yet (next-up on the ToDo list).

But on the way north:
4,000', 123 kts TAS (118 IAS) @ 7.2 gph, 2C OAT.
~2350 gross (@ ~20 gallons remaining), slightly nose-heavy.

On the way south:
13,500', 135 kts TAS (111 IAS) @ 7.5 gph, -3C OAT.
~2400 gross (@ ~25 gallons remaining), slightly nose-heavy.
Gasser wrote:As for your vne experience, must have been some really smooth air. I'm afraid to push way up there as ya never know when your gonna hit that rough spot. Hate to rip something off :D
Obviously Vne was not the plan, but Glenn Lawler has convinced me that these are tough little planes.

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Re: SF Bay Area / Portland Oregon round trip

Post by Gasser »

Obviously Vne was not the plan, but Glenn Lawler has convinced me that these are tough little planes.

Chris
Agree. These things are very under rated hence the :mrgreen:

Love the pics.
Jeff

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2005 DA40 SOLD
2006 SR22, A/C, TKS, AVIDYINE PFD/MFD, IFD 540/440, AXP322 remote ADS-B TRANSPONDER, AMX240 AUDIO PANEL, MLB100 ADS B in.
168 KTAS 9,000' msl @ 13.6 gph LOP. 1005 pound useful load.
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