Kurt, Rex and I flew over to Wrens last Friday and back Sunday. The flight (Air Command gyro, Tango gyro and Corben Baby Ace fixed-wing) was pleasant and uneventful. On both trips, we stopped at KWDR, the halfway point 91+/- miles. Therefore, it was just under a 400 mile round trip cross-country.
We flew down at 80 mph and back at 70 mph to try to get an idea of the impact to fuel burn. Initially, I thought I got a bit better fuel burn at 70 but the difference overall turned out to be negligible. We also thought we might get a tailwind on the the return trip. Though a tailwind was forecast, it turned out to be mythical. Both gyros flew at 2000 feet MSL, or about 1000 AGL. Fuel burn was between 5 and 6 gallons per hour on the Tango and 6 gallons per hour on the Air Command. They ran Yamaha fuel-injected 3 cylinder and Yamaha carbureted 4 cylinder engines respectively.
The event was a tad less than stellar this year. The attendance was way down. It was extremely hot, and there was a bad infestation of gnats that did their best to make everyone perpetually uncomfortable. None of the Florida group showed up. Then too, there was a potential hurricane offshore and that was reason enough not to fly up. The usual fixed-wing suspects from the hosts, EAA Chapter 172, were not present. In all, only 6 fixed-wing aircraft attended...and one of them was Rex in the Baby Ace.
The even was otherwise very pleasant. Peach State Rotorcraft and Barnstormers were both well-represented. There were more than a couple of folks from Tennessee that chose this event over the Dickson, TN club meeting. Tango had gyros on display and the infamous crop-duster gyro did it's usual passes spraying water. I believe there were about 14 total gyros. There was also one single-place helicopter on display for sale by a private owner. There were no incidents and no issues. Bigger is sometimes better, but sometimes small and relaxed isn't so bad either.
Weather always seems to drive Wrens as an event. It will build for a 3 or 4 years when weather is good, then die off when, as with last year's hurricane, weather causes the event to bust. So, if the trend holds, next year should be a bit larger.
Thanks Jon....good info on the fuel burn. Glad your flight back was uneventful. Our flight back to Anson was smooth as silk and long with a 17 inot head wind all the way!! Still better than driving.
Attendance was low but the advertising for the event was virtually non existent this year. We had talks with the EAA group and committed to helping out next year....starting months earlier.
Jon was correct in that the smaller group allowed a lot more hangar talking and as always....laughs!
The flying is fun....but it's the people that make this a great sport!! Thanks everybody for coming.
Cant wait to see ya all in October!!
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It is important to note that my machine presently and for the purpose of this flight is more of a "worst case" example for fuel burn. I was hauling additional auto gas for Kurt and myself that, along with luggage, accounted for a second passenger. More important, my engine is not producing full power due to low compression. This, due to an overheat caused by a water pump failure some months ago that weakened the rings. It runs reliably enough, but its efficiency is in question. I have a replacement long block that I will swap out once the weather cools off and I get some time.
The result of the lower compression is that I run higher RPM for cruise than with similarly equipped Tangos, doubtless impacting fuel burn. My machine also does not have headers and its muffler also restricts horsepower as compared to the tuned exhaust systems installed on current models. This too shall be a future upgrade project.
We didn't see him at Wrens......or even hear from him!
Everything OK?
Hope he can make it to Anson County next month.
Mark is OK. He's been busy with trivial non-aircraft-related stuff that often entangles folks and siphons off the time that would otherwise be allocated to flying and other related truly important enterprise.
Seems a bit high for Kurt's gyro .
I got 6 gph in my AC with Steve McGowan on board on our X/C flight together.
Flying alone, about 100# heavier than Kurt's AC, starting w/full load of fuel, I got 4.5 -5.0 GPH at 80-85 mph, and 4.5 at 70-75 mph. I've never heard any reports of such high fuel burn from any of my customers, nor anyone running a Jenkins kit with 3:1 Rotax C.
Sorry I missed Wrens. Don't really know what happened. I guess no one sent me a reminder and I forgot. Since I haven't been invited to Barry's next hanger fest I guess I won't be attending that either. Oh, well. Ya get old, ya move on, the world passes by.
Greg,
The invite for Barry's Fall thing includes all Peach State members by default. As to Wrens, Since the change in management of EAA Chapter 172, there were no announcements. I had to write their President a couple of times to extract the dates (which were on the Peach State Event Calendar). Their own club didn't know to show up. Besides, there were gnats.
Sorely missed Mark's PR this year. Hope our buddy can return to his post at the watch tower as the town crier in the very near future.
Burning up my RX1 engine on the test stand (DOH! - my own stupidity, I forgot to turn on the radiator fan during the test) sure put a monkey wrench in my plans this past season. Instead of yankin' and bankin', all i've done is jack...and work to fill orders. I am seriously thinking about taking a sabbatical from accepting any more work until I get my gyros in the air - all three of them.