This didn't seem to go through yesterday, so here it is again!
Just a data point on the long wing Europa. I flew from Minden Nevada to OSH in
the Mini U2. The round trip great circle distance was 1424 nm X 2 2848 nmi.
There
was about 10 to 15 knots of tailwind on the first 1/4 of the total flying
with a slight head wind for the second 1/4. The entire trip back had about 20
to 30 knots of headwind all the way (of course!). The long range tank was
installed
and two people were onboard. The flight out was in one day. Takeoff was
at 4 am west coast time and the landing was at 715PM central time. The flight
included visiting relatives in Iowa and waiting for the airport to re-open
(about
2 hours). There was also about 20 minutes of circling outside of OSH waiting
for the idiot pilots to get their act together (they closed off arrivals when
so many pilots kept messing up). The return flight had an over night stop
due to afternoon thunderstorms. I departed OSH at 730am Saturday and arrived
back
in Minden Sunday - the next day at 1230 PM. The stopping point was almost
exactly the 1/2 way point (Camp Guernsey, WY).
At 28 inches and 5000 RPM at 17,500, the indicated was about 115 knots for a
true
airspeed of about 158 knots. most of the flight was at 12 to 14,000 feet due
to winds.
Total fuel burn: 107.1 gallons
Average fuel price: $2.50
Total fuel cost: $268.51
Nautical miles per gallon average using the great circle distance: 26.6
Statue miles per gallon: 30.6
Not bad for "motorglider"!!!!!
Dave
A227
Mini U2
PS The only problem for the whole flight of about 25 hours tach time was the
new heater getting heat from the radiators. The good news - it worked OK. The
bad news - it is unusable due to CO entering the cabin. I bought a CO detector
that is very quick and sensitive and found CO getting to the cockpit through
the heater. It was not obvious at first, though. Once discovered and verified,
the heater was off with socks stuffed in the inlets in the footwells (all we
could come up with at the time). I was amazed that there was still CO getting
into the cabin. Once sealed off with duct tape, the readings went to zero for
the rest of the flight. It takes very little leaking to allow the CO to reach
dangerous levels. It did eventually turn the little spot dark, so this was no
drill.
Bottom line: I would never use that source for a heater - word to the wise. Even
if you fix where the CO is coming from in the engine area, a very small leak
in the baffling can allow the CO to enter the cockpit.
Back to the drawing board, but now at more relaxed pace!
PPS The show was good as usual - with a small gaggle of Europas there. It
certainly
didn't look good to have the Europa booth so promative this year. Maybe
next year?????? Andy Draper was there and was good to talk to. John Hurst was
supposed to arrive on Saturday, but that was the day I and a few others (Erich
Trombley and his wife) departed.
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