Van's RV-9A in Aurora

The Big Picture

The Big Picture
Flying! 8/28/2011

Monday, October 3, 2011

Put in about 4 hours over the weekend. Started by changing oil on Friday. That was at 20 tach hours. About 28 on the hobbs. Also took out the #2 bottom plug and cleaned it up real good. It ran very well for a while. Saturday, flew to Georgetown to meet Seth and pickup a new spark plug and a spare wire harness. Next time the lower cowl is off I'll trade out the harness to see if it makes any difference. When routing wires for the bottom left side (#2 and #4), I used Adel clamps that may have been a bit too small. If the new harness fixes the issues, that may be the actual cause. If not, then it may just be a break in issue.

Back to Georgetown, I got to meet the local RV dignitaries that had just done an overhead break arrival. Stu, the Card's, R.W., and Bobby L. (who I had met a year earlier at Seth's shop). I wanna be able to be part of a four ship overhead break! It looks cool!
I had planned on zipping down to San Marcos to visit Mike who has a T6 at the warbird hangars. But a mag check showed that #4 bottom plug was not firing. Dang. The engine was running OK on both mags, so I scrubbed San Marcos and returned to Lakeway to fix the problem. That plug was firing fine by the time I got back and pulling it showed it wasn't too bad. I think my leaning habits on the ground need to be improved. These engines are bit finicky.

With that problem resolved, Sunday I flew a planned circle around Austin. The route was 3R9, KERV, KSSF, T20, 3TG, KRWV, KPWG, KMNZ (these last two about two miles out of my 75nm circle, so I didn't actually overfly them), and then 81R, T92, then back to Lakeway.



I flew the first half on plan. Picked up flight following around San Antonio, verified altitude with the controllers, and stopped at Fayette Regional for a break. What a treat. I walked in and fell in love with the place. No one else there. This great little airport embodies what I love about small airports. I took a bunch of pictures with the iphone, but only one turned out acceptable.




Finally coming over the north side of the Hood MOA (which was not active) I was getting unnecessarily nervous about fuel, so I stopped in Lampassas. I had been cruising at 6500, where it was glass smooth. On the descent, at about 5000, it started getting rough. The days heating had kicked in.
Refueled and then just returned to Lakeway. I was hungry, and didn't feel like getting beat up by thermals.



Skyview in action.

Finished the weekend at 30.9, only 9 hours to go!