Got my fix
I was beginning to suffer from withdrawals after not being able to fly last weekend. Decided to try a flight after work. The drive from the new job down to Renton is miserable (15 min of clear highway and 45 min of stop-and-go), but it otherwise worked out great. I quickly cleaned up from the wheel fairing work I was doing and re-installed the freshly primed cowl.
The weather was clear but very hazy. With the sun near the horizon, it was impossible to see anything heading toward the sun. There was still several miles of visibility, but no horizon and little view of the ground. I was glad to have the GPS. That’s the first time I’ve flown in that low of visibility.
I figure the engine is broken in at this point, so I didn’t fly at full power. I pulled her back to 2300rpm/23″ and leaned about 50 degrees lean of peak EGT. She was sipping around 7.5 gph and going 135 knots TAS (true airspeed). Not bad. I played around quite a bit with leaning the engine and getting a feel for the power difference lean vs. rich of peak. It’s pretty cool to be able to balance speed with fuel consumption.
I messed around with the sensitivity settings on the autopilot, but I really needed more turbulence. The air was so smooth that the autopilot wasn’t doing anything.
I initially headed out toward Duvall. I saw a Cessna doing steep turns at 3000′, so I tuned into 122.75. That’s the frequency at least one local school uses to announce use of the “Northeast Practice Area”. I announced I was in the area and got two replies back. It was interesting to hear how many planes use that area.
I went up to 6000′ to see if the haze would clear up, but it didn’t. I flew up north toward Arlington, back down south toward Olympia via North Bend and Enumclaw, and then back in. Rainier was spectacular popping above the haze and lit up by the setting sun. Really wish I would have remembered the camera. When I called up Renton Tower 5 miles out I was told to “slow down” to follow a Warrior on base. Jeez, I wasn’t even at full power. Gotta love it. Another 1.8 hours down.