First Cross country

Dan A · Post by **Dan A** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 11:40 pm

These RV's are sure great for going long distances. Friday Morning the weather sattelite pictures looked good for the western half of the US so I took the afternoon off and decided I needed to spend the weekend with my grand children in Gunnison Colorado. (elev. 7780ft.) 850 statute miles southeast of here. I hurriedly gathered things together and left to drive the 26 miles to Felts Field where I hanger the 8. Arriving about 1:30 I readied the plane and reached for my phone to call my Brother in Twin Falls ID. - - No phone.--- Back into the truck and back to Cheney to retrieve my phone as I don't want to go without it. Back at the airport at 3:15. Pull the plane out of the hanger and start the engine.-- No engine information--- Now what? Shut down and start troubleshooting. No power to the EIS. I had been behind the panel on Monday checking some things and noticed a slight problem with the EIS. I found the wire to the power source broken at the terminal. Rats!! Strip the wire, unscrew the terminal , place the wire under the terminal and tighten screw. Now, start the engine again. Now I have engine information!!. Yea! I left Felts Field (Spokane WA) at about 4 pm and flew to Twin Falls Id. and spent the night with my younger brother who lives there. The flight that evening was fabulous. Smooth as setting in your Lazy Boy recliner and watching the landscape go by. Landing at dusk was really great. Just like sliding down a string. Saturday morning, after giving my brother a ride in the 8 and at 10:30 AM, I headed to Gunnison across the Wasatch range north of Ogden UT. then thru the Uinta range at 11,500ft. I stayed at 11,500 until I entered the Rocky mountains east of Paonia Colorado. ( a small town in western Colorado that grows the best apples in the U.S.) Then up to 12,500 to pass the peaks and thru the lower passes to the south side of mt. Gunnison ( gotta order that oxygen package!) then pull the power back and slide down the ridge to Gunnison landing at about 1:00 PM.
Saturday afternoon was spent giving rides to my grand children and their parents.
Sunday was spent touring the high country and giving rides to my son's minister who turned 48 that day. He used to fly a hang gliders so really enjoyed the ride. Especially a couple of rolls. (if you roll to the left you naturally have to roll at least once to the right to unwind!)

In the high country of Colorado every morning starts with frost on everything. The sun came up about 8:15 AM and I finished cleaning the frost and ice off by about 10:00. and after chatting with a local gentleman who owns the only 8 on the field, I departed for Washington at about 10:30 AM. Again back to about 12,500 to go in between the peaks and thru the high country, I headed back toward Spokane. It's really nice to fly a plane that you only have to hold a finger tip on the stick to guide it and counter balance the fuel load as it shifts. it flys so easy you hardly have to think about it and it becomes a part of you almost from the beginning.
I stopped in Idaho Falls ID for fuel on the return trip. And while there I watched a Cessna 180 RG try to figure out how to get it's gear down and locked before attempting a landing. They sure look funny flying down the runway at about 100 ft with the gear hanging down and limp. I took off while they were trying to figure out what to do. I guess they finally got the gear down and locked about the time I approached Salmon ID. (about 20 min.) After flying almost the entire trip in really good and stable weather I ran into smokey air about 100 miles out of Spokane. As I approached lake Cour de' Lane I could see patches of low clouds and fog on the lake! (Typical Northwest says I !) I tune in to the Spokane Felts airport info. and they were 700 ft and IFR. Great! COE had clear skys with lite winds. Since I buy my fuel at COE I landed there and topped off. (about 65 cents per gal less.) after fueling I tuned in to Felts again and they were now in the clear and visual . So I went back in the air and put my bird in the hanger at about 2:00 pm.

A great trip and an excellent teat for my RV. Now I need to go back to woek and save up for the next trip!

Dan N742DA 63.2 hrs and having fun!!

Post by **Spike** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 7:53 am

Excellent!! Reading this post makes me giddy at the thought of traveling at that speed. Keep 'em coming. Next time give us some photos as well

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:53 pm

Cool story, Dan!

What EIS do you have?

Also, how and why did the connection fail? Good thing it was on the ground. It was convenient to identify & fix and all.

CJ

Dan A · Post by **Dan A** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:10 pm

CJ,
I have the GRT eis. it seems to be doing great. The problem was me. I think I pulled on it too hard when I was re-connecting a sensor wire and it broke. And yes Spike, I have some pics but need to figure out how to send them.
Dan

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 5:54 am

I see. The reason I am asking is, I am beginning to do some wiring and am in the process of crimping my first few connections. Therefore, I am dwelling in minutia. As a professional wireman, I have made many connections in my life, but this time I am making aviation grade connections and I want to get them right.

The SteinAir crimper has a set of jaws that crimp one side flat and the other rounded (to accomodate the wire). Perhaps that was performed backwards?

CJ

Dan A · Post by **Dan A** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 10:13 pm

Naw, I've been doing electric/electronic stuff for 40 some years and it's not the crimping tool but the crimp-or (me!) Some times you just crimp them too tight and, especially with 22 gage wire and smaller, they will break. Also If you don't crimp them tight enough, they will pull out or fall out. So it's a guessing game as to the correct pressure. I don't use fancy new-fangled adjustable crimpers but an old fashioned multi wire sized Klein do everything hand crimper that's just about worn out from use. Actually it is the second one I've worn out. And I use the slot for insulated lugs for crimping the connectors.So you do the best you can with what you've got. Of course, if you have the new and fancy expensive tools I suppose you can experiment to get the best connection and use a micro ohmeter to check the resistance. But do you really need to go to that length? Not in the real world. So don't try too hard to make them perfect. It's too hard on the mind!! Besides, you want to fly the plane sometime in the not too far distant future. And they fly too good to put it off any longer than necessary!!

Enjoy!!
Dan

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 4:12 am

Yah, I hear you...

I crimped my connectors for the cap senders and soldered them as well. I plan on doing most of my connections that way.

It made especially good sense to do it inside the fuel tank, as it is located in an area which doesn't facilitate ongoing maintenance too easily!

CJ