Mike Sullivan
01-08-2003, 12:59 AM
The days of waiting seemed endless but the results were worth every second. One week before Christmas Kent called and said "she's ready", but of course I had already planned to be with my daughter and her family for Christmas week and so two more agonizing weeks of waiting tested my patience. But finally, on Jan. 3rd my instructor and I Commercialed from San Diego to Wichita, arriving late in the afternoon. When we stepped off the plane, Wichita's sky's were grey and cloudy with a 1200 foot ceiling. "Not good training weather", I thought to myself. The clerk at the Hertz was not cooperative (not her fault) when I inquired about renting one-way. There are no rental agencies or drop-off points in El Dorado. Ah, "the heck with it", I've gotta get to El Dorado pronto, I'll worry about the car at a later time.
When I walked into the hanger, she glistened like a new plane right off the line, and Jo was standing by her left cowl applying the final touches of the Peterson 260 se decals. Wow, what a shot, she looked just like all the photos Todd and Jonathan had e-mailed me. I jumped up into the left seat and sat there forever studying all of the dials and instruments. This was pure heaven, a long awaited Christmas present only one week late. When I finally noticed Todd, he was smiling from ear to ear, very proud of his latest creation. Niner seven six six one was custom tailored just for me.
Friday morning the sky's were crystal clear and managed to stay that way for the remainder of the weekend. We met Todd at the hanger at 8:30AM and after a short briefing we pulled N97661 out through big hanger door. The adrenalin was pumping and at the same time I was nervously agitated, I had never flown a High Performance plane before. Todd was extremely patient and explained in detail the JPI gauges, the necessity for keeping the CHT's and EGT's below 380 and 1400 respectively, and how I was going to accomplish this with the mixture and cowl flaps during takeoff and climb out. With his help, I managed to get airborne and with his prodding kept one eye on the JPI and the other on the manifold pressure and Tach. We motored South, all the while doing lots of air-work. It was fun getting the feel of "661" in Slow Flight, Stalls, 180's and 360's. The Canards held her nose up with little effort on my part.
Friday afternoon we practiced touch and go's and cross-wind landings with 20 kt gusts. Later in the day Todd gave us a demonstration of the superb handling characteristics of the 260se in his plane. I'm not sure if it's the plane or Todd that made the demonstration so impressive but I suspect it was both. Maybe someday, with lots of practice, I'll be able to fly some of the maneuvers he demonstrated with half his style. Todd's amazing!
Saturday morning we flew to Wichita to settle up with Kent at Rabell. Kent tried to demo the Nexrad (the factory now gives a 15 day subscription grace period to get it installed and to allow time for the trip home) but it never did hook up to the satellite. I tried it several times during our trip home but I wasn't able to get it connected either. I'm hoping the problem is just that the grace period expired.
While flying into and out of Wichita I noticed that the traffic alert system of the Garmin 330 began to function. It was really neat. None of my icons ever turned yellow and the fat lady didn't sing so I don't know if she was really there. I remember being concerned about the relationship of our altitudes with the planes marked by the diamond icons but I can't recall seeing any plus or minus numbers popping up. At the time I really wasn't aware I should be looking for any numbers.
Flying back to El Dorado from Wichita we tested the S-Tec 30 in all of its modes and it worked fine. The GPSS is going to be a great asset on long trips. Just load your flight plan into the Garmin 530, it will figure your flight time, set the S-Tec with altitude hold and set your alarm clock to go off 30 minutes prior to the calculated arrival time. Everything will be cool!!! But, you'd better have a passenger in the right seat to watch things just in case. :)
Sunday morning bright and early, we got the weather, said our farewells, fired up N97661, and lifted off at about 9:10 AM. We climbed to 3500 but experienced a 13 knot head wind so went up to 6500 where it wasn't much better. Eventually we ended up on the deck at about 500 AGL where we caught a tail wind and were making a GS of 141 kts plus. It was a little tricky flying that low dodging radio towers and silo's all the way across KS, OK and half of TX, but fun. We landed in Roswell for gas at $2.69 (yuk) and then motored on to El Paso and landed in Casa Grande to top off the tanks at $2.20. From there it was direct to Yuma, Imperial and we finally landed in Brawley about 9 hours after lift off. Tired and pooped, but with the adrenalin and testosterone still pumping, it was hard to settle down even into the wee hours of the morning.
N97661 burned an average of 16.1 gallons on the first leg but managed to lessen her gulp to 15.5 gallons per hour on the second leg. She was a happy bird and we were able to keep her breathing at the recommended temperatures of 380 at CHT and 1400 EGT.
My instructor hasn't signed me off yet, says I need more touch and go's, so I have this wonderful new airplane sitting in a hanger which I get to polish everyday. Maybe if I rub her hard enough a genie will appear and sign off my logbook, Barry......
Happy Flying Everyone and thanks Todd, Jo and Chris for all your hard work on my behalf.
Mike
When I walked into the hanger, she glistened like a new plane right off the line, and Jo was standing by her left cowl applying the final touches of the Peterson 260 se decals. Wow, what a shot, she looked just like all the photos Todd and Jonathan had e-mailed me. I jumped up into the left seat and sat there forever studying all of the dials and instruments. This was pure heaven, a long awaited Christmas present only one week late. When I finally noticed Todd, he was smiling from ear to ear, very proud of his latest creation. Niner seven six six one was custom tailored just for me.
Friday morning the sky's were crystal clear and managed to stay that way for the remainder of the weekend. We met Todd at the hanger at 8:30AM and after a short briefing we pulled N97661 out through big hanger door. The adrenalin was pumping and at the same time I was nervously agitated, I had never flown a High Performance plane before. Todd was extremely patient and explained in detail the JPI gauges, the necessity for keeping the CHT's and EGT's below 380 and 1400 respectively, and how I was going to accomplish this with the mixture and cowl flaps during takeoff and climb out. With his help, I managed to get airborne and with his prodding kept one eye on the JPI and the other on the manifold pressure and Tach. We motored South, all the while doing lots of air-work. It was fun getting the feel of "661" in Slow Flight, Stalls, 180's and 360's. The Canards held her nose up with little effort on my part.
Friday afternoon we practiced touch and go's and cross-wind landings with 20 kt gusts. Later in the day Todd gave us a demonstration of the superb handling characteristics of the 260se in his plane. I'm not sure if it's the plane or Todd that made the demonstration so impressive but I suspect it was both. Maybe someday, with lots of practice, I'll be able to fly some of the maneuvers he demonstrated with half his style. Todd's amazing!
Saturday morning we flew to Wichita to settle up with Kent at Rabell. Kent tried to demo the Nexrad (the factory now gives a 15 day subscription grace period to get it installed and to allow time for the trip home) but it never did hook up to the satellite. I tried it several times during our trip home but I wasn't able to get it connected either. I'm hoping the problem is just that the grace period expired.
While flying into and out of Wichita I noticed that the traffic alert system of the Garmin 330 began to function. It was really neat. None of my icons ever turned yellow and the fat lady didn't sing so I don't know if she was really there. I remember being concerned about the relationship of our altitudes with the planes marked by the diamond icons but I can't recall seeing any plus or minus numbers popping up. At the time I really wasn't aware I should be looking for any numbers.
Flying back to El Dorado from Wichita we tested the S-Tec 30 in all of its modes and it worked fine. The GPSS is going to be a great asset on long trips. Just load your flight plan into the Garmin 530, it will figure your flight time, set the S-Tec with altitude hold and set your alarm clock to go off 30 minutes prior to the calculated arrival time. Everything will be cool!!! But, you'd better have a passenger in the right seat to watch things just in case. :)
Sunday morning bright and early, we got the weather, said our farewells, fired up N97661, and lifted off at about 9:10 AM. We climbed to 3500 but experienced a 13 knot head wind so went up to 6500 where it wasn't much better. Eventually we ended up on the deck at about 500 AGL where we caught a tail wind and were making a GS of 141 kts plus. It was a little tricky flying that low dodging radio towers and silo's all the way across KS, OK and half of TX, but fun. We landed in Roswell for gas at $2.69 (yuk) and then motored on to El Paso and landed in Casa Grande to top off the tanks at $2.20. From there it was direct to Yuma, Imperial and we finally landed in Brawley about 9 hours after lift off. Tired and pooped, but with the adrenalin and testosterone still pumping, it was hard to settle down even into the wee hours of the morning.
N97661 burned an average of 16.1 gallons on the first leg but managed to lessen her gulp to 15.5 gallons per hour on the second leg. She was a happy bird and we were able to keep her breathing at the recommended temperatures of 380 at CHT and 1400 EGT.
My instructor hasn't signed me off yet, says I need more touch and go's, so I have this wonderful new airplane sitting in a hanger which I get to polish everyday. Maybe if I rub her hard enough a genie will appear and sign off my logbook, Barry......
Happy Flying Everyone and thanks Todd, Jo and Chris for all your hard work on my behalf.
Mike