Michael
09-15-2002, 11:23 AM
This past week I spent about 12 hours in slow flight at very low altitude (400-900 MSL) searching for swordfish over the ocean. I noticed a few things that I'd like to share and perhaps get some answers.
First, it is amazing how steep you can turn the 260SE while flying 55 knots! It takes a little time to get comfortable doing what instructors preached not to do, but wow, it really works! I did notice you burn about the same amount of fuel flying at 55 kias as you do 65 kias, the only difference is you need 20 degrees of flaps to get slowed down to 55 and 10 degrees for 60-65. I did not notice much difference in CHT/EGT betweeen flying with cowl flaps open or closed. I also noticed extraordinary manifold pressure when I would go full throttle to climb a few hundred feet after loitering for a long time (pressures up to 32"). When I noticed this I was careful not to exceed about 25" on subsequent climbs...any idea what's going on here?
This type of flying is very challenging since your attention must be on the water and yet you are flying around a small area with 4 or 5 other planes doing the same thing. The Ryan TCAD I recently installed is a real help in avoiding the other traffic...of course not everyone has their transponders on so you must still remain vigilant. The other planes are spotting fish for their harpoon boats on the water below while I'm trying to guide our research vessel to the fish to tag them with a satellite tracked tag. The other planes and boats are very territorial and will try to scare us out of the area...great fun. We did successfully tag our (and the world's) first swordfish this week!
Cheers,
Michael
First, it is amazing how steep you can turn the 260SE while flying 55 knots! It takes a little time to get comfortable doing what instructors preached not to do, but wow, it really works! I did notice you burn about the same amount of fuel flying at 55 kias as you do 65 kias, the only difference is you need 20 degrees of flaps to get slowed down to 55 and 10 degrees for 60-65. I did not notice much difference in CHT/EGT betweeen flying with cowl flaps open or closed. I also noticed extraordinary manifold pressure when I would go full throttle to climb a few hundred feet after loitering for a long time (pressures up to 32"). When I noticed this I was careful not to exceed about 25" on subsequent climbs...any idea what's going on here?
This type of flying is very challenging since your attention must be on the water and yet you are flying around a small area with 4 or 5 other planes doing the same thing. The Ryan TCAD I recently installed is a real help in avoiding the other traffic...of course not everyone has their transponders on so you must still remain vigilant. The other planes are spotting fish for their harpoon boats on the water below while I'm trying to guide our research vessel to the fish to tag them with a satellite tracked tag. The other planes and boats are very territorial and will try to scare us out of the area...great fun. We did successfully tag our (and the world's) first swordfish this week!
Cheers,
Michael