Hangar Flying

Thanks to Char Spencer, I'm posting a flyer for the 2009 HHFC.  The flyer is an announcement of the major canard aircraft flying events in the western US starting with Canards de Mayo and ending with Lone Pine.  Jackpot and Kanab are included.  Questions and comments to Char, please (contact info at end of the flyer).

http://www.mail2600.com/misc/hhfc09.pdf

I'll apologize in advance for the formatting (it loses something in the translation from paper to PDF).

--
Joe

Reference: http://www.mail2600.com/hhfc08.htm

Anyone interested in sharing a motel room Saturday night at the Lone
Pine event?  I plan to wait until a couple of days before (to scope
out the weather) and then make a reservation.  I'd like to share
expenses with someone who is of similar mind.

--
Joe
Long-EZ 821RP
Independence, OR

So whom should I expect to see at Mohave this weekend?  The usual suspects from near and far, I presume, but Kelly says 400+ have registered and I don't even know 400 Canardians :-)

We're leaving at first light tomorrow (Friday) and flying formation with Jim Price.  If you're interested in tracking our route of flight you can use these two links:
  http://mail2600.com/position
  http://mail2600.com/track
(They should be updated as soon as we get underway in the morning).

--
Joe
Long-EZ 821RP
Lewiston, ID

Looks like tomorrow (Thursday) is our weather window to make it over the mountains so we're departing Lewiston, ID for Columbia in the morning.  Hope others will also be arriving early so we can get together and do tourist-like activities.  We'll have a rental car and plan to briefly visit Yosemite -- anyone?

Thanks to APRS technology, you can flight-follow my Long-EZ at http://www.mail2600.com/cgi-bin/ui.cgi?call=K7JD-7 once we get airborne (hopefully before 1600Z tomorrow).  When you see 190 MPH groundspeeds in cruise, don't be thinking I swapped my O-235 for an O-320 -- there's a nice tailwind in the forecast <g>.

--
Joe

Admittedly, this notice is way too short (unless you live near Boise) but tomorrow (April 3) Jim Price will be speaking at the EAA Chapter 103 meeting about how he flew his Long-EZ to 35,000 feet to set an altitude record.

http://www.flyincalendar.com/event_detail.cfm?e=6670&m=4&y=2008

BTW, this is a normally aspirated O320 Long-EZ!

--
Joe

My "blond ballast" (Harriet) and I arrived home from a swing through the Southwest yesterday and it was great!  Even the rain and overcast up here in northern Idaho can't wipe the grin (or the tan <g>) off my face.  

Some interesting statistics (well, interesting to me anyway <g>): the O-235 Long-EZ covered 2806 NM in 18.6 hours of Hobbs time.  If that arithmetic doesn't pass the "sanity check" it's because we experienced >50K tailwinds on two occasions.  The GPS showed 244 MPH groundspeed at 15,500 MSL when headed south to Inyokern, CA and 245 MPH later when headed east to Phoenix.  Fortunately, "pay back" was only a 20K headwind on the way home.  I started out with about 25 gallons of mogas and put another 64 gallons of 100 LL in the tanks while on the road for some excellent overall economy.

Among the highlights of the trip were:

* 4-wheeling in the desert near Inyokern, CA while visiting Gary and Char Spencer (of R.A.C.E. a.k.a. "Timed Event" fame).

* Flying out to lunch at the Voyager Cafe in Mojave, CA and dinner at Rosamond Airpark while based in Lancaster, CA.  

* Watching the F-16s in the traffic pattern at Tucson with Gary Hertzler and the Phoenix Saturday morning breakfast flyout gang.

* Staying in the "Marc Zeitlin room" at Bill and Marilyn Siebold's fabulous place in Bisbee, AZ.  My Long-EZ got to spend the night in their attached hangar too.

* Overnighting in a VW camper in Jim Price's heated hangar at Sunrise Skypark (ID40) near Nampa, ID before flying the last leg over Hell's Canyon to Lewiston, ID.  And once again, the Long-EZ spent the night in a hangar.

Not a bad "escape" from the winter.  I was touched by what Harriet said while "debugging" in the hangar after arriving home: "I really love this airplane".  Me too.  Time for some maintenance and other chores but We'll be ready for Columbia (CA) in May.

Anyone know of any decent fly-ins in the western US this month?

Answering my own question here: no :-).  But tomorrow (Thursday) I'm flying south for a sweep through the southwest visiting EZ friends along the way.  First stop: KIYK (Inyokern,  CA) to visit the Spencers (Gary and Char of N51EZ and "Timed Event" fame).  Planning to depart KLWS (Lewiston, ID) around 0900 Pacific (1700Z) with 4+30 enroute.  Saturday morning it's on to Lancaster, CA and from there, who knows?  I do know that I'm in no hurry to return to wintertime up north :-)

If you would like to see how well an APRS tracker installation can work (either in real time or afterward), go to http://www.mail2600.com/cgi-bin/ui.cgi?call=K7JD-7.  Click on Locate or the first Get Track button to get the aircraft's current position or  most recent track.  You can also see other tracks on 2007-12-25, 2007-12-29, 2008-01-13, and 2008-01-22 by proper manipulation of the user interface.

KIYK WX forecast: Sunny. Highs 53 to 62.  Ah, it's gonna be great!

--
Joe

I am _so_ bored with the lack of flying activities around here.  Anyone know of any decent fly-ins in the western US this month?  Canard-specific is not necessary and I don't expect an Arlington-class event but would like something better than the typical EAA chapter bad pancake breakfast.  Something in CA, AZ, or even NM would suit me just fine.

Thanks,
Joe