ETLB Squawk Forums — Archive

Q: When is the best time to fly?

A: Anytime you can


Yesterday, with the temperature at 70 degrees and wind less than 10 MPH, that might have been the last of the good flying days before deep fall and winter set in. So what is a fellow to do? Well, with most of the work around the house done----What else but, GO FLY!

2.3 hours of local sky touring allowed me to reset my zero point. In addition to cruising around the sky, I took photos of the new Derby North Middle school, local subdivision development, visited a friend at Butler County Airpark, then made a low smoke pass at Alley Field in Douglass, finally made another smokin' pass over Cherokee Strip and then flew over the Arkansas River.

Once back at Blue Sky Ranch and Aerodrome (35KS) I made a couple of practice landings before calling it quits and taxiing to the hangar.

Man, that felt good, and the Kansas countryside is beginning to take on some of its fall colors.

Paul Fiebich

Severe CAVU conditions beg for flying.

The best time to fly?
When there is oxygen in the air.
I make it a point never to attempt aerial navigation unless I am sure there is a plenteous supply of oxygen, both for me and my mighty HKS.

How do you verify that oxygen is in the air, and at what point is the saturation level adequate for flight? ;-}

Quoted from fiebichpv How do you verify that oxygen is in the air, and at what point is the saturation level adequate for flight? ;-}

The best way I know just so happens to require an aircraft engine (Hmm, what a stroke of luck ) as the test instrument - If it runs you're good to go!

Quoted from fiebichpv How do you verify that oxygen is in the air, and at what point is the saturation level adequate for flight? ;-}

It is possible, if one is willing to take the risk, to simply observe the airliners passing over the house as they are inbound to IAH. They are, however, at least 2 miles high at that point, so the O2 saturation could be different at Air-Bike altitude. So, I, like Scott, rely upon the activity, or lack thereof, generated by the HKS. Of course there could be some other reason that the HKS remains inactive. If that happens, I climb the 150ft. radio tower   at the shop where I keep my plane. (This used to belong to my family and me.) Should I encounter such a lack of O2 that consciousness is not maintained, then I will know that it is unsafe to fly.  

Quite simple, really.

That sounds encouraging. I suppose the method would work for a Rotax engine also. Sometimes when flying, I run into "pockets" of no oxygen because the view sometimes takes my breath away. Has that happened to you guys?  Occasionally I get giddy when flying, I often thought it was due to the fun I was having, but now that the oxygen factor has been brought up, that may be the reason. I will keep flying and experiment.

Paul

Paul, I think you are right; this requires a lot more research.

I am going to pull the oil cooler and paint the mounting pieces, but as soon as that's done I'll get started on with the testing. The results here at sea level might differ from those you will see at such stupendous elevations.

Guess I'd better check my gasoline allowance. It should be built up since I've been relocating the oil cooler and then treading water until the flood subsided.

Thanks to Scott and Sterling's suggestions about finding enough oxygen in the air in which to fly, I tested their theory this afternoon. Sure enough, the Rotax 503 fired right up immediately after mixing the right amount of oxygen and fuel in its carburetors.  So I taxied out to runway 17 and took off to verify the oxygen content about 1000 feet AGL.

I did some more flying around and visiting for about an hour then returned to Blue Sky Ranch and Aerodrome (35KS). From the photos you can determine that I was in good health (adequate oxygen) and the landscape looked attractive.

Those two John Deere combines are not drag racing, they are cooperating in a soy bean picking task.

I hope other Board members are enjoying their flying activities, how about posting what you have been up to.

Paul Fiebich

Nice pictures Paul. I just hope those combiners are not passing you, they look awfully fast  

Appropriate comment Ricardo, I was in fact racing them and just pulled past at the field's end. I had to throttle back to cruise power to avoid overheating the engine when running at red line.

Paul