ETLB Squawk Forums — Archive

Area Familiarization Flight

Finally! The wind was predicted to let up...for one day. Yesterday was that day, Friday the 8th and I was ready for it. Both mentally and physically, plus my AirBike has been waiting for some attention for six weeks.

Arriving at the airport I noticed grass fires had come to within 100 yards of the hangar only to be stopped by a gravel road. My plane's wing cover was damaged and partially blown off. Everything was dirty, the earlier windy conditions had kicked up field dust and spread fire debris everywhere.

Around 6:30 PM the wind was only 8 mph and at about a 45 degree angle to the tree-lined runway. The trees, although attractive, do cause considerable wind turbulence when it is a cross-wind.

Lifting off at 6:40 I flew to various private airparks doing what I call a familiarization flight. Its purpose was to get a mental set of the area and to recognize various landmarks and their relative positions. Landmarks in Kansas are grain elevators, watersheds, feedlots, water towers and an occasional town.

I overflew Douglass field (60KS), Benton Airpark (SN46), Cherokee strip (18KS) then back to Pilot Pointe (SN52). At 1000 feet AGL it was windy, that plus the rising heat and smoke from controlled burning areas made for a bumpy and smelly ride.

An hour after taking off, I landed and tucked my bird away for the night. Both of us felt satisfied at having been able to stretch our wings after such a long spell of dormancy.   Pilots know it is spring when post-flight inspection includes wiping the bugs off the wing and prop.

AirBike Ace is back in the saddle again. And the wind will be 15-20 mph today with gusts to 30 mph this afternoon. The best time to fly is whenever you can!

Paul Fiebich

gotta love this flying s....t Paul....well done Bloke

great photos

cheers Arthur

PS . "Gotta love this flying s__t" .......is a popular saying downunder....Bruce will learn this soon enuff....LOL

Glad you are in the air again. Amen to fly when you can, Texas is like Kansas as far as weather goes. I can only fly on weekends so I'm restricted with a wet runway and high winds on many outings so when I get a nice day I burn fuel.

Monte

ata boy Paul. Glad your back in the air.
Bob

Knees in the breeze again; life is so good.Paul are you running 100 to 1 Ams oil and how many hours on the top overhaul?

Thanks for the attaboy's for me making the transition to another hangar location and enduring the downtime due to the constant high winds. Aeronaut, I am still working down the last case of Penzoil 2-stroke oil for air cooled engines. Won't be long and it will be gone. Still haven't found another source for oil to mix with gas. What do you guys use?

The next batch of photos shows the results of both wildfires and controlled burns. The difference is that one is unintended and the other is intended.  The unintended ones are from arsonists, broken power lines downed by high wind, careless smokers, trains, vehicles towing trailers having dangling chains, and dumb people who burn anyway and it gets out of hand.

In this recent rash of unintended burns are a dozen homes destroyed and numerous outbuildings and machinery, hundreds of burned cattle or those that need to be put down due to burned udders, reproductive systems and hooves, half a million acres of standing grassland used for grazing and baled feedstock, and finally thousands of baled feedstocks stored in the fields.

The intended fires eliminate weeds and the proliferate western red cedar (weed) trees.

The first three photos are a panorama across the road from my hangar road, the last is a single photo four weeks later (today) of the same area.  Soon cattle will be grazing on this land.

Controlled burns are an interesting way to manage the ecosystem.

Paul

Quoted from fiebichpv ....... still working down the last case of Penzoil 2-stroke oil for air cooled engines. Won't be long and it will be gone. Still haven't found another source for oil to mix with gas. What do you guys use?

Paul,

Aircraft Spruce still has Pennzoil Aircooled, if you want to continue using it. $47.50 case/24 http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/eppages/pennzoil.php?clickkey=2187587

I am currently using Citgo/Mystik Sea & Snow semi-synthetic.  
It has very good reviews from the sled drivers.  It is semi-synthetic, and has significantly less smoke than the Pennzoil.  It is a bit hard to find, but Amazon carries it in gallons,  and Yoder Oil Company in Indiana carries it in both gallons and quarts.

Another semi-synthetic that is much more available is Lucas 2-cycle racing oil.  The motorcross racers and sled drivers all like it,  and it is easy to find.  O'Reilly's carries it in quarts and 2.6oz bottles.  Summit Racing has it in gallons, quarts, pints, and 2.6oz,  as does Amazon.
I tried it,  it works well, and it is also a low smoke oil similiar to the Citgo. The Citgo is less expensive, so I'm using it right now.

I'm using Pennzoil Multi-Purpose  http://www.pennzoil.com/other-.....-2-cycle-engine-oil/

Seems to be as good as the old Air Cooled stuff.

Thanks for the report and pictures.

You should rig a gallon milk bottle between the landing gear so you can be the aerial tanker to fight those wild fires.   You would really need to mix liquid fertilizer with it and some red Kool-aid could serve as the dye. Based upon the camping gear that I think I remember your mentioning before, you could probably mount a 5 gallon can. That would be only 40 or 50 (fertilizer) pounds. This would give you a reason to fly when there are no Huns prowling the area.

Thinking of the Huns - I see why you have had so much trouble with them. Your red shoes are giving them the perfect target.   That's probably why you got it in the landing gear the last time. Go to Academy, bro., and get you some camo shoes.   Red will be fine for the fire bombing operations.

Paul, pardon me for stealing your thread for just a little while, but this will not make any sense without your picture.

The picture of the geese flying in formation reminds me of a preacher who was at our church close to 20 years ago. Fred (name changed to protect the guilty) was about 30 yr. old and his wife was in her early twenties. He was a very down-to-earth guy, well educated but able to tell the good news so that the rest of us got the point. His illustrations were from real life and related to us. However, sometimes his phraseology might not have been completely thought through.

Well, I think what Fred was illustrating was that geese swap out taking on the hard task that makes things easier for the group. He explained a little about how the lead goose parted the air and this set in motion a phenomenon that enabled those back in the "V" to use less energy. All was going well until Fred wanted us to understand that after a while another goose would "take the lead and break wind for the rest of them." I knew that if I looked at my wife the both of us would loose it. If we lost it, then our best friends, who were sitting about 2 rows back would loose it, and then Doug and Kay would be with us, and then - you get the picture.

Frankly, I appreciated his explanation because I had always wondered why they didn't just fly single file behind the lead bird.

To this day there are at least seven old codgers who can't see a formation of geese or ducks fly over that they don't think of Fred and smile.

Quoted from radfordc I'm using Pennzoil Multi-Purpose  http://www.pennzoil.com/other-.....-2-cycle-engine-oil/

Seems to be as good as the old Air Cooled stuff.

And considerably less expensive.  

6 pk of quarts:  http://www.amazon.com/Pennzoil.....ipurpose+2-cycle+oil

Buy the gallons jugs for even less:  http://www.amazon.com/Pennzoil.....0ZC7ZCPKA64HG7NARAXT

Thanks for the tips regarding oil for mixing with gas for my Rotax engine. I have seen the ads in LEAF and AC Spruce for the oil but didn't think they carried it any more since my local distributor no longer had it. However, just on a whim, I called our local distributor of Penzoil oil and they had one case remaining--I bought it.  After that I will go to either LEAF or AC Spruce.   Charlie, I checked out the link you provided for Penzoil Outdoor Multi-Purpose oil, the ad is a bit confusing regarding pricing. Also, I am wondering if that is synthetic. Is it or is it not? Our local distributor carries that same oil, he sells it in quarts. 12 quarts to a case is $60.76 delivered to my home at no charge. If this is synthetic I am not sure I want to use it considering the problem I had associated with my engine seizure.

Regarding the red shoes Termite, they were a gift from Dorothy who is known for her ability to fly in a Kansas tornado. She had two pair to choose from but chose the other ones. They have since become famous.  I do agree that those shoes are a contradiction to my WWI wannabe fighter's paint scheme and a pair of cameo shoes would be a better choice. The reason for wearing them is to hide any blood that might be shed if one of those Hun bullets hits home. However, I will retain the shoes once I get my water drop system for wildfire fighting worked out. Good idea, thanks for the suggestion. I am sure my wife will go along with that since she is an environmentalist. This could work in my favor as she doesn't approve of my flying.

Paul Fiebich

Termite, I don't understand the pricing of the oil advertised on Amazon. It says $75 for 1 gallon (pack of three). Does that mean three containers that total one gallon, or three one gallon containers?

Paul

I found several gallons of the Pennzoil on sale at K-Mart for $15 a gal and bought all they had.  I think the regular price is $25 per gal.

Paul, I'm pretty sure the oil isn't synthetic....don't see that specified anywhere.  The oil meets Rotax's specification for TC-W3 rating.

"Recommended for pre-mix, injector systems and direct injection systems. Good for water-cooled and air-cooled 2-cycle engines recommending NMMA TC-W3® products."

Quoted from fiebichpv Termite, I don't understand the pricing of the oil advertised on Amazon. It says $75 for 1 gallon (pack of three). Does that mean three containers that total one gallon, or three one gallon containers?

Paul

Three 1 gal jugs for $75.

Quoted from radfordc Paul, I'm pretty sure the oil isn't synthetic....don't see that specified anywhere.  The oil meets Rotax's specification for TC-W3 rating.
"Recommended for pre-mix, injector systems and direct injection systems. Good for water-cooled and air-cooled 2-cycle engines recommending NMMA TC-W3® products."

It also meets or exceeds API-TC.  It is a "dino" oil,  not a synthetic or semi-synthetic blend.

Here's the classic article on 2-cycle oils, as tested by Lockwood Aviation :  http://powerchutes.com/oil.pdf
FTR,  I have used the Pennzoil Multi-purpose Outdoor oil a few times; because I had run out of the Pennzoil Aircooled, and I had several pints of the Multi-purpose on hand. In the Lockwood test, it was only slightly behind the Pennzoil Aircooled oil in ranking.

I have gone to the Citgo/Mystik Sea & Snow semi-synthetic because of lower price, less smoke(significantly less), and the very positive reviews it receives in the sled and PWC forums. Keep in mind that the Rotax sled engines use API-TC, JASO-FD  rated oils. The 277, 377, 447, and 503 engines that we use were originally sled engines.
Something else:  the Citgo/Mystik JT-4 2-Cycle Lawn & Garden Engine Oil is EXACTLY the same as the Citgo/Mystik Sea & Snow oil, just in a different color bottle: quarts, and 2.6oz mini-bottles.

Quoted Text "If this is synthetic I am not sure I want to use it considering the problem I had associated with my engine seizure."

My usual "flying buddy", Keith Poteet, has a Quicksilver GT400 with a 503DCDI engine.  The engine has over 400 hrs on it, and the last 250 hrs or more were with Amsoil Dominator synthetic 2-cycle oil mixed 50:1.

Keith generally cruises at 5700-5800 rpms to stay up with me, while I am cruising at 4900-5000 rpms in my QC CH-1 with 503DCDI. He is a genuine "motorhead", and together with his wife and his B.I.L. owns Select Motor Company,  in Ball, LA. http://selectmotors.net/

Keith is a big believer that a good quality 2-stroke engine, properly set-up, run, and maintained,  is very reliable.  He has told me several times:  "Two strokes do not just die........ THEY ARE MOSTLY MURDERED. Either assembled wrong, not maintained, or simply abused."
In the last few years,  Keith has taught me a lot about why two-strokes need greater "TLC" than four-strokes.

That's my $.02 worth.  

"All sales final,  YMMV, etc...."

Nice to hear your back in operation, waiting for a decent day to start my season hear as it's either blowing 20-30mph, raining, or too cold. Wednesday sounds promising, but the weatherman has been noted for spreading many false promises lately, my strip is too muddy and needs some work when it dries out, so I'll be using gravel roads if weather permits.