Cross country in X air H -Vs- Cessna 172. Real trip.

[Cub flyer]

Sold my X air and part of the deal was I deliver it to Greenville North Carolina.

Weather looked good a few days ago so started the trip. One of the locals agreed to fly down and give me a ride home in his Cessna 172.

A little about the airplanes.

X air H is a high wing experimental that meets LSA rules. High wing, sailcloth covered. Similar to Skyranger or Rans S-6 in basic layout but no parts interchange. Jabiru 2200A with GT wood propeller. No wheel pants. 115 hours total time Airframe Cost $26,500 in parts plus time to build.

average was 1180 EGT, 190 F oil temp (cooler taped over), 234 F CHT.

88 mph 76.5 knots Indicated airspeed average. used 1/3 qt oil.
Read the advertised X air cruise speeds and Jabiru fuel burns and compare to below. Truth in advertising.....

Airplane empty weight 648 lbs, (175 lb) pilot, 20.5 gallons fuel (123 lbs)
8 lbs of spare oil, funnel, tools, stuff. Total weight 954 Lbs.

Average rate of climb was around 640-700 FPM at this weight and 56 mph indicated with no flaps.

No radios at all. No BRS. Doors but no cabin heat. Bing Altitude compensating auto leaning carb. Duct taped my doors shut for the cold. Wearing lined jeans, hooded shirt, Carhartts, knit hat, ear plugs and insulated gloves. Saw my breath all the way to NC in the cockpit.

Cessna 172 is a 1979 Lycoming 160 hp. Powerflow exhaust system. Main wheel pants but no nose pant. Clean straight airplane. IFR, autopilot. heat etc. 2300 hours total time Airframe Cost $60,000 used two years ago.

Full fuel (40 gallons), Two 210 lb persons, X air wheel pants, cowl shrouds (10 lbs) in baggage.

Since I don't have a transponder I decided to fly around the west side of the DC ADIZ. Ron decided to go around the east side through Deleware.

I left at 7:30 from 76N. First stop was Carlisle PA N94 (98 nm) at 9:10AM. Lots of gas left but I had to stop to warm up and find a tree after shivering so long.
60 kts groundspeed. (headwind, indicating 86-88 mph)
1.6 hours
7.6 gallons used
4.75 GPH
2675 RPM
2500 ft MSL
OAT 20 F

Left Carlisle at 9:40 for Front Royal VA FRR. Arrived 11:16 AM. (91 nm) Real pretty place. Hopped around to get warm again.
1.6 hours (headwind again)
7.4 gallons used
4.62 GPH
2650 RPM
OAT 27 Deg F

Left Front Royal at 11:45 for Greenville NC KPGV (201.2 Nm).
Avg 72 Knots ground speed. I was going to land there but lots of jets were taking off downwind and in the pattern so I continued to NC47 South Oaks Aerodrome where the airplane was to be delivered anyway.

Indicated airspeed was 88-90 mph. Still a headwind

FRR to NC47 was 210.5 NM.
3.08 hrs
16 gallons used, 4.5 gallons remaining (45 min reserve)
5.19 GPH
2750 RPM
3500 ft
OAT 32 F

Total trip was 6.28 hours air time. 31 gallons fuel burned. 400 Nm.
Three takeoffs. Total time including stops was 7 hours 20 min.

Ron in his 172 got gas at N27 and flew to 76N (25 nm) .3 hours
He picked up his copilot Fred and left 76N at 9:55 for KSBY (192 nm) 1.6 hours

17.9 gallons used, two takeoffs, 9.42 GPH
6500 ft 2450-2500 RPM No EGT to lean with.

He then went SBY to PGV Greenville NC. (185 Nm)
1.8 hours
18.4 gallons burned
10.22 GPH


Then from PGV to NC47. Picked me up. (10 nm). He missed the field and circled finding the airport. I vectored him in with a cell phone.

So totals worked out like this.

X air Total trip 400 miles 76N to NC47
172 Total trip 404 miles N27-PGV

From 76N to PGV
X air flying time 6.2 hours 76N to NC47
172 flying time 3.7 hours 76N to PGV

X air fuel burned 31 gallons 76N-N94-FRR-NC47
172 fuel burned 36.3 gallons N27-76N-SBY-PGV

Both had three takeoffs total to destination.

I delivered another X air H during the summer to MD. It was identical except no clearcoated sails and a climb Sensenich propeller. Cruise was 2950 to 3000 RPM. Fuel burn and airspeed were identical. We checked both airplanes together and against GPS to calibrate airspeeds.

172 has cabin heat, hauled an extra person, auto pilot and IFR capable. X air lands shorter and takes off shorter but not by a whole lot with the same load.

172 pulled back to X air cruise speed burns 6.5 Gph. 2150 rpm.

Trips were from same origin with same destination. conducted at the same time. Both airplanes landed at grass strips of less than 2000 ft. 172 left with three people and full fuel from this grass strip.

Return trip in 172 was three people. PGV to NC47 (9.3 nm) then up to GED Sussex Co Delaware (214.8 nm) was 21.6 Gallons
Night fell about Norfolk. 1.9 hours total

11.36 GPH. 5500 ft. two takeoffs and climbs. Full rich looking for NC47.

GED to 76N was 1.6 hours. Hit snowline on the ground at Kutztown PA. Very good visibility and smooth night. Landed on snow / ice covered 2000ft runway at 76N. No runway lights are installed. Around 8:30 PM

I have not flown the 172 over to N27 to fill the tanks and see what the burn was. I don't have any fuel at 76N right now except auto.

Interesting thing. When I dropped off the X air a guy came up and was curiously looking at the engine. He said " I overhauled this". Turns out the engine had had propeller strikes and they had disassembled it and magnafluxed the crank and rods. He recognized the odd combination of Warp drive spinner and GT prop.

He was building an X air for the East Cost X air distributor Bill Mariglini. The first X airs they had suffered nose gear collapses due to defective design and steel. This engine was on them. The guy in NC said the engine had complete logs with all magnaflux tags etc when the airplane went to Bill.

When Bill sold me this engine off his X air demonstrator some time later. It was to have had 75 hours since new and all paperwork. When I flew to VA to pick it up he had all the manuals but no logbook. He said he would send the log up to me and of course it never showed. I got tired of asking and gave up.

I don't think he ever dreamed I would meet up with those guys in NC and find out the true history of that engine. Buyer beware.

Aviation is a small world.

I flew a few landings with the new X air owner and last landing he decided we should go to his house. Landed in his 1100 ft yard over pine trees and I left it there.

But this shows a little airplane with no radios can still fly around the east with some planning. And even with a headwind they are still faster than driving and a heck of a lot more fun.

[ka7eej]

I wish we could have more post like this on...Thanks Club Flyer!!! It was GREAT!

By the way Did you see my post about flying my Allegro 2000 from North Carolina to Mesa AZ??? In January 2007?

Only took 20 hours over 2 days...Now that was some fun!!!!

[Cub flyer]

I'll look back for your allegro post. Long low slow trips are fun.

Longest I had was twice to texas as a kid in the back of a Piper Pacer. Home to PA by way of Florida.

Longest with me flying was Beech Queen Air from 76N to Daggett CA. Needed to build large twin time. My father and I flew out. Weather was bad and we were right on the deck flying through the desert for quite a ways following the interstate.

Long story on that one. We worked in the desert on a dry lake bed installing a 330 Jacobs in a Cessna 195. Major conversion. used baffles from an Avro Anson. Stayed in an old bus with wood stove.

Sheared the starter shaft in Guthrie OK on the right engine coming home.
Slept by a dumptster, large bugs in sleeping bag. Tornado warning sirens most of the night, rented a little car to drive home next day.

We filled it with R-680 parts and drove back to OK. Sold the parts to Radial engines inc to pay for the trip. Repaired the Queen air by drilling and threading the soft center of the hardened shaft. Pulled the broken shaft stud out with a automotive dent puller and flew back to 76N.

Longest Corporate trip was Cayman Islands in the Westwind. Got the overflight permit and flew over Cuba. Check was made out to Fidel Castro himself. Strange place. Everyone flies around a VOR on a DME arc. and reports what radial you are on. (no radar). Then call your number and turn into the airport. We were cut off on landing by a Air Canada 757.

Nonstop from AVP to Las Vegas was another. Went to Oregon with weather so clear you could see all the volcanos in the chain.

Had a low level flight over Rocky mountains to Grand Junction CO. Right over Aspen. Really smooth and clear. Rare treat.

The long trips you remember.

[Cub flyer]

Lets here some other LSA adventures. If you don't have any go fly. Even slow LSA are fast enough to get places

[ka7eej]

My Allegro Cross Country Trip went away when the site crashed so here it is again.....................

This trip started at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport for the 4 hour flight to Raleigh-Durham airport. It was a short car ride to Stanford-Lee to check out the Allegro 2000 that I was going to buy. Matt Smith of Fantasy Air had just finished its first annual inspection and it was ready to fly. Betty showed me around. Saw the Allegro 2007(VERRY COOL), the new Mystique and SkyBoy. What a selection!! My CFI, Jason Bullard, from Falcon Executive Aviation, Mesa, Az went around the patch a few times with the owner (personal family issues forced the sale) and gave N3081X ("Cover Girl" as I call her) a clean bill of health. Getting dark we tied her down and went to the hotel for a good nights sleep before the exciting trip back home. First day we went from Sanford-Lee to North Little Rock with fuel stops at TYS and MKL. We just ran on 100 LL for this trip. Can't wait to get back to good ol 91 unleaded!! At North Little Rock we got a loaner car( Are all FBO's this nice??), covered the plane went to find some pizza and a hotel. It was very cold and the heater in the plane was a life saver, but we dressed warmly anyway. Good thing because it was around 0ºC or less most of the way. 2nd day the clouds dropped to 1000 agl after departure so we diverted a little to McAllester OK(MLC). The power had been out there for a week, ice covered everthing but the runway, but the fuel truck worked and the FSS there was on backup power. Jason received the longest weather briefing of his life there, but mostly just to stay in the only heated building in town. They were more than happy to us find a route west. There was lots of rain & snow around Dallas (where I wanted to stop and show off to my brother) but we were able to find a good weather to Sherman TX(GYI) and then to Abilene(ABI). just staying north of the weather. We found a great tail wind at 4500 MSL and were making 145 MPH ground speed. Hold on baby, we were flying! Getting in to a little rain around Abilene we were again able to stay just north of the storm and stoped in Carlsbad, NM(CMN). Having a Garmin 396 was sooo cool, its a wealth of information. We also had the XM Weather hooked up to keep track of any weather changes that may have occured. (OK OK, we listened to music and the comedy channel as well) The Dynon EFIS kept us informed at a quick glance. Then, staying north of weather and south of White Sands Missile Range we stopped for a quick fuel stop in Las Cruces(LRU). Now in our back yard we followed I-10 to Tucson(TUS) where we landed in a 10-12 crosswind(no problem). Parked between a King Air and a Lear Jet. Should a guy be proud of his Allegro 2000??? Hey I'm an airplane too! Then home to Falcon field Meas Az(FFZ) We burned about 70 gals in 20 hrs flight time coverting a little more than 2000 miles. Thats about 3.5 gals per hour at a little better than 100 mph average. Every fuel stop we had to tell the fueler to put back the ladder and that he would have to squat down under the wing to add fuel. (Watch out for that backwash!) We had to repeat to ATC everwhere aircraft type...It's ALLEGRO, just think of a high wing Katana....Ok roger that. One controller could not resist telling other traffic that they were #2 behind the Cessna. (BOO!) I guess it was easier than explaining what an Allegro was. Like other cross country stories , we did a show and tell most places we stopped. Everyone is interested in the new Light Sport Aircraft. Most have never seen one. All in all it was a more cormfortable trip than driving my car for the 3 hour trip back to where I live. I am thankful to have Falcon Executive Aviation as close as it is, training with an Allegro 2000. We need to see more of them in this part of the country and I know that Vic (The sales Manager at Falcon) will see to that. Hopefully I can bring her to my home field, Taylor, Az (TYL) soon, after I finish my training, so I can fly as often as I want.

[Cub flyer]

That's quite a trip. Tailwinds going west are nice.

I've not been a fan of the 912 Rotax but the power to weight, thrust delivered and fuel burn are very hard to beat.

I'd like to try one again.

Have to watch for the Allegro 2007 to see what changes were made.