Sport Pilot Talk

Lake George…

To Lake Placid…
Approach in to "Olympic Village".
It's pretty easy on a weekday without traffic.
Once in the valley you can maneuver around for any approach you want.
Watch the airspeed… lots of great scenery and distractions.
Thrilling trip, without being beyond limits.

FBO is super accommodating.
I will definitely go back.
It would be fun to fly out of there for a few days when the weather is great.

A moment…

Like I said, where's the "green with envy" smiley?

What kind of cruise speeds are you seeing?

(Paul: belated condolences, just saw the note re: your mother...)

Cruise speeds. Normal and high altitude.

Nice! And you're not inverted any more.

Merlinspop wrote:Nice! And you're not inverted any more.

Or, at least his AI isn't. Can't speak to Richard's attitude.

Pretty pictures!

Just curious, how is your prop pitched? What is your WOT RPM at your typical cruise altitude?

The prop blade pitch I believe is 17.5 degrees per Czech Sport Aircraft LOA.
I see higher numbers for both climb and cruise with the Sensenich over the Woodcomp.
My cruise is usually 5100 to 5300 RPM's and I see a solid 100 kts, and occasionally a few more knots.

designrs wrote:The prop blade pitch I believe is 17.5 degrees per Czech Sport Aircraft LOA.
I see higher numbers for both climb and cruise with the Sensenich over the Woodcomp.
My cruise is usually 5100 to 5300 RPM's and I see a solid 100 kts, and occasionally a few more knots.

The recommendation Roger Lee typically gives is that Rotax 912 owners pitch our props to get 5600-5700rpm at wide open throttle in level flight at whatever altitude we usually cruise at. The Rotax engine needs higher rpm to make full power, if you are loading the prop to not get full rpm (too coarse) you are leaving power on the table.

My CT was making ~5200rpm wide open when I bought it, I re-pitched to get ~5700rpm at 3000 feet, and I gained 8 knots and 300fpm climb. I now commonly see 125 knots true. Just food for thought.

......

My LOA for the Sensenich:
"Pitch prop it 17.5. RPM must be 5050 +/- 50 at the ground."

Am I flying with a 100 knot govenor?

Then again ground could be at sea level,
or ground could be at 8,500.

Richard, that is indeed what the LoA says. It is also in error. I'm sure Czech Sport Aircraft meant "at sea level." Chalk that off to a bad translation.

Chalk that off as written for greater flexibility!

I have to say that plane ownership & the pilot experience has been both the most challenging and most rewarding thing that I have done in my life... and I have done a lot of things!

Challenges: Skill, judgement and very slim margin for error. It's serious business.
I'm in "that zone" now. Enough skill to fly but not a whole lot of experience.
Every flight is an opportunity to learn and usually has a few correctable errors from which to learn.

Rewarding: The magic of flight, and the accomplishment of successful flight.
Step by step getting better.