We departed T67 at 7 AM with 45 gallons, take off weight near 2000 lbs. for a 1.5 hour flight to KWWR Woodward OK as a mid-point stop to KSNY. We arrived with about 31 gallons. LuAnn rode in the back, so there was about 50 lbs. of ballast in the nose. The runway, fuel pumps & FBO at WWR were in great shape. The tarmac near the fuel pumps needs to be sealed.
Tach 62.1 - 63.6
Hobbs 88.9 - 90.5
Altitude bug was set on 6500. IAS was about 147, TAS 166. RPM varied between 2480 in cruise climb to 2532.
Fuel Flow showed 14.4 GPH on take off, 13 climb and around 10 GPH in cruise. CHT's and Oil temps were good. Amps were about 11. MAP was mostly at 21.7.
When we left Woodward, there were some showers showing on the screen and visible in the air. We climbed to 6500 initially, then 8500 to go over a string of clouds. Sidney was reporting a low ceiling, so I went East and dropped down to pattern altitude over I80 where the clouds were broken and could see towards the West that Sidney was not currently viable. We climbed back up over the clouds at 7500, transitioned to the West. LuAnn texted my sister that we would cruise around for 20 minutes and divert to Scottsbluff if Sidney hadn't cleared, which is what we did. We circled Chimney Rock near Bayard NE and got some nice photos. It was too cloudy further East to see Court House and Jail Rock.
We got 20 gallons of fuel at BFF. One of the runways was closed which I didn't recall seeing in the NOTAMs. My sister reported a plane had just landed at Sidney and the ceiling was raising from 500 to 800 and they were starting to see the sun pop through. We taxied to RWY 05, OAT was about 85F, DALT was about 6400' with minimal wind. Taking off, when the nose lifted the rear mains lifted and we climbed a few feet above the runway but kind of "mushed" and the mains touched again. I may have been kicking the rudders out just a little bit too. When the mains lifted again, I stayed in ground effect until the IAS was climbing well above 80 knots. My first lessons were back in the 1980's were at AIA and SNY. This performance reminded me of a white knuckle landing/go around I had with about 14 hours under my belt. I'd also flown right seat on CAP sorties in a 182 in the area and am aware where pilots used to inadvertently have CFIT along I80 East of Sidney when scud running.
We flew along the North Platte River back towards Chimney Rock, then towards Bridgeport but the clouds were still low there. We did get close enough to Court House and Jail Rock to get some photos. We turned South towards Dalton and got some photos of farms and a video flying over my dad's place. When we neared Sidney a Baron was announcing he was taxiing for departure so I followed Hwy 385 to enter a downwind. I was a bit to high on final so decided to go around and give two of my sisters a bit of a show. The second attempt was much better on the very long and wide runway. George met us on the ramp and directed us to the hangar where we unloaded and pushed the Cozy in for the 4 day stay.
We spent a few days at the farm doing maintenance and attended a reunion on Sunday. On Monday, Dotty & John gave us a ride to Sidney. I chatted with George about getting a hangar and got my name on the list. They had added 20 gallons of fuel the day before. We loaded the plane, said our goodbyes and departed for Scott City.
Approaching Scott City and looking at the runway saw that we'd have to back taxi if we landed from the North. Since there was no wind reported, decided to land from the South. I was way to high again so went around. We stretched and decided to add 6 gallons even though there was enough left to get home. We watched a student solo before taking off to the South.
The radar was showing splotches of green along the Red River, some was at pretty high altitudes above us and we were at 9500. I monitored the Class D and other airports as we were passing. We started descending near Bowie and were at 2500 by Copeland. The turbulence was noteworthy and a wind shear on final was not unexpected. LuAnn still gave me an 8/10 on the landing. It was a 2 hour 22 minute flight from Scott City.
LuAnn said she'd like a sun shade for the back window and some non-skid on the floor to make it easier to get out. I applied some strips of 3M non-skid that Karl Riley gave me. LuAnn ordered a shade for the window. The pilot mic audio was occasionally scratchy and I found one of the wires in the headset plug was broken. There was cold air on my feet so sealed some openings around the canard cover. The heater worked well to keep my legs warm with the OAT at 57F when we left KSNY.
I fixed the headset, changed oil and attended to the NG3 nose gear. The oil filter pleats looked as expected with a low time engine. There were some tiny shiny particles visible but very similar to a new 540's filter I had been inspecting since it was new. I captured some oil for analysis.
The AN4-15 bolt that the actuator rotates on was found to be a bit to short and the bolt threads had mashed, giving the components some unwanted slop and resulting in some clunking and popping. I replaced the bolt with an AN4-17, and added a few thick washers under the nut. I sanded about 1" above and below the NG3 and put some flox and BID to provide a little more containment than just the (non-plans but recommended) AN3 bolt through the strut. I also reorganized the headset jacks so that the pilot's jacks weren't getting bumped by the canopy's gas strut. I moved the pilot's left rudder peg one notch forward.
Hobbs 97.4 Tach 70.4.
I did have the copilot HDX1100 reset once in flight and there were two files from the EFIS where there was no GPS data. I'll check the connector to make sure it's tight. I still tend to have some trouble initially with the Autopilot going into NAV mode where it seems to want to go into a continuous turn. A friend suggested going into heading and altitude mode, then when it stabilizes, go into NAV mode. The roll trim seems to work much better now.
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