More rides

 Doug Steen and Bill James are the newest names on the list of pilot/ATPs that have flown N724CZ.  

Doug contacted me and offered to trade rides.  A neighbor of his needed a ride to retrieve his Bonanza so on a frosty Tuesday morning 2/13/2024 I flew from T67 to 50F (~9 minute flight).

Doug gave us (Bill came along too) a ride in his PA46 JetProp to Georgetown and back to Bourland 50F going up to FL19.  Doug's wife Valerie and son looked over the Cozy.  They showed me their Whitman Tailwind.   An RV in their shop was getting a new Dynon panel.  Doug & Valerie own and operate a 145 repair station for avionics, www.semiplane.com. A podcast interview with Doug: https://open.spotify.com/episode/20oomjCjaZn64kLKr3oqsp?si=jrCzrItfSuiR_j_yEdzUrA

Doug was impressed with stability at low speed.  We had the IAS under 60 KIAS and could bank left or right.  VSI was showing about 600 FPM decent.  

After we got back to 50F we chatted and went to lunch.  When we got back to 50F, Bill was eager to go for a ride.  He asked me about the feeling of the realization that "you built this and are flying it".  I think every time I preflight and push it out of the hangar I'm still getting butterflies.  When we got back to Bourland, we chatted for awhile.  The sun getting lower in the West was my queue to head home.  

 

 

Trip to KLAW Lawton

Tallying up hours for insurance renewal and FAA survey, I was looking at my own data and was surprised that my logs showed giving 20 different people rides during the last 12 months. The youngest was 9, the oldest was +75. 15 are pilots, at least five are ATP's (two retired).  Three +500 mile trips and one short flight were with 3 on board.

Today was a good day to not give a ride since there was a turbulence SIGMET up higher and wind (per KLAW Lawton OK tower) was 250@18G27 across RWY 17 (150' wide). The Sheppard MOA above me had a few targets on ADS-B, one coming right at me but 1500 feet higher. The METAR wasn't showing as much wind as the tower reported. Despite carrying 85 knots on final, the wind gusts picked up the right wing a couple of times and there were a few moments of excitement after touching down.

Karl Riley & his wife met me at the FBO where he was bestowed Eureka canard core foam.  Karl insisted on paying for some fuel.  I had the lineman put the fuel in the right (upwind) tank. We chatted a bit, watching the wind socks sticking straight out and the linemen were taking photos of the Cozy.  Major construction on a new terminal was going on next door.

I taxied for take off and asked the tower to repeat the wind again.  Gusting 28 at almost 90 degrees.  The guy in the Tower seemed to be using his Dad voice.  Angling into the wind on the 150' wide runway, the rudders were starting to do their job at about 40 knots at about the time I was intersecting the center line.  On departure, the AP wasn't wanting to track very well until the wind direction was more stable at 5500'. The Tower reminded me to use caution exiting Class D and transiting under the MOA ahead.

Radio chatter from a few students when approaching T67 had students making pattern calls for RWY 14.  There was a batch of helos flying patterns at 4T2 (Copeland), so I followed Hwy 287 at 1500' to stay clear of them, KAFW Alliance and KFTW Meacham traffic.  On upwind for 14, the windsocks were showing a comparatively meager crosswind.  A student and instructor along the taxiway had their cameras out as I touched down. Glad I didn't repeat the previous landing and become Internet famous.

One of the FAA survey questions had tickled my memory about a puzzling stat I recalled from my earlier student pilot/CAP days.  Pilots that file flight plans have a lower accident rate.  Today I'd easily filed and activated flight plans for two "short for a Cozy" flights using the EFB on my phone.  Hey...if it helps...why not?  There's still a lot of nothing for miles in parts of OK and TX.  

Headset jack relocation

 Initially, I installed the headset jacks at the suggested location in the copilot's headrest.

Several issues with this location is that the canopy's pneumatic cylinder is very close to the headset plugs.  Mine was so close to the top set of jacks that the canopy had to be  opened to unplug one of the chords.   Another issue is that the ANR and other headsets have dongles about a foot from the plugs and hang down behind you or could rest on the back rest but still inconvenient to rich in flight with two fair sized adults in the front seat.

I like the ability for the pilot to easily access any of the four headsets jacks while in flight after having some com issues in flight in a rental aircraft.   If you leave a passenger headset plugged in, you could retrieve the headset by grabbing the chord and pulling it from the back seat to the front.

After nearly two hundred hours in the Cozy now, I've decided to move the headset jacks closer to very easy to reach locations for each occupant.   The front jacks will be moved just outboard the control sticks on each side.   The rear passengers will be able to reach theirs while belted in.    The headset dongles will be easy and more convenient to reach.  

The PSEngineering audio panel provides an easy way to isolate passenger audio if necessary.  Carrying a spare headset in the strake mitigates needing to retrieve a headset from the back seat.

The old headset jack panel may serve a new purpose for O2 canula connections to eliminate some of the tube chaos.

Somewhat related is that occasionally I get reports my transmitted audio is low and scratchy.   I checked with a field strength meter and seems both radios are putting out plenty of power.   The Dynon mic sensitivity probably needs tweaked and I need to get better at positioning the mic closer to my mouth.

Update - the SV-COM-425 was replaced with an SV-COM-760.