I am actually surprised that you didn't notice an increase in speed with a passenger and the more aft C.G. Ever tried to put a small weight in the tail and see if you could increase your speed?
Brian Kraut Engineering Alternatives, Inc. www.engalt.com -----Original Message----- From: krnet-boun...@mylist.net [mailto:krnet-boun...@mylist.net]On Behalf Of Mark Langford Sent: Monday, June 12, 2006 8:28 AM To: KRnet Subject: KR> flying with a passenger NetHeads, I had an interesting flight on Saturday. I flew my brother down to my father's strip so he could pick up his POS C-172 that's been down there for a month. One interesting thing was I got to fly somebody long distance, back to back with no passenger, under the same conditions. There was plenty of space for us both. Bottom line was that climb rate was compromised, but top speed at 9500' was only 3 mph less than with no passenger. I really didn't notice any difference at all in controllability, although my forward CG probably explains that. On the way back I did "slow flight" for 1.5 hours trying to let him follow me through the haze back to his airport. He left his GPS in his car, his radio didn't work, and his backup radio was in his car also (with dead batteries). Not the picture of preparedness. I flew 105 mph IAS all the way (maybe 112 TAS), burning 2.8 gallons per hour. That's about 40 mpg, no-wind. I feel pretty good about flying my plane when I compare it to the state of some of these "certified airworthy" planes that some folks are flying around in. The interesting thing was the landing when I got home. Remember I fly out of a 2600' long, 40' wide, bumpy runway that was a drag strip 50 years ago. When I touched down, it veered off the left, and started that "I'm gonna stand on my nose" thing again, indicative of a flat tire. It would lock up, release, lock up, release....as a result of the tire trying to come off the rim, and all quite entertaining! I switched off the engine to avoid a prop strike, and kept it under control pretty well. A guy that was standing by watching me didn't even notice there was anything wrong, which might tell you how bad my landings usually are anyway. I removed both wheels and left the plane off the edge of the runway for the night (it was after sundown when I landed), changed the tires at home, and brought them back early Sunday morning and reinstalled them with new tires and tubes. I was overdue for tires, so I had them "in stock". There was one tiny pinhole in the side of the tube, and no sign of what caused it. I may put some Fix-a-flat in these, because that would've prevented this event and the last one as well. I keep some in my mountain bike tires, and when I finally get a hole after several years of riding, I find 5 or 6 giant thorns stuck in the tube that it sealed and I never even noticed. I had 35 psi in them this time, and I know they weren't low when I left home Saturday morning thanks to "my calibrated chocks". I parked the plane with 250.1 hours on the clock. I have a lot of things I need to do to mine to make it less hideous looking, and I intend to start on that next weekend. I'm also going to extend the gear legs and get closer to being able to do a full stall landing, and give myself some more prop clearance. Meantime, I'm gone all this week to St. Louis to make a presentation for the UAV job I'm working on. I've been doing stuff like 70 hour work weeks for the last several weeks, and by the end of this week, I'll be up for some time off, so I can work on the plane in a serious way. Next trip will be the SAA thing in Illiniois on the 24th... Mark Langford, Huntsville, Alabama see KR2S project N56ML at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net _______________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html
