As a first flight together in the new 414 Sue and I flew down to St Augustine FL for a long weekend to stay with friends who have a condo there. This is a 255nm flight from our Atlanta area airport.
Went down at 13,000' and back at 11,000' to optimize winds and time to climb. Flight time ended up about 1:20 each way. Still uncovering hopefully minor squawks, like a pegged vacuum gauge and alternators not equally sharing the load. But overall it's a sweet ride. Sue totally enjoyed the A/C, the room and the lower noise level compared with the Mooney we've made so many trips in.
I need to redo the baffling so haven't tackled LOP yet. Consequently fuel burn is a bit painful - about 63 gallons each way. Oh well. Can't have everything.
I'll get the problems worked out, LOP figured out and hope to make good use of this great plane for some years.
And we had a great time in St. Augustine eating good food, walking on the beach, listening to a blues band on a rooftop bar on a beautiful night, checking out some fine art and just chilling out with friends. That's why we fly.
Went down at 13,000' and back at 11,000' to optimize winds and time to climb. Flight time ended up about 1:20 each way. Still uncovering hopefully minor squawks, like a pegged vacuum gauge and alternators not equally sharing the load. But overall it's a sweet ride. Sue totally enjoyed the A/C, the room and the lower noise level compared with the Mooney we've made so many trips in.
I need to redo the baffling so haven't tackled LOP yet. Consequently fuel burn is a bit painful - about 63 gallons each way. Oh well. Can't have everything.
I'll get the problems worked out, LOP figured out and hope to make good use of this great plane for some years.
And we had a great time in St. Augustine eating good food, walking on the beach, listening to a blues band on a rooftop bar on a beautiful night, checking out some fine art and just chilling out with friends. That's why we fly.