Great flight to San Diego and back

Dave Siciliano

Dave Siciliano

Final Approach
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Feb 27, 2005
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Dallas, Texas
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Dave Siciliano
Had a wonderful flight to San Diego and back last weekend. I'll try to post some details later.

There was an airshow at Fort Worth Alliance; so, I was kept low and to the south on departure, but winds were favorable (meaning light) going west at FL180. That enabled me to make it non-stop in about 5.5 hours. Got several clearances to skip part of the routing and go direct to a VOR farther along which cut some time off the trip.

Returned yesterday at FL 210 and averaged over 220 knots ground speed returning (was truing about 215). Its fun to climb in the P-Baron at 140 indicated initially, then 130 above 10,000 and watch the true airspeed increase. I was climbing at over 175 true when I was higher. Time to return was 5.1 hours.

Great weather. Good winds. Fun flight.

Best,

Dave
 
Keep posting, Dave - I love to hear about your trips.
That is some capable a/c.
Don't you love the desert SW, I crossed your route the previous weekend into Kingman Az.
 
What really set this trip apart was the non-stop part. In order to get that range, I ran the engines LOP from about 2,000 feet after takeoff all the way out.

My normal fuel burn in a takeoff configuration is 61 gph. Right after takeoff, I lower MP to 35" and rpm to 2700. Fuel burn there is just over 50 gph. Departure kept me at 4,000 feet until well west of Fort Worth because of the airshow; so, I would have been burnin at this fuel flow for all that time, then the time to climb to FL180.

Instead, I ran it LOP at 35" 2550 rpm and fuel flow of 36gph all the way through the climb. In cruise, I pulled it back to 2200 rpm; 35" of MP and fuel flow of 32 to 33 gph. Still trued out at over 210 knots and had the range to make it non-stop. This was with ground speeds near 200 going west. Not a lot left over when I landed, but did have VFR reserves and it was VMC.

That on top of the wonderful weather and the great visit when I was there made it a wonderful trip!

Best,

Dave
 
cool, that LOP thing comes in awfully handy sometimes
 
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