Today I had a late start, woke up at 5:30AM and found out the airport didn't open until 8:00AM. Since I needed fuel I had no choice but to wait, so I decided to have a long relaxing breakfast and work on my flight plan.
Got to the airport at 8:00, wiped the frost off and paid for the fill-up, then tried to get the engine to start (it was cold last night and about 32º this morning). That took a while...
So 10:30 rolls around, after letting the engine run for 20 or so minutes, the oil temp was up to ~80º so I started rolling. Did a run-up ok, check temps (oil was now at 100º) and got out of Ely, NV.
The airport elevation is at 6100', the airplane was off the runway pretty quickly but the climb rate was slow, slow, slow. I had to 'S' turn and circle to climb above the low pass (7500') following Route 6. I think my glider experience is coming into play with managing airspeed and altitude. Climbing over some of these mountain passes is challenging like working a weak thermal in a glider!
Now that I have stopped for the night, I just pulled out the fuel receipts and the fuel burn rate doesn't seem possible. I am tired so I must be making a mistake (someone feel free to correct me).
I have been throttled back to 2200-2300 seeing ~90kts ground speed on the GPS (cruising altitude around 9,500' and briefly up to 10,500 today)
Airport ID City/State Flight time Gallons GPH Oil added
KMAN-U03 (Nampa, ID to Twin Falls, ID) 1:20 5 gallons 3.8 Topped to 6.0qts
U03-KELY (Twin Falls, ID to Ely, NV) 2:20 7.9 gallons 3.4 Added .5
KELY-1L8 (Ely, NV to Hurricane, UT) 2:00 7.89 gallons 4.0
1L8-KGUP (Hurricane, UT to Gallup, NM) 2:47 11.0 gallons 3.9 Added .5
More updates to follow!
-Joe
(Woody, The prop is a Sensenich W70AB-54)
