James,
Very good
write up. I can relate, as I just
flew my Cozy home a couple of weeks ago.
In my case I had moved from South Carolina to North Carolina when the
plane only had about 15 hours on it.
Between building a new house, and being a 5 hour drive away, it took a
while to get the 40 hours flown off, and then several months longer dealing
with a few issues, before I made the flight home. It was about 1.75 hours at a similar reduced cruise to
yours.
Steve
Brooks
-----Original
Message-----
From: Rotary motors in aircraft
[mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net]On Behalf
Of James Maher
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006
6:01 PM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] N11XD First
Cross Country flight report
On December 3
2006 Dyke Delta N11XD and I were both ready to return home to Tweed New Haven
Airport (HVN) in CT. The sky was clear, the temps were chilly and the wind of
the previous days had subsided. I was fortunate to have a good friend willing
to fly me up to Westfield MA (BAF), where my airplane has spent the past 4-1/2
months, in his Long EZ. We left HVN mid morning and arrived at BAF 32 minutes
later. The trip goes by fast at 200MPH. After a very through preflight
inspection of my Delta, in the hangar, I pulled the Delta out of the hangar for
the last time. I will miss being able to preflight indoors.
I was quite
anxious because this would be the first time leaving the comfort of the
airport’s airspace. The anxiety was somewhat lessened because I already flew
several flights that were longer than this one would be, over the airport. The
checklists were gone through one by one, from pre-engine start all the way to
pre-takeoff until the only thing left to do was to push the throttle and go.
There I was in the middle of the main runway, for an intersection takeoff, with
another airplane on short final. So, in went the throttle and down the runway
we went with ‘no delay’. My friend with the Long EZ was still waiting back on
taxiway Alpha for two more aircraft to land before he could takeoff and chase
me home. I knew that he would have no trouble catching me as I was only
planning on flying 130-140MPH, still in the middle of the flight envelope. I
skirted wide to the west to avoid Bradley International airport directly to the
south. Once clear of BAF airspace my friend and I both began looking for each
other and giving position reports on the air-to-air channel, to try to locate
each other. It was comical actually, two practically stealth aircraft trying to
find each other in all that BIG sky, without any radar guidance. Finally about
half way back I managed to locate my friend who was about 5 miles west of my
position at the same altitude. I told him to turn 90 degrees left and he would
see me. He did, and then he flew over and formed up ½ mile behind and followed
me all the rest of the way back. I called New Haven tower 10 miles out and told
them I wanted a downwind entry for 20. My friend called shortly after and
informed the tower that he was flying chasing for me. They just told him to
follow me in. After calling the downwind I was cleared to land. Speed was reduced
to 120 MPH in the pattern and the approach was begun. Descending at 500 fpm and
120 MPH, it was beginning to feel comfortable. I slowed the plane down to
110MPH on short final. Touch down was in the first 1/3 of the runway and I
exited easily 3200 feet down the 5600-foot runway with conservative braking.
The total flight time from BAF to HVN was about 48 minutes. It felt great to
finally have my flying aircraft back home.
Jim Maher
Dyke Delta
N11XD