Today was 35 degrees and barely any wind. Ice isn't going out anytime soon. (but was so slick I could hardly stand on it)





The channels at my folk's place are opening up

Flew around 800 miles roundtrip to help get Eagle Island checkpoint ready for the Iditarod a couple weeks ago. Saw some amazing country.

Much talked about 4 place airplanes not really being enough for 4pax, luggage, and fuel - but the Pacer/Tri Pacer crowd is fortunate. Here's our Tri Pacer this past weekend, taking off from KLSN, 10 pounds under gross hauling 4 adult passengers, full fuel, and 60# of baggage for our overnight trip. With extended tips, VGs, and a 56 prop, still got off the ground in 650' in calm wind - so much for that 1,200ft ground roll in the book.




View of the San Luis Reservoir right after takeoff from KLSN headed to KAPC


And the rolling hills headed north:

evanr42 wrote:Much talked about 4 place airplanes not really being enough for 4pax, luggage, and fuel - but the Pacer/Tri Pacer crowd is fortunate. Here's our Tri Pacer this past weekend, taking off from KLSN, 10 pounds under gross hauling 4 adult passengers, full fuel, and 60# of baggage for our overnight trip. With extended tips, VGs, and a 56 prop, still got off the ground in 650' in calm wind - so much for that 1,200ft ground roll in the book.

I'm not very familiar with Tri-Pacers, so I had to look up the GW and EW to see what that translates to... Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-20_Pacer) shows the '58 Tri-Pacer had a GW of 2000 lbs, and EW of 1110 lbs, and fuel capacity of 36 gallons. If my math is right, that would leave a full-fuel payload of 674 lbs. But you also had 60 lbs of baggage, and were 10 lbs below gross weight. That leaves 604 lbs for your four passengers.

I'm far more impressed by the fact that you found four adults whose average weight is only 151 lbs than I am by the "4-place" capability of the Tri-Pacer... For me (and the vast majority of my circle of pilot friends), the Tri-Pacer is realistically a 3-place (no baggage) or 2-place (with luggage) airplane.

I flew O-320 powered Tri-Pacers out of Gallup, N.M. for years summer and winter. Usually one or two pax, but never a problem. I always leaned, took off toward lower terrain, and used thermal and orographic lift. Mid-day in summer, DA was 10,000'.

Pretty close on the math! No vacuum system in our PA22, lightweight starter, etc so we have another 70# to work with on payload - much easier to find 170# people than 150#ers out there (but there is a reason everybody laughs at the FAA standard of 170LB/person default given what America really looks like...)

evanr42 wrote:Pretty close on the math! No vacuum system in our PA22, lightweight starter, etc so we have another 70# to work with on payload - much easier to find 170# people than 150#ers out there (but there is a reason everybody laughs at the FAA standard of 170LB/person default given what America really looks like...)

Tell me about it! I'm worth "two" standard FAA people... That's why I had to find the lightest 7ECA around ('65 model with O-200) and still can only use half-full gas tanks to fly with my CFI... And my rate of climb is usually measured in FPH (feet per hour) rather than FPM...

Level or down drainage until up air is found.

One of those gray snowy Spring days today...

Les's Luscombe on its way to a new owner this afternoon. Bye bye Luscombe! Hope your new boss enjoys you!

Popped my gravel-bar cherry

Springtime tuneup.



Not the best I have done, but decent.

Spring skiing conditions are prime

Kahiltna Glacier


Dropped 3 friends to Climb Mt Spurr


Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk to specifically annoy:
Zane
Hammer

Thank you for the extra special annoyance, Tradecraft. Looks like a great time. Jealous.

Sean and Bart did a good job with my grandson last week. Got six hours in. I like to get them some time before hormones kick in, cars and girls become important.

Zzz wrote:Thank you for the extra special annoyance, Tradecraft. Looks like a great time. Jealous.

Almost forgot material for you round tail lovers...

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk to specifically annoy:
Zane
Hammer

Washed the plane, then dried it off with a short flight to smash some new bugs

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Tordrillo Mountains with Squash

^^Nice one

ice out patrol last night.










KBRD fire base is all staffed up.

Adam Lee, new 182 owner

Beautiful plane! You looks so happy!