Cross Country

[ClickClickBoom]

Hello All,
Been Lurking, bought a Kitfox IV 1050, 912UL, and am going to ferry it from WI to CA starting tomorrow. Been a while since doing any GA cross country, looking forward to an adventure. Got a check out from a CA Kitfox IV owner/CFI(thx Roger!).
Just wanted to warn the other Kitfox guys who might be sharing the national airspace!
eric

[Monocock]

Good luck.

I'm safe as I'm 8000 miles away!!!

[Dorsal]

Sounds like fun, I hope you post progress along the way.

[SkySteve]

Sounds like a great trip Click Click. We'll keep our heads down and our eyes up. Take lots of photos and share the adventure.

[ClickClickBoom]

I will start tomorrow, here is the Spot tracking site:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Sb82joityGaYtvvxckB8VZYCPOsls6 EN

Trac if you dare....
eric

[Woodennickle]

How do you get the Spot tracking to work? Do you have to buy an app in order to follow? I have seen others post cross country trips using Spot and they post a link like this one, but when I click on it it goes to Spot but nothing shows. Just wonder what I am doing wrong, or if I need to buy an app in order to follow.
Thanks :)

[HighWing]

If your CFI Roger is the same CFI Roger I know, and live near him, you might be flying over my area. Have fun and keep us posted.
Lowell

[ClickClickBoom]

How do you get the Spot tracking to work? Do you have to buy an app in order to follow? I have seen others post cross country trips using Spot and they post a link like this one, but when I click on it it goes to Spot but nothing shows. Just wonder what I am doing wrong, or if I need to buy an app in order to follow.
Thanks :)

You should be able to follow using the link, it the shared page, open to all. There will not be anything until I turn on the Spot and click an OK message, I may use the bread crumb feature also. There is nothing on the link as of yet.
Eric

[ClickClickBoom]

If your CFI Roger is the same CFI Roger I know, and live near him, you might be flying over my area. Have fun and keep us posted.
Lowell

Wilco......!
10 character needed.
eric

[inzersv]

Have a safe flight ClickClickBoom. Keep us posted. We are all drooling over your good fortune. :D

[ClickClickBoom]

Just rolled in:
Track progress:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Sb82joityGaYtvvxckB8VZYCPOsls6 EN

Kinda cool, if you click a + next to check in you can get neat info.
eric

[DanB]

Congrats Click...always great when a plan comes together. :)
The Spot system is a great little tool and fun to follow, not to mention the "comfort" it can bring to loved ones and friends having that real-time information.
Dan

[Monocock]

Nice one.

So, do you like her? Anything you want to change?

[ClickClickBoom]

Preliminary stats:
Fuel 58.6 Gals
Flight time: 19.22hrs

Time spent at altitude was expensive in fuel burn, lots of time at max power, cruise over the flats was most economical at around 4500 MSL. I chose the altitude based upon a couple of factors, obstacle clearance(duh), and OAT. The Midwest was smokin hot and the inner mountain west was freezing cold. From Wyoming to 1C9 I had the heater going above 4500MSL, and was still cold. I haven't been that cold since the ski years.
On a side note, while driving my car home, I kept trying to "center the ball" with my left foot and clutch, due to the crown on the road.
I am still dehydrated from all that time at altitude, I put down more than a gal of H2O in the last 12 hours and have had little output, Hmmmmm.
I must confess the Foreflight app was dead on within a few minutes of the actual flight time and fuel burn was within 1/2 gal, all based on estimated winds aloft preflight. If I were to say anything, having the iPad with a bluetooth GPS unit was as close to having a FMS onboard, and infact if one had the 4G unit with the bluetooth GPS and real time WX avail it would be almost as good as ADS-B, a whole lot cheaper too!
I will say doing the Rockies, Wasatch and Sierra mountain ranges in one day was quite a hat trick in a 560 lb plane.....

[ClickClickBoom]

A quick video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLlQMUzfVrA

[jrevens]

That was good, Click... looks more like "Highway to Heaven" though! ;)

[ClickClickBoom]

Nice one.

So, do you like her? Anything you want to change?
Rudder pedal adjust/mod to fit clodhopper feet.
Lots of other stuff too, too early to disclose....
eric

[GDN]

Nice painting seems same as me. Madrid red from Stewart Systems ?

[rwaltman]

We are all drooling over your good fortune.

Speak for yourself, I am not drooling.
I cannot drool and be green with envy at the same time ...

.

[Dave S]

Eric,

Great report. That should make it real clear the Kitfox is a fine cross country machine with a phenomenal view!:)

Keep us informed about your adventures.:cool:

PS - I found that after closing up the pneumonia holes in various places (like around the turtledeck flaperon cutouts and wing roots) the cabin stays comfortable even down to zero F. OAT.

Sincerely,

Dave S
KF7 trigear
912ULS Warp

[ClickClickBoom]

Eric,

Great report. That should make it real clear the Kitfox is a fine cross country machine with a phenomenal view!:)

Keep us informed about your adventures.:cool:

PS - I found that after closing up the pneumonia holes in various places (like around the turtledeck flaperon cutouts and wing roots) the cabin stays comfortable even down to zero F. OAT.

Sincerely,

Dave S
KF7 trigear
912ULS Warp

Dave,
Mine is quite sealed up, my issue was 2 tee shirts, one pair of shorts and not much else. A sweatshirt would have helped tremendously. I had planned on the southern route but after transiting the southwest at work, the combination of fires and duststorms proved to be more mess than I wanted to deal with, hence the change to the more direct routing.
Even though I was only cruising at 100mph or so, the ability to travel in a straight line, made short work of distances that would have been considerably longer in a car. Cross country travel is quicker in a jet, obviously, but slower on a bike, its all relative. I think 5-600 miles a day is very comfortable, so decide how long you can sit per leg.