New JPI-730

 

Should have added this years ago but we finally got around to adding an engine monitor to the little Cherokee.  Picked up a brand new 730 4 cht/egt with RPM, Oil and Temp.  

Now if the weather is willing to cooperate we can get some time to test it out!

First avionics upgrade is complete!

 The little Cherokee finally has had it's first panel upgrade in almost 25 years!

I have had a KLX-135 and KX-155 since I purchased the plane but had always had issues hearing over the radio or intermittent transmit issues.

I finally decided to bite the bullet and pull both my radios, audio panel and broken intercom and replace them with a single ICOM A220 radio.

I could not be happier with the outcome.  I can finally hear crystal clear on the radio and the display is nice and bright and easy to see in direct sun.

I replaced ALL the wires including the headphone/headset jacks to make 100% sure we had all new wiring and no chance of crummy connections.

I've also been able to relocated my iFly 740 GPS to the center of the panel now which creates a more uniform and less cluttered look which I really enjoy.  

Before

After

Weekend Flying

Some absolutely beautiful flying this weekend, the weather couldn't have been better for visibility and winds.  

Just did a quick hop up to EQY for lunch and to test out my new GoPRO mount and camera.  While I like the placement of the new mount I'm not sold on it's sturdiness.  I do like that it's just a clamp and not affixed to the plane however.

I also toyed around with recording in 4K at 60FPS so both of these videos are extremely high definition.  However the file sizes are huge which makes editing them a real pain, so not sure I'll record more at this resolution, but they look nice.

This was a morning flight up to EQY and it was very smooth, no bumps at all.

This was a later afternoon flight and while the sky was clear it was much more bumpy and I had to fight the winds all the way back.  Luckily it's a short hop.  I tried to find some cleaner air at 3k with no luck so just had to ride it out till LKR.

Quick flight to MEB

 So just out doing some local flying, was wanting to try and fly to CRE but the clouds were just dropping too much to risk getting stuck so instead just made it over to MEB to check out some of the old commercial airliners parked there.

Some Late Evening Flying

For the first time since my training and for the first time ever in the Cherokee, I was able to sneak down to the airport at dusk and get in some late evening / night flying.  It was a beautiful calm and clear night, perfect flying weather.

 

The coolest picture

 So was just taking a friend to pick up his plane after it's annual and on the way back we flew some formation and he captured the coolest picture I have ever had taken of the plane.  

This is just the most awesome picture, turn to final on Rwy6

And here are a few more shots from that flight.

Local Sighseeing

Beautiful clear day to fly over the lake, you could see for miles and smooth as silk.

 

Just checking out the clouds

 Sometimes you just gotta get up in the air and play around the clouds.  I'm not a religious person but there is something special (almost spiritual) that happens when you are up flying around clouds and such and you realize that no other human past/present/future will ever see the exact same sight that you are seeing.

It's almost like the entire universe is putting on a show just for you to enjoy, and for those few moments you feel like you can do anything.

Finally some new headsets

 Well I finally broke down and bought my first ever pair of brand new headsets.  I picked up a set of ANR headsets from Gulf Coast Avionics and I cannot begin to stress to you how much of a game changer this is.

I no longer get fatigued after flying and my head doesn't feel like it's in a vice.  I should have done this 5 years ago.

Beautiful Cross Country

 What a beautiful day for the LKR crew to fly out.

Did a great 5 ship flight over to CDH and up to PYG and back for fun and fellowship.  Was a beautiful day and everyone did great!

Density Altitude is a thing

It was very hot during my BFR a few weeks ago and the DA was really high (for my area) we were almost at 2900' so in turn with 2 people the Cherokee climbed like a rock.  

My CFI taught me some leaning techniques that I could do on the ground to counter the high DA on really hot days.  I decided to head out to the airport this weekend on July 4th to try out a few of these to make sure I could do them solo.

It was again brutally hot, almost 110 on the ramp with 80% humidity.  The DA at that time was 3100', I knew I had plenty of runway and the airport to myself.  

The Cherokee still performs poorly in high DA situations but it doesn't seem to struggle as much when properly leaned.  It's still pretty weird to have the mixture leaned so 'aggressively' and a little unnerving to see that control pulled so far back on takeoff.  But it makes a huge difference.

Another BFR in the books

Another year and another BFR in the books.  This is now my 2nd BFR after purchasing the Cherokee. 

Everything went well other than it was over 95 degrees and the heat was stifling.  Had a nice lesson in high density altitude as the DA had creeped up to almost 3000 feet.  The plane performs totally different at that DA (as was expected)

Repainted, Repaired and Refreshed

Repainted, Repaired and Refreshed the front cover for the panel.  I used my new 3d printer to print out some little 'patches' that I glued on the reverse side of the overlay.  Those will help support the cracks and help strengthen the overall 30+  year old plastic piece.

There were many repairs that had been done over the years, I removed all these failing repairs and redid the entire thing with more stability.

Spring Cleaning

Finally got around to a project I'd been meaning to do for a while now.  I finally broke down and took the vinyl/fake leather cushion thing off the plastic panel.  The glue holding the piece on had really started breaking down (and had gotten worse as the plane was used) and the piece had started to droop down. 

It was very annoying when trying to quickly glance at the comms because it would cover up what comm you were transmitting on. 

Now that I've removed that and gotten all the residual glue off I'm not sure what I wanted to do to refresh the panel?

Here is what it looks like now.

Flight to the Runway Cafe at GMU

What a great flight last weekend to GMU and the Runway Cafe!  Flew a 3 ship formation down to Greenville Downtown to enjoy a delicious meal and check out some cool airplanes.

5 year anniversary

5 Years ago today we were able to get the engine running for the first time in 10 years!

A great evening to fly

What a wonderful evening to fly around.  We flew a 3 Cherokee Formation from KLKR to KFDW and back.

It was a really great time, the winds were a little rough earlier in the day so we waited until around 6pm for the air to cool and the winds to die down.  Was smooth as glass on a nice spring day.