Robert on our Mind (GA on my mind ref) Leg #1

Trip to Augusta GA to Visit Robert and Claire

Departed 20 March 2021

I was fighting autopilot issues right up to the day before we left but thanks to the help of Kevin and Rob Hickman we were able to get it fixed – mostly.  It is now safe and operational it still hunts altitude in turbulence a bit more than any of us would like but it is not like was before  – getting progressively worst as it hunted for altitude.  I either had a bad Pitch Servo or a bad connection.  Rob had Dynon send me a new pitch servo, when I went to install it I also found one female connector in the BNC fitting that wasn’t fully seated.  Rob doesn’t think this would have caused the issues we saw but . . . we will see.  I returned the old Servo to Dynon and hopefully they will be able to determine if there is anything wrong with it.

So after completing a flight test of the new Servo on Friday we headed out first thing Saturday morning actually making a 0745 take off – against a planned 0730J.  We picked up an IFR clearance to our first stop Winchester VA.  This was a 2hr and 20 minute leg and the longest Jaimie had done in the RV – thankfully she found it wasn’t as bad as she had feared and she actually enjoyed it. 

The skies were clear though a bit hazy so we had great view all the way.  We followed the Adirondack Mountains down out of New York and picked up the Appalachians following them down through PA, MD, WV, VA, and NC before they started to fade off into the distance as we got into SC and GA.  An amazing trip seeing 8 states with less than 5 hours of traveling time.  But I get a head of myself. 

After passing Gettysburg PA our route of flight actually took us down Lee’s route of March to Winchester VA where we stopped for fuel and a bath room stop.  From Winchester our route was almost direct to Augusta with only slight re-routing west to keep us out of Charlottes airspace.  As we approached Augusta we were met with a number of large burns.  The largest of which was just North West of the city, after we landed the smoke from this burn could actually be seen across North West Augusta, though it did not impact our visibility on landing. 

With winds from the north we were able to enter into a left downwind for runway 05 at Daniel’s Field (KDNL).  Our route took us directly over the Savanah River and we had a good view of the dams and canal system that made Augusta the industrial center of the south.  We also flew directly over Augusta’s most famous landmark the Augusta National Golf Club.  The course was easy to pick out from the many other golf courses in Augusta due to the rich green of its fairways and the TV towers posted on most holes. 

The landing wasn’t the best ever – as we entered the base a Pilatus called he was taking off and I had to ask if we was planning to go before or after the aircraft turning final.  I suspect he was off frequency with Augusta Approach while we made our traffic calls and just didn’t see us.  He nicely allowed us to land and gave us a nice looking airplane call as we rolled out.  Parking was in a transient line next to the main terminal building and Robert and Claire were able to drive right out on the flight line to unload the full packed RV.

Performance recap:

First leg FSO to OKV 445nm IFR 2:23 minutes

Leg two: OKV to DNL 407nm, IFR, 2:07 minutes

We tried the first leg at 10K the engine only developed 21MAP at altitude and we saw a steady 160-162KTS IAS at 10.6GPH burn.  On the second leg we flew at 8K and were able to produce 23MAP+ burning 11.6 GPH but for roughly the same speed 162-164KTS IAS.  The Autopilot performed very well we experienced hunting while trying to hold altitude over the mountains but 60-80 ft. off was the worst we saw.  I tried adjusting the High Speed Pitch Gain but this didn’t seem to have any impact.