Flight Reports. I've written many flight reports over the years.  All on the Quickie Builders Email list at Yahoo Groups.  http://groups.yahoo.com/  Q-LIST   This Email system is awesome for helping new builders and the flight reports are great motivators to get people off their butts in into the garage! ---------------------------------- 1-3-04 New year resolution, more flight reports.... Maybe you feel the way I do, we need more flying reports! For all you wana bees, slaving away (or piddling at) your kit plane, the flying reports might be the kick in the pants you need! So here is my flight report (hey, anybody claim the first Q flight of the new year? Jan 2, 2004: 12 pm EST. PIE thru Class B Tampa to LAL. see http://www.airnav.com/airport/KPIE The Q200 was carefully preflighted, wind 070 at 8, vis 4 mi in haze. 76 degrees F OAT (that is correct ... nice Florida day). Haven't had to do any work on the Q for several months, the brakes used to be the sore point but since changing to the Larue(sp?) they are working fine. Because Tampa is a class B and PIE is only 9 miles away and under the Class B, I call clearance delivery and tell them where I want to go and that I have information Romeo. I get back from them "cleared to enter the class B, after takeoff heading 350, climb to at or below 1600 feet, Tampa Approach 125.3, squawk 0140. Then ground control clears me to runway 35 at Mike. That's the big runway and I see a 757 taxing for the same runway on the other side of the airport... Well, I gota warm up anyway, I always get 100F oil before taking off, so my delay may just work out. Wake turbulence from that heavy wouldn't be fun. I often wonder what the people that are looking out the window of that heavy think when this little plastic plane taxis by... Runup normal, taxi to the hold point and wait for a break in the radio to call the tower. That heavy is just now lifting off about 5000' down the runway. Some Cessna is cleared to take off from a point down the runway and another plane calls ready at the same intersection I'm at but on the other side of the runway. The tower doesn't hear him so after 30 sec I call ready and the tower tells me "position and hold for another departure on the runway" that Cessna I see is 1000' ahead of me sitting on the runway. The Cessna is launched and in a short time the tower clears me with the note that the Cessna is also North bound. I assume he isn't talking to Tampa so needs to stay below 1000'. Off I go trying to keep an eye on that Cessna. As I go thru 1000' I am above the Cessna, at 120 mph, and climbing at about 1300 FPM, I lose him as he's now under me. Not too worried cause I never saw a Cessna Climb at that rate anyway. PIE tells me to contact Tampa. So over to 125.3. They clear me to 2100 so I keep going up. Level off at 2100 then Tampa calls and says go to 2600. No problem, I was gaining speed after leveling off the extra 500 foot climb takes about 10 seconds. Tampa lands the Jets on parallel North-South runways and has a runway 9 in the center. They always have you cross over RWY 9. Usually East bound traffic like me is given 2100 feet, at the time I didn't know why they wanted me at 2600 but it was a pretty day. Maybe 25 mile visibility so I didn't care. Then I hear that another airplane is crossing Tampa from the East and they are at 2100. I never see him. Looking down head on it is impossible! Over the top of Tampa they switch me to another controller and in a few minutes I'm on the edge of the Class B and have Lakeland in sight. I ask to terminate radar services and they give me the "good day squawk 1200". 10 miles West of LAL 2500 feet up (basically over Plant City airport) I call LAL tower and get a clearance. LAL says "Welcome back, Straight in RWY 9 report the smoke stacks" They know I'm a fast Quickie. Then a Cessna calls in from the West. LAL asks for his DME to LAL and the Cessna pilot doesn't get it. Doesn't seem to know what a DME is. So after a few exchanges LAL says, your position, your gps distance, how far away are you.... Finally LAL figures out that he is about 10 out. And calls me for a position report. 5.2 miles out. Then in a few seconds reported the smoke stacks at 3.5 mi out. LAL says cleared to land but I'm still way too fast, like 170 mph. I don't want to over cool the engine but I'd like to land so I slowly pull off the power and get down to 100 mph. Perfect landing about 2000 feet down RWY 9, planned so I could make the turn off I wanted. The tower has me contact ground and I ask to go to the restaurant. Years ago there was always a bunch of nice show planes parked in front of the restaurant. Today, now more the typical, I'm the only cool plane. No experimentals, no warbirds... bummer. Tony's restaurant has been re-done and is on the second floor of the terminal building now. You need to reserve a window seat cause all the locals go there to watch airplane and I just never get a window seat! I guess it is good that the locals like their airport but I think Tony needs to reserve some window seats for pilots that fly in! Almost the entire trip to LAL was under control. The enjoyable part of a trip like this is that if you can do it without having a controller yell at you then you did good! Today was a good day but not to push my luck we flew back to PIE around Tampa to the north. Down the beaches and back home with another perfect landing. Was a good day to have a flying Q bird, so ...... GET YOURS DONE! Mike Q-200 ---------------------------------- 6-12-04 Saturday June 12. Mission: Lunch in OCF (Ocala Florida) Launch Point PIE (St Pete International) The weather in Florida has been, shall we say rainy this past week, but we were determined to get a $100 burger somewhere.  We got to the airport and checked over the Q-200.  I had recently installed an Electroair electronic ignition and had a voltmeter setup to measure the spark advance on this flight.  270 degrees of the sky looked nice but the last 90 degrees looked ominous with a down pour that looked to be about 5 miles away and getting closer.  We're not going that direction so no problem.  All passengers boarded and plugged in, so I fire up the 100 horses.  Tune to ATIS, get taxi instructions and onto the hold short line.  Tower puts me "position and hold" on the runway and I still have the canopy open cause it's hot!  Cleared for take off and wham a bug flys in the cockpit as I close the canopy.  I start rolling and then see the bug is a bee so I throttle back and mumble something to the tower like I'm aborting the take off.  The bee is stunned, hey he just went thru the prop so how  intelligent can this bee be anyway.  My brave wife squashes the little bugger and I call the tower back saying I'm good to go, I never stopped rolling on the 8,500 foot runway anyway so they clear me to take off again.  I explain as I'm rolling that the problem was a bee in the cockpit and they chuckle on the radio... Up into the sky and toward the beaches.  This direction let's me go to 2800 feet  just under the Tampa Class B.  It's a little cooler here but bright and sunny.  The gulf of Mexico water down around the beaches is very pretty today with the blues, greens, and white beaches.  One thing about Florida, if the clouds are over the water, the land is clear and vice versa.  There are a bunch of white puffies over the land.  A little farther north and I can go to 3500 or so and fly under/around the puffies.   Real pretty up in the clouds, bright blue sky, white puffies 30 mi vis....  Hey that's a twin Cessna coming from our left doing the same thing I'm doing!   There is no way he saw me.  These Q's are all but inviable. OCF in sight, shut off the Top Gun music playing on the CD player (goes well in a Q).   That stereo intercom with the Lightspeed active headsets is nice.  Looks like a light left crosswind and there is a Bonanza pulling into downwind.  I'll follow him so I get into a left downwind.  Now my opinion is when I'm in the pattern if the engine quits I wana be within an easy glide of the airport.  This Bonanza guy must be a space shuttle pilot cause he's like on a 5 mile downwind.  I'm tempted to just pull a quick base and land in front of him but that's not polite, neither is asking him what airport he's landing at.  So I play nice and putt along at 120MPH and wait for him to get near the airport.  On final I'm too darn high so I slow down to a stall and drop like a rock.  I've had pilots in the plane when I stall at 400' up on final.  A few times I've forgotten to tell them that that is how I get down, not good, they think your nuts.  He finally arrives and I touch down just as he's pulling off about 3000' up the runway.   A nice landing as the G-meter only reads about 2.  That meter is a good judge and a 2 is a squeaker. Nice lunch, there are 2 Eagles there, those 3 wing things.  Those are factory built right?  No other homebuilts and a couple of big jets on the ramp.  Ocala is a rich horse ranch town and there is usually plenty of big iron there. An hour later we fire up the 100 horses and head for the barn.  Nice flight back, a few thunderstorms along the way and a short buzz thru some light rain.  Rain has no effect on my airplane other than it eats the paint off my prop.  In the PIE area I call in for landing and they get it all screwed up.  I'm over Clearwater Executive (10 mi out) and the new guy in the tower obviously thinks I said Tampa Bay Executive which is like 20 mi away.  He says report in 10 miles out, so I call him back and explain again where I am again.  He's all confused and gives me a squack and Ident.  Then says to fly 180 for KingAir traffic at 1 o'clock.  That gets my attention... Then out of a cloud pops that KingAir at 11 o'clock and close.  Way too close for both of us being in contact with the tower.  Good thing we are under air traffic control (sic).    They turn me for 22 and send the KingAir to 17.  We land about the same time.  It's hot!  Back to the hangar and onto the other guys hangars.  Doc is doing an annual on his Money Mustang, Ron, sitting looking at this Longeze foam blocks, Jim getting ready to fly his Velocity that he never got time to paint cause he never stops messing with it, Mike has one wing of his Skybolt covered, Jim is messing with his flat panel display in his Jabaru,... a happening day at the airport! On to working on my Osprey 2 amphibian. Mike Q-200   ---------------------------------- 1-29-06 I'd be flying right now but the wind is 24 gusting to 32. Don't get me wrong, if I had a reason to go, I'd fly in that wind, but with nowhere to go, I'll just wait it out. Once I took off in a 35mph wind at Worchester Mass in the late fall and faced 50 mph headwinds over Delaware Bay but realize, I wanted to get back to Florida bad! Back to my Saturday Jan 28 flight report... I arrived at the airport at 10 am and started prepping for a $100 hamburger run to Lakeland. Darn, 10 volts on the battery! I keep a trickle charger on it but the + wire was broken and not keeping the battery up. Oh well, on goes the 6 amp charger. By 1PM it's showing 12.3 volts, close enough. I drag the Q200 out and do the standard start up and she springs to life. As I start to taxi I always do a brake check before I get too far away from the hangar. It pulled big time to the left! I have the 1 handle hits both brakes type system. Tried again and repeated.... I can't fly this thing : ( My rule is, three things happen to you during pre-flight then God is telling you not to go flying that day. This was only #2 so I dragged the Q back to the hangar and jacked up the offending left wheel. I pulled the wheel out and found hydraulic fluid all over the pad on the caliper side. Cleaned up the caliper, new pad, pumped it up looking for a leak, looked good so stuck it all back together and by 3PM was ready for flight. Wind 120 degrees at 12 K so I asked for RWY 9. 12 gal fuel and only me in the plane we (me and the Q) were off and climbing at 1400 FPM at 120 MPH. It was about 70F outside. My mission was to collect some numbers. I have a Steam Gage Airspeed (Call it SGA), a Dynon EFIS, and a GPS so now I never know how fast I'm going... So here is your homework assignment. What are the calibration errors on my SGA, and EFIS? How fast was I really going? How fast would I be going if I was at standard temp and sea-level? I also wanted to see if the Dynon compass is really gyro stabilized... Remember that lag lead stuff on a regular compass. I guess the reason it does that is the magnetic field is at an angle when your banked and that throws off the compass. The Dynon EFIS knows the bank angle and uses that info to correct the compass. A Gyro Stabilized compass -sweet. So I tried a few steep turns and roll out onto a heading. Darn thing didn't lag or lead a bit, just like they advertise! I was happy. I removed my VOR a long time ago and have forgotten how to even use one of those things now I'm on my way to forgetting how to use a magnetic compass! Numbers... 3,500 Above Sea level, baro 3028, OAT 60F Low speed run to get winds aloft" Heading GPS 0 deg 162 mph 90 deg 141 mph 180 deg 142 mph 270 deg 168 mph The SGA was showing 160 MPH and the EFIS 151 MPH, this is my POS (putt around speed). I believe my TAS is the average of the above 153.25 Then I pointed her 180 degrees and went to full power. The SGA was showing 201 MPH, the EFIS 195 and the GPS 186. Noting that before on the 180 heading I was 11 mph slower... then my real speed is 186+11= 197 mph we will call this the BTTW speed. Contact me for the translation. I'd like to tell you my RPM but the crap westach gauge is useless. Who can calculate what max speed would be at 0', 59F and 29.92??? I did forget to put the aileron reflexer up, this has shown to get me 4 mph more. Next time... Headed back to the airport and was asked to slow down by the tower... Gota love that! Get er done. Mike Q200 N3QP -------------------------------- Flight report 2-19-06   Beautiful day for flying Saturday. The mission was to get from St. Pete Clearwater International KPIE to Lakeland Florida KLAL for lunch with a side trip to Lake Wales to check out Browns Seaplane base ramp. Temp 75F wind 300 at 8. Engine started beautifully, brakes check, oil pressure, oil temp 60F. Electroair ignition working nicely. Tune in the ATIS and call ground for a taxi for takeoff over Tampa into KLAL. The controller says taxi to runway 35R at Mike, advise ready to copy clearance. I'm ready so he says Cleared to enter class B, after takeoff fly rwy heading, climb to 1600 or below, Tampa approach 125.3, squack 0123. I read it back and he's happy. Runup at 1600 RPM complete, TPA in the GPS, heading bug of 350 in the EFIS, I call ready on 35R at Mike. I'm second in line with a twin behind me going the same place. I bet he thinks he's going to out run me :) I am cleared for take off and throttling up. We're off the ground and accelerating to 120 mph, that's my best rate of climb speed. Got the 120 so up we go at 1000 fpm. In about 4 miles I'm at 1600' and leveling off, gaining alot of speed, waiting for the hand-off to Tampa. Finally the contact Tampa approach. Tampa this is Experimental 3QP level 1 thousand 6 hundred. They give me the standard climb to 2100 feet and cross Tampa airport over the east west runway. The climb takes about 5 seconds as I built up alot of speed while waiting. I then hear the Twin call Tampa at 500' and never hear him again cause I'm already on the other side of Tampa and got changed to a new controller. As I pop out the Class B on the other side of Tampa I ask for Radar Services terminated and they are happy to comply as they just told a guy negative Class B service due to being too busy... typical. If you fly around a class B the Garmin 295 with the color map is great, you know just where the upside down wedding cake is at all times. Plant city airport just off the left wing and LAL in sight. They aren't too busy and I call 8 miles out. They give me a report mid field left downwind Rwy 27. I report and am cleared to land with two departures... so I stretch it out a bit rather than heading for the numbers. The landing was a 9 and we pull off the runway telling the ground controller "to the restaurant". There is a small jet on the taxiway ahead and the ground controller tells us to taxi to the restaurant, follow the jet fuel smell (and he wasn't kidding, that stuff stinks). Darn, no other experimentals here. We get a window seat on the second floor and place our order. Hey there's a SR22, and another one... a V tail older homebuilt like a Whitman Tailwind pulls. The table next to us with 6 folks from Illinois are oohing and aahing at the planes and asking questions about the Q200. I really appreciate it when non-flyers enjoy watching and asking questions about airplanes. On the way out of the restaurant the whole bunch of Illinois people are on the second floor balcony watching the airplane activity. I shout "hey you want me to do a fly by when I leave?", thumbs up for that! So I get the plane started, call ground " 3QP at the restaurant, taxi for take off east bound, and the folks at the restaurant want me to do a fly by on the way out" The controller kind of laughs and says that can be arranged. Cleared for take off on 27 and off we go. 120 mph, climb out , left turn at 500', downwind, cleared for the low pass, showing 200 mph and throttling back as I cross the numbers, mid field I pull up and put the power back in showing a 2500 fpm climb, and climb to 1500 as I turn right to head to Lake Wales... Nice day for flyin in Florida. Mike N3QP Q200 ------------------------------------- Flight Report 4-14-06 The Q200 was filled to the brim with auto gas and all systems were go. The wife and I planned to fly to Hot Springs Ark to visit my parents for Easter. The weather looked good, not too much MVFR on the way. Winds against me, nothing new there. In the last 21 years the amount of time that everything in the airplane was working was, well not very often. Generally there was some non critical system not working. One time I flew from Wisconsin to Florida without an alternator but today I can't do that because of the Electroair Ignition and the EFIS needing electricity. So at take off from PIE on Friday morning, real close to the crack of dawn (8AM) we fired up the trusty Q and taxied out for take off from St Petersburg International PIE (Florida). With the Garmin 295 programmed for our route we uneventfully taxied to Runway 35R and got cleared for take off right after a business jet landed. Wake turbulence… I putted down the runway a few thousand feet before takeoff. Hey it's 8500' long so no issue. Throttle up and we're using more runway than normal but we're heavy with 2 people, 4 roll bags and full fuel. Climb out was still 800 FPM to 2600' where I had to stay until outside of the Class B. After the frequency change from PIE I dial up the Flight Service station and opened my VFR flight plan. If you guys aren't using http://www.aeroplanner.com/ to plan your flights your missing out. It gives you all the Seconal Charts as jpg pictures, tells you if you are near a Restricted airspace, plots the TFR's and nuclear plants, and then with the click of a button it files your flight plan with Duats. Too easy. So we are now on an active flight plan, we're going to head up the Florida coast to Crystal River (avoiding the Nuclear power plant there) … ps don't tell the terrorists that all the Nuclear power plants can be located on Aeroplanner dah. The wind is pretty high out of the North West and we're only doing 150 mph across the ground. At Crystal River the plan is to turn left, climb to 8500 and make a bee line for Hot Springs. This line just touches the coastal ADIZ and is around 25 miles off shore. Some people might not like over water flying but I got a lot of over water time and am very comfortable knowing the plane can float and at 8500 I could glide 22 miles. I didn't file a DVFR flight plan so I really shouldn't cross the ADIZ, but who's to know… We crossed into northern Florida and are starting to feel the need to land. It's only 1:45 into the flight and our planned stop in Meridian MS is still an hour away but nature calls so we punch up any reasonable airport in our vicinity which turns out to be Mariannan FL. No one answers the Unicom but there is a couple of running helicopters and a fuel truck down there. The wind is favoring runway 26 so we set up for a landing. AirNav rates the runway as poor and they aren't kidding. That thing is one long group of pot holes. After we stop bouncing we pull into the FBO and get some gas. The FBO guy says RWY 36 is much smoother so we taxi there for take off. What a nice runway, I'm happy. We climb to 8500 and point the plane to HOT. We're in the haze with 20 mi vis just buzzing along. After a few hours we had the in flight meal service consisting of some cut strips of Turkey and a juice pack, yum. As we neared 80 miles out I started a decent showing about 190 indicated. The weather was clouding up as we crossed the Ark border. As we got in the mountains (to a FL boy a mountain is anything sticking out of the ground over 500' high) the wind started beating us up so we slowed up to about 160 indicated. Their active was 26 and I pulled into downwind for a landing. When I'm about 2 mile final a Sabre Jet calls on final for a straight in 26. The wind is rough but we squeek it on and pull off on the intersecting runway. Total flight time to HOT on a calm day should be 4:38 but we were showing 160 MPH for most of the trip plus our little unscheduled side trip made it 5.5 hours. We visited my parents, did a pontoon boat ride, went to the Clinton Presidential Library, ate too much, and on Monday went back to the airport. My plan was to buy only 10 Gal of the $4.11 gas at HOT and fill up at Meridian (MEI) MS with the $3.50 variety. The weather computer showed VFR but with 3000 ceilings at MEI. No problem, I'll stay low and make the 1.5 hours under the cloud deck. So off we go at 9:30 local time. Climbing out from HOT I get around and above the scud clouds and make about 10 minutes from the airport. At 3000' all I see is a sea of white below me. This combined with a less than full fuel tank flagged an alert into my "this is stupid" monitor. So lets go back to the broken area and scud run… We get down below the clouds and find ourselves about 400' up. Oh oh, there goes my "this is stupid" monitor again. A 180 and back to HOT to talk with the FSS guys. They tell me to wait a few hours. Right. I decide to fill it up and fly over the top all the way to FL. At 10:10 we lift off again from HOT and this time we climb to 9500. At the same location where there was a sea of white now there is broken clouds. 40 minutes made a huge difference. Oh well, at 9500' we're showing 200 MPH on the GPS so we got a nice tail wind. After a few hours we decide to do the in flight meal service but it is secured behind my seat… we were going to stop by now. But I forgot to make it accessible due to the plan change. We're showing 206 now and getting near the Florida panhandle. I got just barely enough gas to get all the way home but the spousal unit wants a drink and some food. Our next decent airport is Crystal River. The weather is pretty stinkey with 1000' scud and the wind ripping out of the west. We setup for a downwind for RWY 27 and I'm getting bet up on final. Nice landing tho and we taxi to the FBO. After buying 5 gal of the $4.75 variety. We eat and drink a little for the short hop home. At 10 miles out from PIE I call into the tower 9 miles NW landing with the info. It's my friend Scooter in the tower and there are three planes in the pattern. The wind is 240 at 16 gusting to 23 so I ask for runway 22. Scooter asks me to fly around the Cessna on final for 17L and I see two so I fly behind the second one and setup for a 2 mile base for 22. After turning final I see the second Cessna has broken off his approach to 17L and headed straight for 22. I'm cleared to land on 22 but he's close and off my right front side so I call the tower and say - hey there's a Cessna out here at 22. The tower responds "Just don't hit him - we're not talking to him, do a 360 to the right". As I'm turning the tower is trying to call him, then tells me that he did a go around on 22 and appears to be doing a pattern. They tell me to land before he gets back to 22! I'm happy to oblige them and make a reasonable landing given the gusty winds. 4:20 total time to get back home which includes the short hop in Ark. Probably was less than 4 hours without the short hop. So I used 48.9 gal, flew more than 1600 miles at 32.7 MPG. Flew 9.8 hours at 4.97 GPH. Averaged 163 MPH even with 2 detours. Nothing broke so all in all, it was "Mission Accomplished". If you like my trip reports drop me an email (not the Qlist) and I'll keep doing em. Please don't expect a reply if I get too many tho! Happy Flying, Mike Q200 N3QP ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 10-12-06 Key West On Wednesday the weekend weather looked great so we started planning a trip to Key West. We had earlier received a time share deal in the mail so we called them for a reservation at the Hyatt (the only way I'm going to stay at a Hyatt). The wife didn't think there was any way we'd get booked on such short notice but they said yes so the trip was on! Takeoff on Saturday morning at 8:30 from PIE, full tanks 23.5Gal and 4 roll bags. You may not know a lot about the Tampa class B but they are generally helpful and it's sometimes nice to have big brother watching your Mode C blip as you bug around this crowded airspace. I actually like having some ATC help but if you don't know the tricks you get routed way out of the way. It is also a fun challenge to complete a trip without ATC yelling at you. In this case if you told Tampa you want to go to Key West they'd rout you to the West, over the Gulf of Mexico around Sarasota Class C and cost you about 15 minutes. My plan was to depart PIE under the Class B with a plan to fly thru SPG's airspace, then call FSS and open my DVFR flight plan. This is a straight shot to where I'm going. I needed to file the Defense VFR flight plan as my route took me outside the contininental US and through the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). The only thing extra in a DVFR is you tell them the time that you are crossing the ADIZ and then FSS gives you a 12XX squack code, for instance I was to squack 1223. PIE tower assigned me a squack code after I told them I was headed for SPG. So we blasted off from PIE and headed for SPG staying below 1000'. PIE handed me off to SPG and I told them we were transitioning their airspace to Key West. The whole time in their Class D we never heard another airplane. People just aren't flying as much lately. 5 Miles SE of SPG we were told to squack 1200 frequency change approved. The Navigator dialed up the St. Pete Flight Service station and we opened our flight plan. Then we dialed up Tampa Departure and asked for Class B service to Key West with an altitude of 4500 feet. Tampa was not very busy and we got on coarse approved climb to 4500 with another Miami Center type squack code. I found out a long time ago that each of these controllers has a block of squack codes. PIE has 01XX for instance so if you see someone squacking 0122 he has something to do with PIE... So we were heading to our first waypoint, Naples FL (APF). Perfectly smooth air, great visibility, all is right with the world. Around Ft. Myers, Tampa dumps me and says to contact Ft. Myers. It is time to listen to Jimmy Buffet so off goes the radio and on goes the CD player. I'm going to just skirt the Ft. Myers Class B so I don't have to talk to them. At Naples we make the turn due south and head for the Key West VOR. This keeps you on airway V225 and is about 90 miles over water. Years ago I used to skirt along the Everglades and then fly along the Keys. Then a Value Jet 727 crashed into the Everglades and completely disappeared. After that I figured crashing in the Everglades is worse than the nice blue water of the Gulf so I started doing the more direct route V225. 50 miles out I called Key West Navy approach and told them my position. They said to call em back at 30 miles cause their radar coverage doesn't go out that far. Dah, there is a radar balloon down there looking for drug runners and they can't see me out here! It was still nice to know that my radio could reach them. 30 Miles out I called them back, inbound landing Key West International. They gave me another squack code and 10 miles from Key West they handed me to the tower. Left downwind, midfield for 9. No problem. I did a close in approach, there was a commercial twin getting ready for takeoff as we touched down. No other planes in the pattern. This is a little one strip airport with light traffic, hardly worthy of being called an International airport! Key West Navy is about 6 miles East and is a bigger airport. Years ago a MIG defector from Cuba landed there and was on the ground before the tower even saw him. Pretty typical for Key West. Taxied onto the ramp at the third taxi area cause the first two were flooded? Didn't see any rain so I don't get it... Anyway a twin was getting ready to leave so I waited for his spot right in front of the FBO. Tied down and got all the bags out. I use a white bed sheet tied over the canopy for long term outside parking. It does a great job of keeping the inside cool and dry. We proceeded to walk the 2 block to the Hyatt and check in. It was now 10:30AM and check in is 4PM.... Who knows if they will let us in but they did. Our plan was to catch a snorkel boat from Old Town so we grabbed a cab. I remember doing this trip for $7 but now it is $18 ouch. Anyway we got the 4 miles in plenty of time to get a nice grouper sandwich lunch by the docks. I saved my bread for later... I'd read that the FL keys reef was in pretty bad shape so my expectations were low. We always use Sunny Days Catamaran which does two stops on the reef. Nice boat and fast. My goal is to be the first off the boat and we accomplished this at each stop. The navigator (wife) told me that 20 yellowtail snappers were following me around -- they know I had the bread in my pocket and they aren't dumb. We were feeding the fish and had most of them swarming us. The other 30 snorkelers had no fish... well, for sure less than me! The coral was in great shape, better than in other years and the water visibility was probably 40 feet (poor as they had 20 mph winds the day before). We snorkeled until the boat started honking at us to come back. Back in town we had a big Itialian dinner on Duval Street. Then we went to Mallory Square to watch the sunset. Half the town gathers there to see the weirdos, jugglers, high wire acts, whatever...as the sun sets. A beautiful sunset on Saturday. We took the bus back to the Hyatt/Airport. $1 each, that's more like it. If you ever do Key West, the Blue bus comes once an hour and will get you between the airport and town for $1. Best deal there -- maybe the only deal there... Skip ahead to Monday -- our leave day. We get up and it was pouring outside. The TV radar on the commercial channel (I mean weather channel) showed it to be just a patch sitting on Key West, no worries. We had thought of going into town for a bit but there's not much going on until the afternoon. We headed to the airport at 10AM. Filed the DVFR flight plan, prepped the plane, paid the $43 for tie down ($10 per day, $10 per night+ tax). There is a computer with radar in the building next to the FBO. It showed the rain breaking up. Looks like if we make it 20 miles North we'll be out of the rain. I told the tower I'd like an early right turn, then fly around the island and head north at the VOR. They said ok and we were off. We flew by the cruise boat parked in old town at about 300' up. Haven't heard from the FAA yet so I guess it was ok. I called Key West Navy for VFR flight following and went up to 5500'. It was beautiful weather, all the rain is gone. Did the 90 miles over water and saw it getting gray just past Naples. Had to drop to 3500' and fly thru drizzle for about 10 min. It seems that a cold front had pushed down through Florida and turned stationary there. FSS never mentioned that. It cleared up in Ft. Myers and was beautiful in Tampa. South of Sarasota I called Tampa Approach and told them I was inbound to SPG (a lie). You have to lie, if you tell them PIE they route you way out of the way. Once I got over Tampa Bay they had me drop to 2000' and contact SPG. I did and told SPG I'm going to PIE, no problem. Landing at PIE they had a new tower guy and he called me on final all concerned that the gear wasn't down. I said thanks but my gear doesn't go up. It was nice that he was watching. 1.5 hour each way, 489+ smi, 15.5 Gal used, 8.2 gal reserve (1.6 hours). Round trip unrefuelled. $32.70 in fuel. Mike Q200 N3QP   ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3-24-07 Hey Guys, There was a weekend flyin at Williston airport in central Florida today.  A small uncontrolled airport and a little home town kinda flyin so the wife Liz and I decided to fly up there for the day.  It was about 80F, the clouds were scattered and the bases were about 4000'.  Beautiful blue sky day and about a 45 minute flight up.  We got to the airport there and did the obligatory fly by, pulled the power back and got onto upwind, crosswind, base, pulled the carb heat and the engine quit.  Darn, first time in over 1000 hours that has happened.  So now I'm high on final with a 6000' runway right in front of me.  You can't ask for much better than that.  The prop is still windmilling and pumping the throttle makes (every third pump) a little surge of power but not enough to fly.  I announce on the unicom that I'm dead stick declaring an emergency. I notice the airspeed is almost getting too slow so I nose her down a bit.  Flare perfect, squeeker and I'm down.  The prop stops and I roll a few thousand feet and turn off the runway, real quietly.  Great way to arrive at an airshow, but I don't think anyone even noticed! After sitting about 5 min I decide to fire up the engine.  Starts beautifully, runs great.  ???.  Fuel is fine, no electrical issues, runs on the electric ign and mag.  Had no time to check mags on the short final!  Another friend in a Velocity arrived just behind us so we were discussing what happened and decided Carb Icing.  Now I've been operating this way for 20 years but... I did recently put on some new 4 into 4 exhaust pipes.  The old 4:1 had 2 pipes wrapped around the carb in the front and I'll bet those darn things were keeping my carb hot.  I also realized that I'd put carb heat on *after* the power reduction.  So the pipes are somewhat cold - no heat. We did the airshow thing, had lunch and decided to head home. I put my wife in the Velocity for the ride home and fired up the Q200.  Started great, run up great, taxied out and took off, great power.  Went to 4000' and orbited while the Velocity got off.  Then we flew together back to PIE.  This time I asked for a close in left downwind for 9 instead of the long straight in approaches they are famous for.  As I got near the 8500' long runway at 180 mph I pulled the carb heat first!  Got that carb real hot, darn it.  Then did the 3 mile final as other planes were landing and I got stretched out anyway.  Bottom line, flew home fine.  99.99 % sure it was carb heat.  Good thing I practice engine out landings every so often. New operating procedure, use liberal carb heat, pull it on when still at high power.  Get a carb air temp sensor. Mike Q200 N3QP ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7-28-07 A weekend flight report from Florida. Our weather has been a little unsettled the past week. We typically have beautiful mornings and afternoon thunderstorms but this week we've had a westerly breeze that kicks off thunderstorms any time except the afternoon. The wife and I planned a Saturday lunch in Venice FL, they have a little cafe there that is actually run by a trained chef from Czechoslovakia. So we risk it, the weather at 10 am is beautiful, not a cloud in the sky. I dragged out the Q200 and fired up. The plan was to get high as possible because it's so darn hot on the ground unfortunately if Tampa Class B doesn't want to bother with me they would force me to go way out into the gulf of mexico to get around Sarasota Class C to the South. I picked up my Class B at PIE and was told to head 200 degrees at or below 1600', works for me. After an uneventful 5mph tail wind take off we were about 3 miles from PIE when the local controller told me to contact Tampa Departure on 125.3. I did and asked for 3000 feet knowing that would erk em going over SRQ that low. He gave me a direct to VNC. The wife just looked at me with confusion on her face as they never give you direct anywhere. So we punch up KVNC on the Garmin 295. I love GPS, it's impossible to get lost with that thing and the color lines keep you clear of the different airspaces (kinda complicated around here). After nearing Tampa Bay the controller came back on and told me to fly down the coast just 1/2 mile off shore. We are cool and happy at 3000', the sky is blue, the water is all shades of blue and green depending on the depth. We buzz over the skyway bridge http://www.jumperpool.com/pix02.htm and Egmont Key http://www.hubbardsmarina.com/um/egmont.html down the Gulf beachs and through SRQ class C only 4 miles west of SRQ (they never let me that close). Right at the Class B limit the controller drops my radar coverage, which is fine with me as I need to tune into the Unicom there and see whats gong on. I hear a plane call for advisory s and they are landing on 22. That's interesting, I took off on 22 at PIE. Anyway I hear a few other planes in the pattern but I can't understand them, mumbling and non-english. Venice is a fairly active flight training airport and they come from all over the world to learn to fly at this uncontrolled strip. I see a Cessna on short final and tuck it in behind him. Uneventful landing but that runway is getting kinda rough with weeds growing up through the concrete. Off on the taxiway about 1800 feet down, my typical landing roll seems to be settling in at 1800' lately. Restaurant in sight, only a Diamond parked in front, I'm taking the #1 parking spot in front of the window. We sat right next to the Diamond Star crew, real nice folks from Ft. Myers just doing the same thing we're doing altho I believe I'm doing it way cheaper... wonder what those cost... The waitress asked about the Q, seemed to really like it. She is a pilot and you could just see that she's an airport bum also. We finished lunch and decided to go back low. Headed for RWY 22 and announced our intention of a right turn to the north. I climbed out to around 100 feet and crossed the beach line in a few seconds with a nice right turn to the north. We stayed a few hundred feet up for a while over the water but later climbed all the way up to 500'. The beaches were pretty active but no other airplanes in sight. People aren't flying as much with the $5 fuel prices. We got to about 20 miles from home and the sky was dark. I climbed to 2000 feet and there was a pretty healthy rain shower off the right side and we were under a real dark shelf of clouds. We were getting tossed around due to the storm and I slowed to 160 mph. At 11 miles out I called PIE for landing and got a straight in RWY 35R. At 4 miles out there was this big cloud rising from about 2 miles out. I thought it was smoke at first but as we got closer it was dust. I didn't see any circulation but it had to be a dust devil or small tornado to cause the dust like that and it went to at least 600 feet up. The tower even thought that was weird. As the dust storm was perfectly on final, I chose not to be and did the weirdest approach, a 45 degree entry 1/3 of the way down the runway... It's nice to have a 9000 foot runway now and then. We taxied to our hangar and got out. Dark sky and lightning booming. Another successful mission. Mike Q200 N3QP ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4-18-08 Thursday Flight. I'm getting prepared to build a "Sam Plenum" inside my Q200 cowl.  I took a 1/4" tube and secured it at the top of the engine, then did the same at the bottom.  I hooked these tubes to my steam gauge airspeed indicator.  Hey, the Dynon was now my only airspeed instrument.  I also installed CHT on all lower plugs.  Thursday I flew around to measure my pressure differential and CHT's.  Well, I goofed up the CHT wiring so forget that but the airspeed was showing 80 mph pressure on a climb out and 105 mph in cruise.  At work I translated that with a formula to give me inches of water which I think was 5" at 120 mph if I remember correctly...  Anyway when I build the plenum I want maybe the same?  Sam, did you ever measure your before and after pressure? So after all the testing was done I took the opportunity to do some big wing overs, and steep turns over the beach.  In the Gulf of Mexico off Dunedin FL there is a new island growing.  The blue water mixes into many shades of green and blue over the sandy bottom.  I found a pod of 11 Dolphins splashing along and did some turns about a point over them until I started getting dizzy.  The great thing was there were no birds out, no idea why not.  Usually I spend 90% of my time watching for birds.  Farther down the beach there were 6 more Dolphins heading north.  About 60 feet behind them was what looked like a small shark, maybe 1/2 the size of the Dolphins and he was following the Dolphins.  You don't usually see them anywhere near each other.  Headed back to the airport and landed successfully - didn't break anything so it was a good flight. Friday Flight. Rewired the CHT probes to a two pole rotary switch.  It is much more accurate to use a good digital volt meter than the crap Westach meter movements, so that's what I did.  There is a table of voltage vs temp for J type thermocouples so I used that. OAT 80F Taxi out Cyl 1   7.7 mv  = 144 C   = 291 F Cyl 2   7.6 mv  = 142 C   = 288 F Cyl 3   9.6 mv  = 178 C   = 352 F Cyl 4   9.2 mv  =  172 C  = 342 F OAT 72F Post Climb at 2500 RPM Cyl 1   9.1 mv  = 169 C   = 336 F Cyl 2   9.2 mv  = 172 C   = 341 F Cyl 3   9.5 mv  = 176 C   = 348 F Cyl 4   11.3 mv  =  209 C  = 408 F Cruise at 2600 RPM Cyl 1   9.4 mv  = 175 C   = 347 F Cyl 2   9.2 mv  = 172 C   = 341 F Cyl 3   9.2 mv  = 172 C   = 341 F Cyl 4   10.7 mv  =  198 C  = 388 F My crap westach CHT on Cyl 1 top read 300 F the whole time.  Maybe from the top plug to the bottom is 40-50F difference??? So it looks like #4 is hotter than all the rest. That's the front left cyl.  I am currently using the QAC supplied baffels, installed per plans. I will report back when I get my new fiberglass plenum on (haven't built it yet so it may be a while). After the testing was done I took the opportunity to do some big wing overs, and steep turns over the beach.  In the Gulf of Mexico off Dunedin FL there is a new island growing.  The blue water mixes into....... Tomorrow several of us are heading to Punta Gorda for lunch.  The weather has been perfect here, deep blue skys, a few puffies and great visibilities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dec 12 2008 Flight Report A couple of us decided to buzz down to Venice Florida for a Cuban Sandwich.   There was a little LSA type fly in/show going on so we had an extra bit of fun in going there today.  The temp was 75F and the sky pretty clear.  Fired up the plane at KPIE and planned to go SW and over the Gulf of Mexico waters under the Class B of Tampa and under Sarasota (KSRQ) Class C.  On the way back we flew up the beach and got some nice pictures for you.  Click the picture for a big version, then "back on your browser". Flyin Cafe I learned to fly tail draggers in one of these.. A big Bi-plane taxied by as we tied down. Just off the airport turning right to go North. Egmont Key Lighthouse in the mouth of Tampa Bay Permission to buzz the tower at KSPG The End   ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 June 2010 Got off the ground today. It is 95F here in Florida today and very humid. I had planned a snorkel trip to Key West for this weekend but Tropical storm Alex forced me to change my plans due to the forecast 20-25K winds in the Keys. The snorkel boats don't go out in that kind of wind. We decided to go north instead of south. If you remember I asked the list about recommendations for transponder repairs. Thank you to all that responded. I got quotes like "most repairs are $300 but if the internal tube is bad that's $600 by itself". I was very afraid! I took the AT150 to St. Pete Avionics at KSPG 727-822-4217 avionicsdanielle@... <avionicsdanielle%40yahoo.com> and he hooked it up on his bench and pronounced the receiver weak and needing a tune up. He said the transmitter was kicking! Their posted labor rate was $75 per hour. At least it wasn't the expensive part that was bad. In 5 days they emailed me a pdf bill for $90! I was expecting a couple of hundred (don't tell them that). Part of todays mission was to check out my transponder so I asked Tampa Approach for flight following to Ocala FL. We were in search of the $100 hamburger. I noticed right off that the green ident light was way more active. As I got away from Tampa in the past it would flash maybe once every 10 seconds but today it was flashing every second or two. It's receiving great from the looks of it. Anyway back to the flight report. There we were with a ground temp of 95F and a request for 3500'. We were climbing pretty well (800FPM) and got up there pretty fast. It wasn't particularly cool up there (77F) outside but there was a wall of clouds up ahead. What to do, ask for a climb, or fly around them through the valleys. It is so pretty to see towering white puffies against the blue sky. They kinda look like soft mountains that shake you around if you get too close. We got pretty close. For the FAA folks on this list I was never closer than 2000' (isn't that the rule?). As we got closer to KOCF we tuned to the unicom. Lots of talking but nothing about Ocala. That's peculiar. I knew they had been building a control tower but all my flight planning sources did not list the tower. So I called FSS on 122.2 a couple of times. Don't know if you guys have tried that recently but it is a real crap shoot to call FSS and actually get an answer these days. Back to Unicom to ask for an airport advisory for Ocala. They came back and told me the Tower frequency. Ok, I love it when a plan comes together. We slipped into a right downwind for RWY 18 behind a touch and go Cessna. Turned off the runway and told me to call ground on 121.4. What? They even have ground control up here. I taxied by this huge 3 engine biz jet and parked in piston row, right outside the restaurant window. The FBO desk lady was great. She says, I see you (pointing at me) get out of it and then I see your wife get out! She couldn't comprehend how small the Q is compared to the C172 we're parked next to yet two people get out of it! That was great. We grabbed a table by the window and started talking to the three guys next to us in aviator shirts with those cool epaulets. I always wanted one of those, maybe with some captain wings... but I digress again. They were nice guys working on their commercial ticket. I wished them well on their 4 leg cross country. Nice day for it except for the darn heat. We got out of the restaurant for $13 and headed back to the plane. On the way back we climbed to 5-6000. No particular number as we were again buzzing around the clouds and heading for the Gulf of Mexico. It was ok inside air temp at 5500. The oil was running 190F, not bad. I was in no hurry and powered back to 2400 RPM after getting to altitude (full power climb). So heres the deal, no hurry, enjoying the view and a 15K tail wind! Why is is when we are in a hurry there is always head wind? Over the gulf beaches I scoped out a couple of boat launch points in Tarpon Springs to see how crowded they were and then slowly descended to 3000' to stay under the class B. Uneventful approach and landing and taxied to the hangar. Total cost for 1.5 hours of flying was 7.5gal of Premium Auto gas = $17 + 13 for lunch = $30. Hey, the Q can still do a lunch on the cheap! Mike Q200 N3QP    ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Flying