Idaho Backcountry

I went to Garden Valley and Idaho City this morning with my hanger mate who has an Avid Magnum. These strips are some of the easier strips that have a little slope and plenty of terrain. There weren't any winds so it was a great flight, not to mention they are only 40-45 miles away.

After today's flight I only have 3 hours left to go to finish my 40 hours in Phase 1 flight testing. You might notice my blue "passenger". I put some sandbags in the right seat and cargo area. This got the plane to the 1550 lbs GW.

Beautiful airstrips ... and beautiful plane.

Looks great Phil!
Are you happy with your Catto propeller? I'm thinking of going that way with my Kitfox.

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Originally Posted by Mcgaero

Looks great Phil!
Are you happy with your Catto propeller? I'm thinking of going that way with my Kitfox.

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I second that motion Phil, any specs on the IO-240 Catto prop combo. I'd like to hear some performance specs to see if a prop switch would be worth it, Thanks Bruce N199CL

Bruce,

Do you have any performance charts for you plane/engine/prop combination for takeoff distance, rate of climb, cruise/fuel burn. It would be best to see these at different weights, altitudes and temps. If so I can give you a good comparison.

Up to this point I have mostly been flying at 1200-1250# GW with density altitudes of 2500-4000' in my area. I have just done a couple flights at 1550 GW and have a gotten a few numbers.

Phil ,I will pull out my notes and see what I can come up with from back in my flight testing days. Apples to apples will be the best way to compare our performance . Bruce N199CL

I finished the 40 hours of phase 1 flight testing yesterday. :)

After that I went home to make the required logbook entry. Then I headed back to the airport with my son, who was home from college for the weekend. He wanted to go to Garden Valley after seeing the pictures from last weekend. We headed there, got in the valley and saw the airstrip. At about 3 miles out we hit some light rain and turbulence. We decided we didn't need to land there and turned to out of the valley.

Last week I also did a flight at gross weight to determine the service ceiling. The plane got up to 17,200 feet in about 50 minutes. The service ceiling is 17,000'. That is very impressive and my personal record for altitude as PIC. The picture shows me climbing through 14,750'.

Congrats Phil on both finishing Phase 1 and reaching a new personal height. Enjoy the fruits of your labor in every flight.