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How often do you get a tailwind going west? It happened to be when we launched for the Copperstate Fly-in with a brand new S-7LS and the S-19, for its’ second public appearance, this time demo ready.
The flight out averaged 105 knot plus, not bad considering the tailwind and I was wingman to Tracy in the S-7LS. The S-19 is an easy 115 knot plane, so I was running 4700 RPM and almost making fuel. We stopped according to the Couriers endurance picking up fuel in Ulysses Kansas, Santa Fe, and Show Low. Everywhere we landed we were greeted with compliments for both planes. The new paint scheme on the Courier and the sleek S-19 made an eye catching pair. Even Larry Salganek of Fantasy fighters expressed his admiration while expounding on the 300 to 400 gallon per hour of fuel his planes use. I quickly calculated how many hours it would take to have spent the total cost of the S-19 in fuel, and found it a measly 35 hours! Larry most likely would have traded 35 hours of flight time for the S-19, but he is pretty sold on turbines.
Show Low as another nice stop, as all are when the weather is ideal. Lou the operator of the FOB re-fueled us and promised to stop by the show for a demo. He did, and had a wonderful flight, ending with Lou very impressed with the SLSA version of the S-7, since he had flown with me years ago in one of the first 912 powered birds.
Radio chat was light, but we had a nice conversation with a bored pipeline pilot who claimed his plane had all the latest gadgets for collision avoidance, but fell short of the S-19’s full glass panels. Both New Mexico and Arizona had their share of forest fires belching forth copious amounts of smoke. The visibility was fine, but the smell of wood burning while flying is far less welcome than around a camp fire.
Landing at Casa Grande at around 3:00PM on Wednesday the place was nearly bare of exhibits, which would be full by the next morning. The show has matured into a nicely laid out camp, with black-top beneath all the booths, and welcome change from 2 years ago, when a dust storm stole our enthusiasm and coated it with quarter inch deep red dust.
Thursday was by best description slow, but we flew a few demos, and found the ground traffic cops not totally in sync with our needs. Tracy seemed to be at odds with the orange vested authority for most of Friday too. We were not alone in our frustration with taxi-cops, finally by Saturday they were in sync with us, and things went smoothly. Which was great, since we were trying to wear out the S-19 doing demos. In fact the S-19 was dominating the sky, spending little time idle in the booth.
Sunday we took off around 9:30 AM, after getting a flat repaired on the Courier. Our first stop was a reunion of the pilots we met at the show, several of them gathered around the plane, so I had them pose for the photo below. This is could be the typical reaction you get when you fly such a sweet plane about!
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The weather gods were still nice enough to give us severe clear and no head winds, so our pace was 100 kts plus, with me finally dashing ahead. Tracy had decided to give me less than accurate ground speeds, while she stayed low. I climbed to seek favorable winds, and actually slowed. Meanwhile I spot her ahead of me! The sandbagger was trying to beat me to Garden City, I suspected as much when she questioned the wind reports at our next stop. I stepped it up to max cruise and average 117 knots into Garden putting a good 15 minute lead on the S-7LS. Despite my effort to gulp the fuel, the S-19 still refused to comply averaging well under 5 GPH.
It was tough to motel it one more night when landing only 40 minutes out of Hays, the night was clear, and near full moon on the rise, but night flights are something best saved for multiengine birds when getting there is equally important.
The end results of the trip is the two planes travel well together, since the S-19 is as solid at 100 knots as it is at 115. The response to both planes was fruitful; with the S-19 winning the most flown award overall the planes attending. For our first public demo the show was a perfect pace and a strong hint of what will happen in January at Sebring. Thanks to all those who attended, it made the effort worth while, and we hope to see you next year.
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