Ned,
Follow up thoughts on the trip from Salt Lake City to Oshkosh. As a Salt Lake resident, you may already be skilled at mountain flying. I'm not, having only made one long trip. I found that Sparky Imeson's book, "Mountain Flying" (or some such name) was very valuable to me. The airports in Wyoming that looked like good stops were spaced far apart, over 100 miles if I remember correctly. In the Central States, the airports are placed much closer together, BUT, many are unattended and may not have fuel available. Be sure to check the best information sources about the airports before choosing one for a fuel stop. Also, keep the plane as light as you can. I was flying at 1350 lb. with an extreme climb prop and was able to get way high, up above the mountain ridges by over 2,000'. Dan mentioned that strong winds can cause up and down drafts that will exceed the Coupe's climb performance by a significant margin. That's right. Heck, the THERMALS out west exceed the Coupe's climb performance by THREE to FIVE TIMES! Departing Rawlins, Wyoming, a downdraft hit me at about 100' right over the runway. Knowing that downdrafts don't go through the ground, I lowered my nose, kept my airspeed up and looked around for hot looking ground. East of the airport a few miles was some hot looking ground with nothing between me and there. The 1,100' foot per minute thermal over the hot ground took me up to cruising altitude quite nicely. (With Rawlins field elevation of 6,813', butterflies out climb an Ercoupe. That thermal may have been five times my climb rate, or more.) Don't leave your up-thermal till you get to cruising altitude, though. I did and it took 50 miles to get the last 2,000 feet, what with the thermal turbulence. (Remember I said I took off at 10:30 and regretted it? Rawlins was the first place. Battle Mountain, NV, was the second.) It was the best trip I've ever taken and I want to repeat it sometime. I will prepare next time as much as I did last time. Ed Burkhead http://edburkhead.com/Ercoupe/index.htm East Peoria, Illinois ed -at- edburk???head.??com (remove the ? marks and change -at- to @)
