In Little Rock: A Day of Rest

Posted Mon Jul 4 10:44:08 CDT 2022

My day of rest is off to a mixed start. It was always going to be a busy day, taking care of all the stuff I can't do when I'm constantly either flying or watching the weather so I can fly.

The inciting reason that made me consider taking a rest day today is that almost every airport I stopped at had a sign up indicating they were either closed, or open short hours on the July 4th holiday. It made sense to wait that out, rather than just make it hard on myself to find hangar space or crew cars to get into town.

I didn't manage to get into bed until 2 am this morning, and of course woke up wide awake around 6:45, so I think a nap or two will be part of my day. At least I slept well for the time I was asleep.

My laundry bag, which is very wee, finally got to the overfull (and rather ripe) point, so I decided to do laundry this morning. I brought perhaps too few changes of clothing, but I was trying to be very conscious of weight. I think on future trips I might allow a little bit more for clothes. Fortunately, the hotel I chose for my rest day has a set of laundry machines on-site, and whoever was using them before me was very conscientious about getting their stuff out once it was finished. I now have a pile of clean, folded clothes instead of a wad of stinky, mushed-togeher clothes.

I think I mentioned in the last entry that I'd managed to leave my phone charging cable in the plane last night. The plane that's a half-hour away, and which would be silly to drive back to when charging cables are available a short walk away. I checked last night, and found a gas station around the corner that looked likely to have them, so I walked down the hill (it's weird how much more comfortable being in a place that has hills again) last night. Alas, despite their online listing showing them as being open 24 hours a day, their lights were off, and a hand-lettered sign in the door said they'd be opening again at 6 am.

So, I went down today after breakfast, and grabbed an eye-wateringly expensive cable from the corner store. Cheaper than a taxi to the airport and back, and now that I've got two cables, I can leave one with my "charging stuff" bag, and one in the plane. Less chance of forgetting to have one with me. At least I'm pretty compulsive about keeping things charged, so I went to bed with the phone at 77% charge, and woke up at 75% thanks to airplane mode (hah!).

I was thinking, in the last few days as I was battling storm after storm trying to make my way to Little Rock, that I might have bitten off more than I could chew. Why make the trip longer to meet up with someone in person who I've been happy chatting with online? Now that I'm actually here, I completely support past-me's decision: it's been very cool to meet Amelia.

Screenshot showing a zoomed-out map of the southern United State, with lines drawn between Tallahassee, FL and Los Angeles, CA. The midpoint rests at Little Rock, AR. The line is not substantially different than if it had been drawn straight from Tallahassee to LA.

However, it had a couple other positive results that I hadn't really had time or space to consider earlier. The first, and more obvious one, is that taking a more northerly path took me out of the way of a number of huge rain storms. They were sitting directly on my path, if I'd tried to connect the dots between northern Florida and LA, which had been my initial plan. I would have most likely stopped completely, and felt stuck. It wouldn't have occurred to me to divert north around them, since it would feel like too much distance out of my way (there's a lesson for myself there, but that's secondary right now). So, heading to Little Rock gave me the excuse I needed to go around a thing that would have otherwise blocked me.

But the other thing it did was give me a goal that was a bit more achievable. I knew I had a thing to drive toward that wasn't some nebulous "way in the future" thing (and flying, in the moment, gives me a "way in the future" horizon of just several hours, usually the next spot I plan to land). I was going to meet this person who I'd had pleasant online interactions with, and that made it a "destination" instead of "a place that is merely the jumping-off point for the next place," like all the other places I landed between South Lakeland, FL and here.

I'm honestly pretty bad at finding interesting things to do if I find myself in a place unexpectedly. The best I can usually come up with is "uh, a supermarket, I guess?" to top up my food supply for intermediate stops. It never occurs to me to look for other things. So, having a real goal in mind gives me a tangibly different reason to be headed to a place.

Because of all that, I get kind of single-minded about getting to the next place I'm going, which is not a great mindset for this kind of trip. When will I fly my own plane through Arkansas again? When will I fly over the Mississippi at 2500 feet again? I didn't even mention it yesterday, but I've finally seen the Mississippi river with my own eyes.

All that contrasts with setting my sights on Los Angeles, which will be more than a week's travel, at my current pace. That's a long time to go with no "goal" in mind. I don't know if it would have occured to me to take a day of rest before I got there.

I didn't actually mention my fuel consumption numbers from yesterday, doing the 2200 RPM test. In all, I flew 3.4 hours on 18.59 gallons, giving me a rate of 5.47 GPH. I was seeing 91 knots true airspeed at 4500 feet, which results in 16.64 nm/gal, a bit better than 2100, and substantially better than 2300. That test was a bit flawed, since it included a bit more climbing and descending than normal, and an extra unnecessary landing. Still, looks like I've found my new cruising power setting.

Putting it into slightly more familiar numbers, at 2200 RPM, I'm seeing about 19 MPG, though any headwind or tailwind substantially changes that, so it's only a ballpark number. Considering that I was planning for 8-9 GPH at 87 knots (which is about 12 MPG), I'm very happy with that outcome. I'm stunned this engine can produce that much power that efficiently. I guess the high compression pistons really make a difference.

I've been reading your emails as they come in (give or take a day, of course), and I appreciate the heck out of them. It's cool to know people are reading along with my little adventure. I apologize if I don't respond to all of them, but please know that I appreciate them.

I think that's enough for now. I'm sure I'll have more to say later. Enjoy your 4th, everyone!

That evening...

Ok, I left things too late, and should have been in bed like half an hour ago, so you get the abbreviated list for now, and I'll expand it later.

More later, obviously. G'night!

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