For the long haul..

The little Pipistrel Sinus is getting quite popular over here. Last week we tested flight with a door opened, (As long as you stay below 60 kts it is a non event) this week I am already taking a photographer to a photo shoot 300 miles away..



When Tati asked me if  I was interested on the project, I immediately thought it would be a great performance test for a long flight capabilities of  the Sinus.

The terrain on the way there would be 115 miles (about an hour  in the sinus) over mostly farmlands until reaching the city of Ica where we could land and refill before flying 86 miles over a pretty remote desert with not a soul around.

Always considering risk, just in case, I found and calculated the L/D necessary to reach roads or inhabited spots in case of an emergency landout.

My thought was that even I could call for help using the Spot satellite system, I did not wanted to spend days in the middle of the desert waiting to be rescued. (Took plenty of water and supplies just in case)



Flying over Mars with an Ocean

 The photo shoot was to be in the port of Marcona where I knew there is a navy airport, but also very strong winds in the afternoon. I wanted to get there, and get out fairly quick.

 The way back would be 300 miles following the coast line over very remote beaches with incredible views that made me imagine how Mars would be if it had an ocean.

The photographer on board was Evelyn Merino Reyna, a pretty renowned aerial photographer. (I guess the images show why.)

Another interesting landmark is a small in length but tall mountain range in the Marcona region that raises 7000ft from the ocean, directly facing those strong winds I just mentioned.  Something on my mind made me remember soaring wave in Hawaii .

The photo-shoot in Marcona went uneventful, we could clearly see the whitecaps on the ocean, indicating strong winds below.. A few times I got close to the mountain side and the vario went crazy, it would be a great place to fly gliders (I don't thing paragliders or even hang-gliders would do good on that type of winds)

An unexpected glide

On our way back, we over flew the national wildlife reserve of Paracas, the area is of-limits for flight unless cleared by Pisco Airport, who could not hear us from 30 miles out.. Luckily a nice Airliner pilot above heard us unsuccessfully trying to reach the tower,  so he relayed our request to them, and we got clearance!

Which brings me to a very important issue on the Sinus fuel tanks: If you are not full tank, a sustained slide will push all the fuel back, and the engine will starve!! The reason I know this, (Not only because it is clearly printed in the manual) is because the door wing lock came loose, so I had to slide the plane to keep the door opened for Evelyn to take her pictures!

I wish I had a picture of her face when the engine quit on us.. (I guess mine too).  I immediately pulled the prop to glide and headed towards the airport.. with our 2500ft my flight computer indicated a 11:1 required to reach Pisco, once I knew we had an easy glide there. I turned on to my checklist and the first thing I saw was an empty fuel tank!  Hell no way! I just looked at it a few minutes ago! Did I forgot to put in the fuel cap? what happened?  It must not been 30 seconds when I realized what happened, by then, (since we where now level) the fuel had already started to come back. Prop back, start button and the engine started flawlessly.

I have to say, interesting 30 seconds.. to say the least.  Luckily, Evelyn must have seen me so calm dealing with it, that she is still called me to fly her for other photo shoots :)

alx.