Teardrops ...

To be current in IFR flying you had to do 6 approaches, holding, tracking and intercepting with in the past 6 months. In addition the VOR needs to be tested even every 30 days ... who needs more reasons to fly :-)

Michael did that perfect approach out of WRB (Warburg). Nice also the Power setting as you can see in the short movie: 2300 RPM with 20'' MP, 7 Gallons per side and a sweet 135 Kts speed. (Both GPS show 144 Kts GS due to 10 kts tailwind).

Cool dogs in sunny weather

End of February. Time to take Lola and the whole flight crew to Bad Vöslau, 20km south of Vienna. On that beautiful 3h trip our fly-dog Ohlala enjoyed the humm of the engines more than the view, which was after the initial climb in IMC just amazing. Lola runs so perfect these days that I almost wanted to publish the engine data with all the CHT and EGT curves...but figuered that I would bore most people with that :-)

For Twinco flyers: I usually fly 2450 rpm with 24'' in FL90, which costs roughly 8gph per side and brings a nice 160 knots true cruise (55%). This time I tried to 2450 RPM with 26'', cowl flaps open, 9.5 gph and 180 kts true (65%).

The flight was exactly 3h.

Hmm...wait:
3h * (2*9.5) = 57 gallons in total with 65% or
3.5h * (2*8) = 56 gallons with 55%.

Sweet. Saved 30minutes for nearly free.

A word about vienna taxi drivers. Don't trust them. Ensure (and I mean ensure!) that they know where they are going. On the way back we went to Schwechat since the driver denied the existence of an airport in Bad Vöslau...

A short movie from the cockpit in flight:






Some impressions: