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RV-7A Trip Report

macrafic

Well Known Member
Just getting around to compiling statistics of Cindy's and my flight to the Daytona 500 race in Florida in February in our homebuilt. What an awesome experience and an awesome plane!!

- Distance - 2258, or 2598 statute (road) miles
- Hours (round trip) - 16.9 flying, 18.2 engine running
- Fuel - 135.7 gallons
- Actual Instrument Time - 13 hours
- Approaches - 5 (2 ILS and 3 RNAV GPS), and one STAR
(first ever STAR for us; caught us by surprise!)
- Oil used -1qt.
- Avg speed - 133 nm/hr (153 mph). Note: All of the trip with
the engine dialed back to lean-of-peak (fuel savings more
important than speed).
- Top speed - 226 nm/hr (yes, we are a member of the 200
knot club, with the help of 40+ knots of tailwind!). That is
equivalent to 260 mph car speed (statute).
- Average fuel consumption - 16.6 nm/gal total (start &
warmup, taxi, runup, flying) = 19.1 mpg.

Kudos to the folks at the following FBOs for making this a very special and gratifying trip:
- Airgate Aviation in New Smyrna Beach
- Aircraft Specialists Jet Center at Gwinnett County Airport at
Lawrenceville, GA
- Hoosier Aviation in Terre Haute, IN

Also Kudos to the following people for their significant contributions to the success of this trip:
- Our A&P, for his significant help in finishing this homebuilt aircraft (especially the engine work) and his continued conditional inspections on an annual basis. His work gave us the confidence in the aircraft to attempt such a trip.
- My wife, sometimes pilot, sometimes navigator, always a 2nd source of expertise (trust, but verify), for her crew resource management. She caught a couple of things when I was flying (We really don't need to count them, do we?). We spent a LOT of time together in a VERY SMALL space! I could not do that with just anybody!
 
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