Sun N Fun?

("john smith" wrote)
With all that set building experience, you may not recognize the place
when you get back.


"Will the paint be wet on Opening Night?"

"You wanted it painted?"


Montblack
"It'll look fine ...from 20 ft away."

Newps wrote:


Jay Honeck wrote:

In order to keep pace with their Skyhawk we were throttled back to 20
inches of MP, and 2000 RPM.


What's your IAS at that power setting? I get about 150-155 MPH,
depending on temp, burning about 8 gph. I would get about 10 hours and
have a 30 minute reserve.

Ah, Newps with his "mine is bigger than yours" post again...

Jay, do you have any plans or pics available of your renovation? Now that I finally made it back to your
place last summer, I am trying to visualize what you're doing to the place.

I do, but not on-line...yet. I'll try to paint a picture with
words.

If you remember the lobby, we are facing away from the street when you
walk in the front door. This ass-backwards arrangment stemmed from
the fact that I invented this lobby by cutting the check-in window in
the wall with my trusty Milwauekee Tools Sawzall, and adding woodwork
and tile after looking at the old lobby (in the other building,
closest to the runway) and shaking my head.

The old lobby (now a vending area) was a shuttered affair, literally
built under a stairway. It was more like a troll cage than a lobby,
and we immediately decided to move the lobby to the other building
(the one with the tower). We didn't have a lot of time before we
opened, however, so it was hastily built, without much forethought.

Over the years we added lots of lipstick to the pig, but it was still
a pig. If you remember our picture in AOPA Pilot magazine, that was a
good picture of the lobby. Funky, like an old FBO, but not the image
we want to portray.

Worse, we could never get the traffic flow right. We have tried
mightily to get the public to use the door off of the driveway as our
"front door" -- this is the door closest to our front counter. I put
up bigger and bigger signs, added arrows pointing the way -- all to no
avail. Guests continued to park in the front parking lot, and walk
into the (perceived) front door -- which meant we were facing away
from them when they walked in. They would get half way down the
hallway and stop, not sure where to go.

Bad, bad, bad.

This lobby arrangement was always meant to be "temporary", but
suddenly five years have slipped by. So, this past winter we started
the machinery moving. First we had to renovate the north end of the
first floor (what was empty, run-down commercial space), and will be
moving the rental agency (that occupies the front office) over there.
This will allow us to completely blow out their existing office,
opening up the whole lobby, and making it possible for us to move to
the other side of the check-in window. At last, we will be facing our
guests when they check in.

We could have done it for cheap(er), but as long as we're at it we're
also getting rid of the cheesy "rec-room" drop ceiling, and the
horrible fluorescent lights, installing indirect lighting instead.
We're adding ceramic tile floors (in high traffic areas), and a top-
dollar carpeting to replace the icky green stuff that's been there
from the start.

The final touch is adding 4 inch oak base moldings, which always
dresses everything up nicely.

We're doing much of the work ourselves, which has been a killer. By
the time Montblack gets here, we're gonna really, really need a week
off. But when it's done, it's gonna be more functional, and quite
beautiful.

I won't make it to Sun n Fun this year, and probably not Oshkosh either, due to the time and distance
involved, but definitely enjoyed the pre-party and the North 40 party last year. Unfortunately, the pictures
keep coming up on my screen saver!

Dang. We'll have to drink a cold one for you.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In order to keep pace with their Skyhawk we were throttled back to 20
inches of MP, and 2000 RPM.

What's your IAS at that power setting? I get about 150-155 MPH,
depending on temp, burning about 8 gph. I would get about 10 hours and
have a 30 minute reserve.

I have no idea. I was focused entirely on maintaining position with
Brian's 172 (we got some GREAT air-to-air pix), and never looked. GPS
ground speed was about 105 - 110 knots.

It was very, er, leisurely.

We were low, so I couldn't really lean back much. If we had gone up
to 6500 feet, I could easily have leaned to 8 gph at that power
setting, which, with 84 gallons, would allow a bladder-busting 10+
hour endurance.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Yep. We flew as a flight of two with Brian & Christine in their new (to
them) Cessna 172 today...

Huh?

They bought a 1/5th share in an old Skyhawk, just to keep Brian
current while he's building the RV-10.

The engine is run out, the paint is bad, the interior is old -- but it
was cheap, and (best of all) the other partners all own other
airplanes. Thus, Brian is literally the ONLY one flying it, which is
just about the best possible situation.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Apr 8, 6:57 pm, john smith wrote:
In article . com,

"bdl" wrote:
I tried to make it happen, but no such luck. We have a trip planned a
trip from 1H0 to KDTS to let my little one (almost 3) experience a
real beach (as opposed to the sandbox out back). I tried to work out
a side trip to Lakeland, but I couldn't make it work. At 120kts its
2.5 hours each way (unless I cut the corner, overwater, something not
in my personal risk tolerance). Which means an overnight there, plus
nap issues for my daughter, etc.

Not an issue, she will sleep while you fly.
My 14 year old is alseep within 20 minutes of liftoff and doesn't awaken
until I pull the power back for descent.


Yeah I went with that argument for the first 2 years of her life and
flying. When she hit 2 though her sleep patterns were much more in
line with, which nap could I take that would be most disruptive to my
parents?

The last 2 hour flight we took to Chicago she was so tired but fought
sleeping. She finally nodded off when intercepted the ILS into KPWK.

It was more the issue of my wife having to walk around all those
"boring airplanes".

But hey, we'll be there a week, maybe I could still convince her.

Matt Whiting wrote:
Newps wrote:



Jay Honeck wrote:

In order to keep pace with their Skyhawk we were throttled back to 20
inches of MP, and 2000 RPM.



What's your IAS at that power setting? I get about 150-155 MPH,
depending on temp, burning about 8 gph. I would get about 10 hours
and have a 30 minute reserve.


Ah, Newps with his "mine is bigger than yours" post again...

No, just wondered about the efficiency of a plane with a lot of speed mods.

Jay Honeck wrote:



We were low, so I couldn't really lean back much.

At that power setting you can lean to anything you want, it is not
possible to hurt the engine.

We were low, so I couldn't really lean back much.

At that power setting you can lean to anything you want, it is not
possible to hurt the engine.

I was debating that with Mary while maintaining formation. I thought
that was true, but we didn't want to experiment with a $20K engine --
so I left the mixture pretty rich.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

It was more the issue of my wife having to walk around all those
"boring airplanes".

Hoo boy. This is a lot more serious than we thought. It looks like
some major attitude adjustments are in order.

Good luck!

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"