Today I went on my first cross country with the Sonex. I started at Manitowoc (MTW), went south 23 miles to Sheboygan (SBM) did a touch and go, went west 16 miles to New Holstein (BF1) and did another touch and go. From New Holstein, I went north 62 miles to Sturgeon Bay (SUE) for another touch and go before turning back south for 44 miles back to Manitowoc. By the time I got back I was damn cold. But the good news is that my Sonex ran pretty well, although I still have the issue where my EGTs get too hot every once in a while. The flight took a little less than 2 1/2 hours with an average TAS of 99MHP. I probably could have made the entire circuit a bit faster, but I did quite a bit a sight-seeing along the way. Because of the high EGTs, I also had to keep the RPMs a little lower than normal cruise (I averaged about 2450 RPMs) but this helped with fuel economy – I burned 7.2 gallons of fuel in 2.33 hours for a fuel burn of 3.09 gallons per hour. Since I took the ‘scenic route’ between the airports, I can only estimate the distance I flew to be about 170 miles, divided by 7.2 for about 24 miles per gallon including 4 take offs.
Half way to 40 hours!
Flight time: 2.5 Total time: 21.9 Hours Number of landings: 4 Total landings: 62
