breakin trip

[jrc712]

Hi Gang,

I am a new Gull 2000 owner. I transitioned over from a Challenger
II, which is what I use to fly. Jerry Booker sent me an e-mail in
the last couple of days telling about the "Thundergull" group and
that you might like to hear about my breakin trip from Paso Robles,
Ca to Thomasville, Ga. I wasn't aware this group existed, but I look
forward to conversing with all of you. I did post this over on the
Fly-UL group a few days ago.

Paso Robles, CA to Thomasville, GA in a Gull 2000

Friday 1/25

This day was the start of my journey to California, where I would
embark on a cross-country trip from Santa Margarita, CA to
Thomasville, GA via a "Gull 2000" by Earthstar Aircraft, a single
place ultralight. This was to be my first cross-country trip across
the US alone piloting this small an aircraft. The total mileage of
the original route planned was to be 2407 statute miles across the
USA. The actual route ended up being 2516 miles with a couple of
extra stops and some redirecting around weather enroute. Needless to
say the excitement level was pretty high at this time.

The day started out at 0530 in Tallahassee, FL to travel to
Thomasville, GA where my plane will be hangared and where I left my
truck, so upon my return I would have a way home. Wayne Waddell
graciously agreed to give me a ride to Jacksonville, FL where I
caught a United Airlines flight to San Luis Obispo (via Chicago and
Los Angeles – frequent flyer miles always helps out now and then)
where I then met Mark Beierle, who is the designer of the Thundergull
series of ultralight planes and the builder of the one I purchased,
a "Gull 2000" single place model. I arrived at Earthstar A/C about
2330, where I first saw my brand spanking new plane. It really
looked great, but boy it looked small (especially to be flying cross-
country in) and where was I going to put all of the stuff I brought
for this trip? Well, that could wait till morning and I needed to
get some rest, so I retired around 0030 after a long, long 19-hour
day.

Saturday 1/26

I spent the morning looking the plane over and getting all of the
particulars. The plane looked very good, and I was getting even more
excited. About mid-morning, Mark asked me if I wanted to go flying.
Of course I did, what a silly question. But he meant in the Odyssey
for a checkout ride. He knew I had been flying a Challenger II and
wanted to show me how differently this plane handled and let me do
some touch & go's. I'm glad he wanted to make sure I could handle
the plane before he let me just run off with it.

The first surprise was the runway he used. It was a dirt road behind
the hangar he built the plane in. It had quite an uphill/downhill
run (at least a 7 degree grade minimum) and was not quite level
sideways either. We taxied to the top of the road when I also
realized we would also be turning a little bit during the first 50 ft
of the takeoff roll. Well, off we went and we were in the air in
about 350 ft. I have to admit that was an interesting experience.

Once in the air the plane was very sensitive to the controls. I
started to roughhouse the controls as I do in the Challenger and then
settled down when I realized they didn't need to be (or rather it was
pointed out to me). Feet off the rudders and the ailerons turned the
plane with no problem, then just the rudders. This plane flew
great. A few turns, stalls, slow flight, using the flaps, and now
for the touch and go's. We went to Paso Robles for the landing
practice (@ 25 miles to the NNE of where Earthstar is located). The
plane handled very well all the way to flare and touch down, and
then, whoa, I found out in a hurry the rudder controls on the ground
were also very sensitive. After some patience by Mark I finally got
this down (well, at least a little bit). It was not so bad with the
flaps down and touching down at a slower speed, but have to watch the
rudder pedal control upon touchdown. I quickly managed to get
through this lesson after 3 no flap landings, 2 one-notch (half) flap
landings, and 2 two-notch (full) flap landings. On the way back to
the Earthstar field Mark flew the plane and then crossing the field
put the plane over and carried some G's into a break to land. The
plane was very nimble throughout this whole process. I was ready to
fly my own plane. I must be OK, since Mark seemed to be comfortable
with my abilities.

After looking at the weather, it was either go now or wait until
Thursday or so. I decided to get going now and see if I could outrun
the incoming weather. I was not too comfortable taking a new plane I
had not taken off in out of Earthstar's runway, so we decided to have
Mark fly it to Paso Robles and I would take it from there.

Now to load this plane up. We put in the plane a small tool kit I
had brought with me which also included extra batteries and various
charging apparatus's for the cell phone and handheld radio, a
sleeping bag and pillow, my full set of WAC charts and organizer, 8
bottles of water, 1 liter of Gatorade, some snacks, my tie down bag,
my laptop computer, a medium duffle size bag of clothes, along with
my pilot gear, cell phone, extra handheld radio, full roll of paper
towels and a couple of other odds and ends. Surprise, although I was
not planning to use these items on this trip, there was enough room
for me to have brought along my tent, pad for the sleeping bag, and a
small fold up chair. Single seat and plenty of storage was a plus
for me. Now I had heard of some concern for storage on the single
place Gull 2000 model, but I no longer concur with that analysis and
now wonder how much of that was just plain hearsay. I have to admit
that I did not see how it would all fit in at first, much less with
room to spare, but once being shown by Mark, I now have it down.

Leslie, Mark's wife, drove me to Paso Robles, while Mark took the
plane there. Of course he just couldn't resist flying overhead of us
and showing off. I didn't mind at all, and it just wetted my
appetite to get into the plane even more.

Finally, at approximately 1530, I took off from Paso Robles,
originally destined to try and get to Bartow-Daggett. The plane
handled like a sports car. Now personally, I liked flying the Gull
2000 even better than the Odyssey. She handled very well, but I was
going to have to get use to a couple of items, that being where the
trim was and the direction to turn the knob for the desired effect,
and the PTT switch, which was located in a different than normal
place, that being just forward of the throttle so you could press the
switch using your throttle hand versus being on the stick using your
other hand. The California scenery was just beautiful with the
rolling hills, ridges and the mountains. This particular plane had
the HKS engine mounted to it. At 5600 rpm I was cruising at about 95
mph with a groundspeed of 102-105 mph. After using the Rotax 503
engine the last couple of years I also had to get use to the
different sound of the engine. I got through the pass about 1645,
and decided to redirect to Rosamond since sunset was at around 1730
and it was still another 90+ miles to Barstow. I landed at Rosamond
in @ 18kt winds about 1700 or so. This plane handled like a dream in
these winds and the landing was near flawless, which also excited me
since it was my first solo landing in this particular plane.

Now, where to stay? The field was basically an airpark. There was a
restaurant nearby, so I decided to get something to eat first and
then see about a place to stay. While eating, there were 2 older
couples sitting next to me. They needed a place to put one of the
gent's brand new cowboy hat. I offered my other seat since I was
alone, and they seemed to be grateful for that gesture. This led to
conversation, and later to where I was going to stay. I found out
this little town did not have a taxi and the nearest motel was about
5 miles away. One of the couples offered to take me in for the
night. Now this offering a seat for a cowboy hat really paid off. I
couldn't have found two nicer people than these two. They were
actually down in Rosamond from Idaho where their actual home happens
to be. I could not believe my luck. I also got to hear some tales
later that evening of flying from the 30's, 40's, and 50's. I
realized I was a young pup still wet behind the ears compared to
these guys. They did love aviation and you could see the joy in
their heart while talking about the subject. At this time, a special
thanks is in order and goes out to Barb and Alex for the offer of a
place to stay.

Sunday 1/27

What a treat! Alex made me an "Elk McMuffin" for breakfast. I had
never had Elk, but it was actually quite tasty. Rumor has it the elk
was bagged by Barb.

I got out to the plane at 0745. Just needed to fuel up and I was
ready to go. The plane would not start. Not a real auspicious
beginning to the day. I could not figure out why the plane would not
start at all. Weather was coming this direction and I wanted to stay
ahead of it, so this did not sit too well with me, but where do I go
to get help? I went ahead and gassed her up, then rechecked the
engine. Still no obvious answer.

I sat in the plane and made a phone call to Mark, who was not in at
that moment, so I left a message to give me a call with any help he
could give me over the phone. As I was sitting there, along comes a
Thundergull owner, Greg, who just happens to live at the field, and a
friend of his named Bubba (also a chopper pilot). We took the plane
down to his hangar. We decided to just turn the engine over to see
if we could find an answer, and what do you know, it started up just
lickity split. The only thing we could figure is that I had flooded
the engine, but we're not really positive.

We checked with weather brief to get the conditions, and they
appeared to be fine in the direction I was going. Winds were now at
21 knots, and expected to be at 18 knots at Casa Grande, my new
destination (via Barstow and Parker). After take-off, I kept a good
watch on the engine, but it seemed to be performing just fine. I had
no more problems along the way.

I stopped at Barstow with less than 5 knots of wind. Topped off the
fuel for going over the desert area to Parker, located on the
Colorado River at the California-Arizona border. Noticed the score
of the Pittsburg – New England game, 21-17 in the 4th quarter in
favor of NE. It was playing on the TV in the FBO. Watch the game or
fly. Silly question – fly, although I did watch a couple of minutes
of it while drinking a Pepsi and eating a Mr Goodbar.

On the route to Parker I was covering some mighty baron land. I was
constantly on the lookout for places to put down in case of trouble,
and the one thing that came to mind is there is nothing out there.
There was a railroad track and a pipeline I kept my eye on most of
the time. Every now and then a small desert town would show up, but
mostly there was nothing out there. At the same time I couldn't help
but notice that the desert is very beautiful in it's own way. New
problem, no transmission on my radio. I could hear just fine, but
could not talk. Now this is a problem I have become well versed in,
and so I was not too worried since I just went to no radio
procedures. I also had my backup handheld radio, but it was not
readily available without landing to pull it out of the duffle bag.
Old lessons are being re-taught to me at every turn on this trip so
far. I have become way too comfortable with trusting everything to
operate the way it should. Ole Murphy has been hanging around a
little and it would be wise for me to pay attention to these little
innuendos for the rest of the trip, especially since I am flying
alone.

Upon arriving at Parker around 1500, I followed two P51-D mustangs
into Parker. Darn if I didn't land in the middle of an airshow that
was being put on by the Indian Reservation. I just wheeled the Gull
over, and landed in a very short distance. They thought I was part
of the show. Only problem was I didn't know it. I realized
something was different when I saw about 12 warbirds lined up and I
was dodging the tourists to get to the pump for fuel. Went to take
some pictures and of course my camera battery went dead. Bummer, but
I got tied up with the show and really enjoyed it. I met one of the
gentleman who was helping to put on the show and a Rans driver who
was interested in my plane and the HKS engine. Ended up having
dinner with these two and then Jerry, the Rans driver, invited me to
his place for the evening. He also donated a few gallons of gas to
fill me up and arranged for me to hangar my aircraft for the night.
Once again, luck was with me. Good people and good company and good
talk. An airshow, and by the way, the wind was only about 5 kts (not
the 18-20 kts predicted) when I arrived. I decided to stay in Parker
instead of going on to Casa Grande. You can understand this decision
of course. This day ended up much better than it started out as.

Monday 1/28

The original objective was to be in Las Cruces by the end of Monday.
I was currently on track. I left Parker with no problems other than
my transmittal issue with the radio. I stopped at Casa Grande and
all was proceeding along just fine. After taking off from Casa
Grande and about halfway to Cochise, the weather was catching up with
me. The winds shifted and I now had a headwind versus the slight
tailwind I had enjoyed up to this point. I veered toward Tucson, to
try a little different path to Cochise, but had to turn around and
landed at Marana NW Regional to top off and look at the weather a
little more closely. I was able to redirect back to the north a
little to San Manual and was able to stay below the front on into
Wilcox, where I decide to stop at Cochise County airport. The
weather and I finally met at this point in my travel. I was in
pretty good shape. I was only 173 miles from my originally planned
destination. (approximately 2 hrs behind schedule). I really
couldn't complain since the alternative was to have left Santa
Margarita on Thursday instead. The FBO manager gave me a ride to a
hotel with a restaurant about 3 miles away. I was to find out that
things were about to change however.

Tuesday 1/29

Weather and winds were extremely bad. I had a chance to get out
early, but could not get a ride to the airport early enough. It was
probably for the best, as it was time to hole up and wait the weather
out. I was basically going nowhere today.

Wednesday 1/30

Looks like I am still stuck here. Those who know me, know how much I
like snow. I have had enough of snow to last me a lifetime. My own
theory is it's only good in snow cones and on ski slopes. Of course,
Wilcox, according to the locals had their first snow in twelve years
today. My lucky spree has officially come to a commanding halt. I
am now 2 days behind schedule. How quickly things change.



Thursday 1/31

Clear skies, very little wind, looked like a great day – Oh, by the
way it was 19 degrees F outside. No taxi showed up when called.
After a couple of hours I got the hotel owner to give me a ride to
the airport. The plane was very frosty & icy in some places. I
spent until 1000 defrosting the plane. I then started her up, warmed
her up, set in all the coordinates to the GPS, and then finally took
off. It was a beautiful flight to Las Cruces. I had about a 12-15
kt tailwind and was making a ground speed of about 105 mph. The US
Navy was in full force when I arrived with one of their T-34C
training squadrons. Of course, they were doing everything backwards
to the published directions, but I snuck in on them, and later out on
them. Upon leaving they commented about UL's never using the radio.
Now I could hear, I just couldn't transmit, and if they wanted full
radio procedures they shouldn't be at an uncontrolled airfield using
unpublished procedures (also no note or a notam was passed onto me
when I called for a brief about Las Cruces). Probably a good thing I
couldn't transmit. I know some USN lingo myself, having been there
myself many moons ago. (and by the way, I never interfered in any of
their procedures and was always away from them). But they all waved
to me as I was passing them. I wonder what the real thoughts were
behind those smiling faces.

Left Las Cruces, NM for Van Horn, TX passing through the gap between
the restricted area and the El Paso airspace. Once past El Paso the
winds picked up considerably to the tune of about 25 kts or more. My
ground speed also picked up by the same amount over IAS. Upon
arrival at Van Horn I landed with 20-25 kt winds about 30 degrees off
the nose. The Gull landed very nicely and with very little
problems. The controls were very sensitive to my every input, and I
had very little, if any adverse yaw at all.

There was not much here in the way of a place to stay that I could
actually see, so I went on to Fort Stockton, where I landed in
considerably less wind (@ 10 kts). I fueled up and stayed the night
there. There were plenty of places to eat and the hotels had a
shuttle service to and from the airport. I was also able to keep the
plane in a hangar for the night instead of out in the open.

Friday 2/1

I left early for Sonora with light winds and a beautiful morning.
This leg turned out to be relatively uneventful until I got to
Sonora. As I was turning base, I watched the wind change 180
degrees. I just added power and moved on over to downwind on the
other side and as I was turning final the wind changed another 90
degrees. This was the screwiest wind condition I had seen in a long
time. I went ahead and landed with a 70-degree crosswind with little
problems. Winds were about 10 kts if I read the wind sock
correctly. The FBO manager said to me that a lot of instructors had
told him if a student can land there they could land anywhere, that
these types of wind shifts were common in Sonora. If what I
experienced is common, it would indeed be an interesting training
flight for someone else.

After fueling up, I left for the final leg of the first half of the
journey. I was heading to my Dad's place. I would be christening
his field as the first plane to land on it. He had just taken the
time to smooth it out, and was looking forward to my testing it out.
He had assured me it was very smooth. Now I had already seen the
piece of land, so knew a little of the layout. On the way I noticed
I was tracking a bit to the north of where I should be. When I
realized I was not on target, I decided to divert to Boerne Stage
airport where I could check the coordinates I had entered into the
GPS. I knew Boerne to be about 14-15 miles from my destination.
After landing at Boerne Stage I noticed that I had put the correct
degrees into the GPS but had reversed the minutes. After correcting,
I was on my way again. I went directly to where I was supposed to
be. I made a pass of the field since it looked a bit small, and then
landed using less than half of the field, and by the way, it was one
of the smoothest grass/dirt fields I had ever landed on. I would
stay here through the following day and leave the following morning.

Saturday 2/2

Maintenance day. I found the loose connection that was causing my
transmittal problem with the radio. After repairing this, I now had
two-way communication. I also tuned the magnetic compass and gave
the bird a small bath. Had some oil showing up on the tail of the
aircraft and the engine housing. Checked the oil and had lost very
little from the reservoir. Decided to keep an eye on it. So far
there were no indications of any issues other than some small
leakage. Pressure and temps were just fine.

Checked the weather and it looked like it was time to move in order
to stay ahead of it, so decided to leave in the morning, and bypass a
couple of stops enroute to get back without getting stranded again.

Sunday 2/3

Pretty smooth day, but very overcast and hazy, with some small rain
drizzle enroute. Winds on the ground were about 5 kts, but at 3500
were at about 30 kts based on tailwinds from the IAS versus ground
speed. Was able to make it cross-country to Laurel, Ms where I
stayed the night.

Monday 2/4

Went to Selma, AL where the winds on landing were @ 18 kts steady.
After refueling, I went to a friend's field about 15 miles west of
Columbus, GA (Ted's Flying C) and had lunch. I landed in 18-20 knot
winds gusting to 28. After checking the winds at home, I left for
the final leg. At 5500 feet I had an IAS of 85 and a ground speed of
126. Upon arriving Thomasville, after getting below 2400 ft, the
turbulence and winds slowed considerably and my final landing of the
trip was without incident and very smooth.

It had taken me 7 days to get through the first half of the trip (@
1350 miles), and just 2 days to finish it up (@ 1200 miles). What a
difference weather and flying conditions make. All in all I was
extremely pleased with the performance of this airplane. It has been
a dream to fly so far.

The final numbers of the flight were actually 2516 statute miles
flown in 29.1 hours using 75.0 gallons of fuel (@ 2.6 gph – just as
advertised). I couldn't be more pleased.

Jim Cunningham
Tallahassee, FL

[Ron E]

Jim, I just finished reading your very interesting post about
your trip home in your new 2K. I was fascinated, and
felt as though I were along. I live in Independence, Oregon
(about 12 miles w/o Salem), and have a J-Model w/503.
The more I fly it the more like it. I can find no faults
at all, and believe me, I've been through a lot of planes.

My own longest UL XC is from Blain, WA (Near the Canadian border),
to home. It was only about a 5 hour flight, so I can't
really relate to what you went through. However, a large
group of guys here (I live in an airpark in Independence)
are beginning to plan a trip from here to Oshkosh then
on to Kitty hawk, in mid 2003. We expect to take about
a month to make the trip, staying close on the way, but
on our own for the return trip. This will give us the
opportunity to stop along the way to visit with friends
on our way home.

I sure envy your fuel consumption with the HKS. I can
burn 2.5 gph, but when I fly with my UL friends who
cruise at about 60 mph @ 4200 rpm. The elevator trim
works great for this type of flying, because when
trimmed I can fly hands off forever. Great plane!
Beirele recommends 6000 rpm for the sake of the engine,
so I'm probably not doing it any favors at 4200.

I want to thank you for the great article, and hope to
hear more from you in the near future.

Wheels down,


Ron & Jan Carroll
EAA Chapter 292
Independence OR
Home of The Noon Patrol

[george@t...]

Hi Jim,

Yeah, I saw it over there. Excellent post. Sounds like you had a fun trip. I
think you'll like the gull allot.

George

[george@t...]

Hi Ron,

I know what you mean. When I fly with the slower buddies,
it's at about 65 and 43-4400 rpm as well. It's quite
a nose high attitude. I keep talking to them on the radio
asking when we're going to get up to cruise speed... :-)

George

[chilidog2178]

Jim,
I too really enjoyed your post, thanks for sharing it with us. It
sounds like you have a really good bird there. You mentioned that
you transitioned from a Challenger. I too have a Challenger and am
seriously looking at moving to the Earthstar, especially since it can
accommodate the HKS engine and the higher reported cruise speeds.
Now that you've spent some time with it, Can you tell us your
impressions of your Gull compared to the Challenger? The Gull seems
to be more solid and probably a more "sporty", is this true?

[jrc712]

My basic impression is the Gull 2K is more like a ferrari compared to
the Challenger II which is more like a volkswagon. The handling
characteristics are very good in the Gull as compared to the CH2. I
also like having the flaps and really good aileron control. I can
stop the Gull at 60 mph with full flaps "almost" as quick as I could
the CH2 on a slip at 45 mph (within less than 50 ft difference). The
CH2 will get off the ground faster (also within 50 ft diff). The
speed bleeds off quickly on flare. When I get better at handling the
Gull I am sure this will improve. The CH2 will fly better at the low
end speeds, the Gull is a little mushier under 55 mph (no flaps), but
there is no comparison with the upper end speeds. The stall speed is
only about 3 mph more than my CH2. Cost is higher with the Gull
initially, and you can get more "things" per $ with the CH2, but the
performance of the Gull 2k is well worth the additional cost in my
opinion and overides the "things" cost category. Overall, I would
not go back to a CH2 at all after flying this plane. Too early to
tell about the cost of operating, but out of the gate, the Gull 2K is
less. I hope this helps.

[chilidog2178]

Jim,
Thanks a bunch for giving me your impression of your Gull 2000 and
the Challenger. Sounds like you are very satisfied. A couple more
questions if you don't mind; what is the power off stall speeds, and
what is your cruise speed and at what RPM?

Thanks, and good flying!

- Steve

[Ron Carroll]

I read all through Jim's tale, enjoying every detail. I figured my raggin'
had finally broken his bad habit of braggin'. Not so! The last paragraph
(he always sucks you into reading the story, then drops the bomb) told the
REAL REASON for the whole thing. Another chance to shoot off his mouth
about his ho-hum mileage.

I see we are now hearing from George with his J2. At least he doesn't brag
about anything other than his fine plane. His mileage may vary, but we
don't have to read about it!

Ron
hehehe