February 2007 - American Bonanza Society

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-\ r y first oceanic trip was in 1975, a round trip inBY BILL COMPTON. ANCHORAGE. ALASKA!my N35 between Cold Bay, Alaska, andHonolulu. Over the years, I made four more trips_ --!,Jo Hawaii, once from Australia in an A36TC viaGuadalcanal and Tarawa. There were also four trips 10 Europe,two in a B55 and two in my current V35TC. I always preferredthe Bonanzas; I like generous fuel reserves.In 1975 there was no GPS. Loran C was available, butinvolved a large radio set with an oscilloscope, reminding oneof the old shoe-store X-ray machine. The navigator lined upmaster and slave traces on the scope, read the time difference,tracked one or two other slaves against the master, then wentto a chart showing time difference lines to obtain a fix. Thiswould not do in a single-pilot Bonanza. The microprocessordrivenLorans were yet to come. Omega, inertial and VLFwere up and coming but not practical for a Bonanza.Professional ferry pilots were mostly usi ng dead reckoningfor long over-water trips. The oceanic flight plan dividesthe route into legs by wind forecasts. true course, distance andvariation, then ground speed and drift are solved with an E6Bto get magnetic heading and time en route for each leg. Thepilot flew the legs by the planned beadings and times, watchingthe ADF. transponder and VOR needles for the first confirmationof the approaching destination. Position reports weresimply read-backs of the flight plan.Ast.onavigationThe airlines used professional navigators expert in astronavigationand Loran. I was curious, so I picked up a surplushand-held bubble sextant. The whole process of "sight reduction"seemed unfathomable until a retired Japan Air Linesnavigator simplified it so even I could understand it.Think of this: If you are at the North Pole and Polaris isalmost directly overhead, the "altitude" of Polaris, or anglewith the horizon , is about 90' , which is your latitude. Thatwork~ anywhere in the orthem Hemisphere,The same logic applies to 57 navigational stars whoseplace in the sky is catalogued in an almanac called HO 249.For any assumed latitude/longitude and Zulu time, thealmanac gives the angle and bearing of seven prominent starsvisible from that position. The difference between the predictedangle and the observed angle is your distance from theassumed position on that bearing.How did a vertical angle become a distance? Each degreeof angle is 60 nm and each minute of angle is one nm, just aseach minute of latitude is one nm.A nautical sextant measures the angle of a heavenly bodywith the sea horizon. The aeronautical sextant instead uses abubble to define the horizon; the navigator adjusts his viewand his indexing knob so that the body centers in the bubbleand the bubble centers in the optical field. Still, this is not goodenough, as the aircraft is not steady. So a timer averages thereading over two minutes, whi le the navigator earnestly keepsit all lined up by rolling the indexer back and forth.While standing in the yard on a clear night, I did consistentfixes within 3 miles. In night, sights were tougher. Nightfixes were done with sights on three stars, timed four minutesapart. Since the earth rotates one degree every four Irtinutes,that simplified the numbers. The three lines of position wereplotted on a chart. The smaller the plotted triangle, the betterthe fix.Changes in drift and groundspeed detected by the fix wereused to adjust heading and time to the next estimated fix accordingto the navigator's confidence in the sights. WithoutLeftlRight guidance it was unlikely to cross that precise fix.Instead, at about that ETA, one plotted another fix and reportedthat position, with another, later-to-be-bypassed fix againestimated. In this way the flight hopscotched back and forth,bracketing the course line.Astronavigation actually worked well for me, not necessari1yeveryhour, but often enough to confirm appropriate progress.Looking out the cockpit ofter takeoff on the leg from Honolulu, Hawaii toBellingham. Washington.upg.ade to _ode.n navigationLoran followed later by GPS changed that for my fli ghts,just as inertial nav changed that for the airlines and made flightnavigators obsolete, With the computerized systems, the flightstayed on centerline, actually flew over the next fix and gave constantawareness of groundspeed and track. One hardly fussedabout true vs. magnetic. It was easier than flying Victor airways.Page 10072 www.bonanza.org ABS February 2007
My first experience with this was in 1985 when I had aNorthstar Loran on a flight from Cold Bay to Kauai. I took anoccasional celestial fix but Loran was obviously the new Top Dog.Guess what' It ruined the fun 'Navigating became almosteffortless, and little was left to do but just sit there and hallucinate.Gone was that eager watch for land ahead that mysights said should be there. Instead, it seemed a certainty.I quit go ing on those long ocean trips, but not to Europe,which didn't need a cabin tank. Just grab a passport and go.Short leg (for a tip-tanked Bo), exotic locations, greatscenery-and sometimes we could just camp out under the airplane.I even went to Hawaii a few times on the airlines.V3STCIn 1981 [ traded my N35 for a 1966 V35TC that my sonSteve and [ still own. Initially, flying it rich of peak EGT, wewere pulling too many cylinders. So in the mid-'90s weswitched to lean of peak (LOP) operations and have had nomore of those problems.The N35 had an injected 470 engine with 8.6:1 compression,which would yield about 149 hp at 10 gph if LOP, whileour V35TC with a 520 engine and 7.5: I compression wouldonly yield 137 hp at that fuel flow when LOP. On the otherhand, we had run the older Bo rich of peak, and running theturbo model LOP would make up on efficiency.To go LOP, you don'tjust pull the red knob a little more.Articles by George Braly and John Deakin were digested andslowly we became confident with LOP ops. Same cruise speedon less fuel flow and lower CHTs has a cenain charm. LOPops mesh beautifully with the V35TC's turbocharging.Approaching the Washington coastline on return leg.I had done Honolulu to Anchorage direct twice, but notthe other way, as Kodiak was a closer alternate only for thenorthbound trip. With more efficient LOP ops, I startedthinking the southbound leg might be done safely with the 225gallons of fuel I could carry. I was also aware that my longrangeflights lacked a logical cruise control strategy. The olditch was returning.In the past ! had cruised at constant power, 50· ROP and 12gph, a poor choice for several reasons. Studying, I found that bestrange perfonnance is achieved by flying a constant angle ofattack at UD max (best lift over drag speed). This results in anindicated airspeed (lAS) for best range, Vbr, which decreases asaircraft weight decreases with fuel bum. As the aircraft lightens,specific range-defined as nautical air miles/gallon of fuelincreases.So the assumption that one power selling gives a predictableairspeed for an entire trip was discarded, and this tablewas proposed.LONG-RANGE CRUISE PROFILE N411 EG wi 225 gallons. cruise 20 LOP at 12.000' denSity altitudeET fuel flow /tas fuel burn air miles aelt wgt nom/gal0000 Takeoff 32 gph 38030020 12000' TOe 105/10.5 36/36 3740 3.40200 12.5 gph 152kt 209/31.4 253/289 3614 12.1/9.20400 --12.5 gph, 155kt 25/56.4 310/599 3464 12.4/1 0.80600 11 .5 gph 145kt 23/79.4 290/889 3326 12.6/11 .20800 l1gph 145kt 22/1014 290/1179 3197 13.2/11.61000 10.8 gph 144kt 21 .6/123 288/1467 3065 13.3/11 .91200 10.5 142kt 21/144 284/1751 2940 13.5/12.21400 10.2 140kt 204/1644 280/2031 2816 13.7/12.41600 9.5 143kt 19/183.4 286/2317 2702 15/12.61800 9 gph 135kt 18/201.4 270/2587 2594 15/12.82030 9 gph 140kt 22.5/223.9 350/2937----2460 156/ 13.1Toe = top of climbDesired reserve on arriving Honolulu (PHNL) : 3 hours cruise. 1 hour hold=39 gallonsTakeoff to TOC at 12.000': 11 gallons. 36 milesKodiak to Honolulu is 2.237 nm.leaving 2.201 nm on 175 gal for the cruise segment,and requires an average cruise specific range of 12.6 nml gal at fuel.- ------ASS February 2007 www.bononza.arg Page 10073
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