We started on sunday morning, took the full load of non-bio 98 and departed Tartu. After 15min we made joined with the UL and headed south.
The trip to Kaunas was quite uneventful, we mostly flew at 4000-4500ft and ultralight was over the scattered layer at FL85. Got the squak in EETU and kept it until the end, no problems crossing TMAs. Kaunas Alexotas is a nice airfield, the only minus was that it only had 95E5 mogas, which is fine for Rotax, but has too much ethanol for Lycoming. So 100L it was (@2.40) for me, had to pay cash.
Next leg to Lodz was flown by me.After leaving Kaunas TMA I heard that the UL was already at FL85, so I decided to follow. We had a some downdrafts and the climb was pretty lazy, but we made it in 15min or so, and were enough on top to be legal for VFR. It was G airspace, but we got traffic information all the way (there was almost no traffic except our pair). IAS was 90kt, GS 105. Before Warsawa TMA the cloud level raised and we had to dive to 4500 . Again, no problems entering TMA. The approach to EPLL is not too complicated, but I was still happy we had done our homework- you need to fly 3 points to join the pattern. We were guided to the fuel station (again 2.30 or so for LL, no mogas), then got follow me car to stands. Handling was about 40-50euros. Mastercard worked OK.
Lodz has a very nice shopping/cafe area “Manufactura” , the red building is our hotel :)
In the morning we departed for Letnany.
There are some mountains between Poland and CZ , a new sight for me as the highest point in estonia is 300m MSL.
The tower in Letnany gives veeery detailed instructions.
Managed to get non-bio 95 for 1.40.
The aviation museum was closed on monday .Took a Bolt to towntown (10eur) and had a nice lunch. The UL crew went to test a VR3.
We looked at the forecast and decided to start heading back. There were some thunderstorm in the mountains, but we decided that there is ca 150km gap we can use – or turn back to prague if its too nasty. Didn’t see any lightning or turbulence, on the contrary, it was quit calm air but heavy rain. The actual visibility was slightly better than the picture shows ..
Approach to Babice is very precise – you need to follow the route +/- 200m laterally (and stay under 1500).
Babice has 100LL at the usual price, (around 2.30), landing was 30eur.
Warsawa at night is very nice and beer is cheap.
Final leg home- had a nice tailwind, so GS was between 105-115, allowing us to reach home in 4 hours. Had a free planewash just before landing.
Total flight time 14hours, avg fuel burn 28l/h and 0.5L oil for entire trip.
Great Trip Ivark!
One Question: can the small Lycos acctualy use non-ethanol 95octane fuel? I always thought they need at least 98 ?
Matt
Matt_FK wrote:
One Question: can the small Lycos acctualy use non-ethanol 95octane fuel?
The “small Lycos” can use 91 octane AVGAS!
Actually, even some (I)O-540 variants can!
Matt_FK wrote:
One Question: can the small Lycos acctualy use non-ethanol 95octane fuel? I always thought they need at least 98 ?
there are a lot of fuels allowed , the minimum octane is 80/87 MON/RON , so 95 is OK.
Good to know thanks :)
@Airborn_Again
I think we are talking about 2 messurments here ;) the Americans use MON while we use RON. I always thought lycos need at least 91 MON whitch is about 98 RON :)
But good to know they can uses “cheaper” stuff too ;)
Matt
It depends on the engine and what the actual STC says.
Some STCs specify 87 (MON) and that equates to about 95 RON, so in these cases, 95 mogas is good (as long as it is ethanol-free).
Some others specify 91 (MON) and that equates to about 99 RON, so most people use 98 mogas for this and consider this as OK.
Matt_FK wrote:
I think we are talking about 2 messurments here ;) the Americans use MON while we use RON. I always thought lycos need at least 91 MON whitch is about 98 RON :)
Well… There are fuels used in here Europe called “91/96UL” and “UL91”. Lycoming approves most of their engines for these fuels. Whether the figures are RON or MON I don’t know. Lycoming also approves a number of engines (again, including some (I)O-540 variants) for auto fuel with an “anti-knock index” of 93. The anti-knock index is defined as the average of the RON and MON numbers for the fuel.
