Turbo

In the vein of trying out the Avid C STOL as a cruiser, i.e. a vehicle in which one could actually go somewhere, I undertook a trip from the Columbia Gorge down to Grants Pass, in Southern Oregon, to visit dear friends.  In a nutshell, in the end I had to abort, as the day was not sufficiently long for the almost 480 nm out-and-return, even way up here near 46 degs N, and near the solstice at that.
At first blush I thought that I could plan for 3.5 gph at 74 kts, but very quickly learned why the more experienced of you use 5 gph for planning purposes.  3.5 gph corresponds to 4500 to 4800 rpm, and a piddly 60-65 kts TAS.  Pushing headwinds thru the Gorge I saw a whopping 45kts GS on the GPS!
Plan the flight, fly the plan, they say.  My clever planning put me along the eastern edge of the Willamette valley, in the western edge of the foothills of the Cascades.  The scenery was lovely, but I couldn’t help thinking how hard it would be on the airplane if I had to make an emergency landing on a stump-covered hill left over from a clearcutting operation.  But the little 582 ran like a top, never missing a beat. 
Then came the first conundrum: ROABD – Rapid Onset Acute Biological Distress!  Gotta land, and soon!  Just passed a nice little airport.  It felt counterproductive, but I made a hasty 180, entered the pattern, and put her down at the little field, which had a nice long, if narrow, runway.   Nobody was around, so the weeds received some much-needed moisture.  Man, a hypertrophic prostate is a liability!  It’s one of the rewards of surviving to old age.  You’re fine until it’s an all-out emergency.  There’s nothing gradual about it.  There are solutions, but perhaps are not the kind of thing to discuss in polite company.  I leave this judgment to my dear readers.
O.k., we’re back in the sky.  Feeling fine, ripping along at 65kts, and approaching my (maybe) gas stop, but ROABD strikes again, with a vengeance!  The GPS says there’s a controlled field nearby at Eugene Oregon.  I haven’t been into a controlled field in 40 years or so, although I used to do it all the time.  So, I called them up, got into the pattern, the tower saw me, cleared me to land!  Taxied to the gas pump, where there was a much-appreciated outhouse!  Gas pump ground wire and hose were both snarled up, obviously by some very considerate individual in a big hurry.  Called up the FBO, who sent out two guys who unsnarled things and helped me figure out the very counterintuitive hosering-up protocol.   Yup, I needed that petrol!  I am now loth to plan on more than about 150 nm per leg. 
With fresh petrol in my tank, ground control guided me over to the runup area, where I did my perfunctory mag check, then proceeded to wait and wait as various other aircraft taxied up and then took off.  Ground control didn’t seem too keen on handing me off to the tower!  So, the last airplane to pull in front of me before my handoff was none other than a 737!  I’m thinking: what am I doing here?  My orientation to his centerline was not perfect, so when he gave a gentle throttle push to taxi onto the runway, my right tire lifted off the tarmac!  Right stick, and it slowly settled back down.  Unsettling, so-to-speak!   
Anyway, my turn came, and I got out of there.  Realizing how much of the day it had taken to get this far, I decided to abort and fly back home. Unhappy with my original flight plan down, I instead just flew straight lines between uncontrolled fields up the east side of the valley, until I saw the Columbia then turned right.  The flight eastbound through the Gorge was just as beautiful, and just as devoid of emergency landing spots.  Both I84 on the Oregon side and WA14 on the north side were busy.  Again, the little 582 just kept on purring.  Then came conundrum #2.  Apparently, my dietary intake of magnesium is sub-par, and this, combined with my physically rather dry state (preferable, for the obvious reason), my right shin muscle decided to cramp!  With so much adverse yaw, the Avid is not happy flying with feet off of the rudders, so, in order to not wallow about in the sky too much, I kept light rudder pressure on with my left foot.  This was a dumb idea in retrospect.  This caused the bird to fly in a slip with the right wing low.  I passed Hood River and figured I had it made – until I took a look at the vent line and fuel tank window.  Incredibly, there was no indication of fuel in either, although my very carefully calibrated totalizer showed I had at least 4 gallons left!  I could see fuel going down the transparent fuel line, along with bubbles, from the wing tank down to the header.   But this situation was disconcerting to say the least.  I passed a couple of flat fields on which an emergency landing would have been possible, and the thought of a precautionary landing seriously crossed my mind, but fuel was still flowing, bubbles and all, and the 582 was still running fine.  I entered the pattern at Columbia Gorge Regional in Dallesport, announcing “minimum fuel”, and got her down safely, if not gracefully.  On the taxiway I noticed fuel again in the tank window and up the vent tube; clearly this apparent lack of fuel was due to my flying with the right wing low.  The engine could have stopped from fuel starvation, but I was lucky this time. 
O.K. there are some serious takeaways here:
1.  For us older guys, many of whom have enlarged prostates, a solution must be found, otherwise we are confined to short hops.  If one is dry, it may be possible to fly out a tank of gas, but that predisposes one to muscle cramping.   I think I have found an answer, but need to gain some validation.  It’s a matter of how to rig a relief tube that works.  Keywords are “Men’s external condom-style catheters”.
2.  The established RDA for magnesium is 400 mg/day.  Low magnesium levels correlate strongly with muscle cramps.  Dark green leafy veggies like spinach and Broccoli are good, but I’d also supplement at least to the RDA before any long flight.   The American diet classically runs low on Mg.  Magnesium glycinate is apparently the most easily metabolized form.  Ironically, muscle cramping also correlates to low body water level.  This seems to be more of a problem for us older guys.
3.  My fuel gauge is a totalizer, and I was reasonably confident that it was well calibrated.  Still, when I de-fueled the plane, I had less petrol in the tank than my totalizer said.  I thought I had filled the tank up to about 1” from the gas cap rim, but it was very hard to see in there, and I may have put in less fuel than I thought.  The accuracy of a totalizer critically depends on getting a consistent and complete fill.  I am going to make a wooden T-shaped dipstick to use as a check while refueling.  This is why most airplanes have fuel level gauges!
4.  If you find yourself behind a big plane and are worried about the prop/jet blast, make sure your airplane is aligned with the expected blast, so you don’t get tipped over!
5.  I feel a need to carefully assess the rudder null position so I can reasonably fly the airplane feet off, despite the ungraceful wallowing.  I need to know it’s not off on rudder trim.  I may need to add a tab.
6.  Let’s hear it for the mighty little 582!  
7.  A little dihedral is not a bad thing.

Does anybody have any idea how much wind directly abeam that it would take to tip over a 500 lb empty Avid or KF if not tied down?  Sure, one would use appropriate aileron/elevator while taxiing with a headwind or tailwind component, but I'm talking about the case where the wind is directly abeam.  There's got to be quite an experience base out there...