Peg, July 31,09

Peg showed that she remembered yesterdays lesson when I put on my vest and picked up my glove. She was right at the edge of the perch, waiting. I picked her up and went looking for Karen. While waiting for her to finish watering, Peg was looking at fences to jump to so that I could call her. We walked up the runway for a bit and then returned to the house. I tied on a creance so that I could call her to the fist from a bit further away. When I got within 15 feet of the fence, she took off the fist and flew to the fence. I called her about 12 feet to the fist and she never made a bobble. She did try to fly to the fence while holding onto my glove and ended up a bit lower than the top. I called her about 6 times and then fed her the rest of her meal. Hopefully she won't be too high tomorrow, and I will be able to enter her on the lure.

Peg, at weight at last.

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I decided that I was going to have to resort to "washed meat", to get any continuity with her training. That is the process where in you soak meat in cold water, squeeze out all the blood and nutrients that you can, at least a couple of times. She is a lot like me, designed to survive on little or nothing. Handy when food is scarce, but a pain if you don't want to be a fat butt. Any way, I soaked some Rabbit last night for today's training session.

Her perch is high enough that she can see out of the windows. Normally she sits pretty quiet, but last night she was restless and kept trying to fly. There is a young Jack, full grown, but stupid or bold, that has been eating on the grass in the yard. I think she could see him, and wanted to invite him to dinner.

She has not been fed for at least a day and a half, and she was showing some signs of feeling it. After I finished my chores, I picked her up and we went for a walk. Karen and all the dogs made up the rest of the group. While we were walking back, Karen picked up a rock that was marring the runway and tossed it behind us and off into the grass. Peg bated immediately after it. We were both surprised at her actions. When I weighed her, I found that she had lost down to 748 grams. That is about an oz and a half from the fat weight that I got her at.

I took her to an old fence at the end of the yard and sat her on it, then made her walk just a step to the fist for a piece of meat. When she did that without hesitating, I moved so that she would have to jump to the fist. She was doing well, and I had not posted any pictures, so I stopped and had Karen get the camera. By the time I got back to the fence, she was impatient to resume the feeding and jumped to the fence, turned around and waited for the fist. They are such quick learners that most of us are behind the curve when dealing with them.

I was smart enough to only pick up enough food when I started that I wouldn't over feed her, because if I had not done so, I would have continued to give her all that she would eat.

Fishing day!

I decided that it had been too long since I had gone fishing. Peg had been stopping me from going because I needed to handle her. In thinking about it, every time that I was wanting to fly her in the evening it was blowing like crazy, and that was crimping my style somewhat. Then reason took over, and I realized that I would be flying Jessie in the evening when I took her up from the molt, so I decided to switch Peg to mornings. That way I won't have to hurry either bird and the mornings are really the best for Rabbits any way. It didn't hurt that I had been seriously over feeding her. So we skipped a evening session and will do mornings. She is still too fat. Young Harris's are somewhat prone to vocal calling when they are taken young. That is why she was 12 weeks old before she was taken out of the mews. It can still be caused if they are taken too low in weight, so I had been reticent to not feed her for too long a time, so she is fat. What will be, will be I guess.

Anyway I decided it was past time to go fishing, and I was getting curious as to what smoked Catfish would taste like.

The Willows and weeds had grown quite a bit since I was there last, and the trip to the river from the quad was a bit of a struggle, carrying two fishing poles, tackle box, cleaning board and a chair. I got there and set up by 10:30 and first were the Bass. Karen likes them the best, but they are so plentiful that there is not much size to them. So I released quite a lot and moved around, crossing the river to get to a spot that I knew the bigger ones preferred. I finally got a limit of the bigger ones and kept one small one for bait for what I really wanted to catch.

I rigged the other pole for Catfish, put on a cross section of Bass, and caught my first Catfish at 12 noon exactly. When I first went down there to fish, I used to fish until time to leave, and then begin to filet the ones that I caught. I have changed that process and I now clean them as I catch them. It is sometimes a bit of a circus, but a lot easier all the way around. Some times they were biting so fast that I had four Cats on the bank waiting for me to clean them. Other times I would have to take the line out of the water so that I could catch up. I had to quit at 24 because I couldn't get any more filets in the zip lock gallon bag that I brought.

My Sis likes this spot so I took three little videos looking up the river, across and down the river. The only sound you will hear is the rivers song. For you Wanda.

Peg, Day four

It has become apparent that Peg does not know what feathers are on her food, and that she has never had any bones to eat that she could break, as in quail or pigeon. She discards even the smallest of bones and anything with feathers gets thrown out. I am a bit surprised that her feathers are is such good condition, as it is apparent to me that she has little but chunks of Jack Rabbit as food. They need the intestines as that is where they get their vitamins and the salads, as it were.

I did feed her about 3/4 of a quail (Coturnix?) last night and she wasted enough to feed Jesse a fair meal. I decided that things would go much better with her training if I had some Rabbit to use as tidbits.

First however I needed to get some tumbleweeds under control. They were about to take over the runway. Last year I let them get out of control and had to mow them with the riding lawn mower. That was not pleasant, 1/2 mile strip 30 feet wide with all the dust in between the weeds can cause serious problem with the bath tub drain. Last year I bought a weed sprayer with a boom on it to try to control the things. I have already made several runs down it and the cross runway, with some results, but not the total destruction that I craved. The wind this morning was calm enough to make another attack. Weed Master with a mix of 2 4 D should do the trick this time. By the time I finished that it was mid day and no real time to go hunting, but being bored I did any way.

I didn't want to shoot any of the Rabbits that I have been feeding all last year, so I took the truck and started looking. The best I could come up with was a fresh road kill and not being proud, picked it up and salvaged what I could.

At her feeding time I picked her up and we, dogs and hawk went for our walk. We made our trip down the runway and came back through the sage between the runway and the fence. We jumped a Jack and she craned her neck to watch him run. Upon arrival at the scales I found that she had eaten enough Quail the night before to gain about 10 grams. I brought her in the house and sat in my chair with her for a while. She settled down and pulled a foot up, quite content to sit there with me. I had cut some Rabbit to call her with, and she eagerly took the pieces from my fingers when presented. A friend from Texas called so I put him on speaker phone and talked while I called her to me across the top of the couch. I made her walk for three of the pieces and then made her jump off the end of the couch for the rest of her meal. It is all going quite well, the biggest problem that I am going to have is feeding her too much. Hawks and Falcons work off of positive reinforcement. You don't feed a fat hawk because they are generally uncooperative, and you reward one that does well. She is fat and still does well.

Peg

Today I picked her up about 4:00 PM and we, Karen, dogs and Peg, started out to walk. The temps was 98 and the wind was blowing so hard that she couldn't sit straight on the hand, so we gave up and fed the horses instead. Ezra, my Tennessee Walker, is still sure that Peg is going to attack him. Very unlike Ezra, who generally is as much in the way as he can possibly be. He will come around in time. My thoughts are that Karen can ride Ezra while I walk with Peg. Might happen, might not. Not real anxious to see Karen on a bucking bronc.

After feeding the horses and standing there until they came up to eat, we took Peg to the hanger to weigh her. She had lost a total of 47 grams, which is about an oz and half.

I brought her in the house and set her on the back of the couch and offered her food on the glove. She walked to it and ate. After three repetitions I offered the rest of her meal making her walk about a foot and jump up on the fist to eat.

I was very pleased with her progress.

She has a name- Peg.

I picked the Harris up this evening and took her for a walk down the runway. She does well and only tried to fly once during the one mile walk. I had a good chance to study her during the walk. I had noticed when I first picked her up, that she had a "funny" left foot. Now it is apparent that sometime in her youth she had a bit of damage to her left leg, probably in the joint as I can see no indication of a break in her leg or ankle.

It could be in her ankle, but I don't believe that it will cause her any problems. We will see. I have noticed that she however pulls that foot up when she rests. Any way, now her name is PEG. I considered Gimp, but she doesn't seem to favor it, so I was left with Peg.

After our walk, I took her in the hanger to weigh her, and found that she had lost 20 grams, 3/4 of an ounce. We went back in the house and I sat with her in my chair and watched enough news to raise my blood pressure a bit, and give her a little more exposure to the dogs on her level. Karen cut off half of a quail breast for a bit of food for her. I had tried to feed her last night, and she refused, so I wasn't sure that she would want anything tonight. Normally, with most hawks that have been just taken out of the mews, a reduction of almost 10 percent of body weight is required before they will respond. Harris Hawks are generally much more amenable than any other species of Hawk or Falcon. She is apparently no exception to her species as she recognized the meat as something that she would like. I fed her three or so pieces of quail and then put her back on her perch, where I fed her a couple tidbits. I then offered her the rest and she stepped up on the fist to eat the rest.

Owyhee Ramblins

I made a trip down the Owyhee River this morning and when I got back from the two hour flight, and viewed the video, found that I had a blemish on the camera lens. I attempted to clean the lens and was unable to do so. I managed to drop it the other day when I took it off the mount to obtain pictures to send to the list. I can only assume that the damage occurred when it hit the concrete. So I would caution those of you who bought one, to hold on to it. :-) The blemish is visible, will have to decide whether to buy another one, or put up with this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdZQROfnJRI

Most of this has been done by me before, but there are two bands of Bighorn Sheep in this one, and I never get that tired of the scenery down there.

New Bird, it starts again.

My new bird arrived yesterday. A young female Harris Hawk, 12 weeks old and living with her parents and siblings until just yesterday. She was taken out of her chamber and put in an airline kennel and put on an Alaska Airliner at 10 yesterday morning. We picked her up in Boise at 6:30 PM. I was a bit surprised that they accepted the bird as the temperature was 106 degrees. The plane of course was air conditioned and she was in no danger. As soon as the plane stopped they took her off and into an air conditioned building.

We got home around 8:30 PM and took her into the bathroom, which can be darkened, and took her out to put on her bracelets and jesses. I carried her for an hour or so to see how she was going to react, and she did quite well. As I walked by the perch that I had for her, she obviously recognized it as a better place to sit than on my hand, as she bated towards it. I placed her on it and we watched the news and read for a while to see if she would sit and more importantly regain her perch if she bated off. She did so on the one occasion that she bated.



I decided that I needed to modify the perch to keep her feathers in good shape, so I added a disc to the bottom of the perch and a piece of carpet added to give her purchase for her talons when she does attempt to regain her perch.


I picked her up around four this evening to weigh her and found that she weighs in at 800 grams, which is 28 oz. A bit smaller than I would have guessed. She is quite plump and will obviously hunt at a much smaller weight than that, but should have no trouble with any of the Jackrabbits that live around here. Perhaps the smaller size will give her more speed and agility. I do want to hunt her on Chukar as well, and she will need every move that she can generate to be successful.



I held her for a couple of hours, touching her, and just getting her used to things. She is much too fat to eat, or learn anything other than the fact that I am not going to eat her, so she is now on her perch. When she has lost enough weight to be interested in food, we will begin.

Final version

I didn't like the rather unsecure position of the camera bungeed to the door in my last posted video. I did like being able to reach out and turn it on or off, but what the heck, I generally don't fly more than 1.5 hours at a time anyway. Besides, then I can show the whole trip to the wife, if she is interested.

So I made an aluminum tab to go behind my Pito tube. I have one of those that has a nut to tighten it to the plane. I then took some dense foam and cut a pocket in it to hold the camera, and went flying. Well it was better, but it was a bit wavy, so I made a new one of 1/8th alum bar and put that one on.

Then put the camera on a thin strip of foam and secured it with a rubber band. That made me a bit nervous so I put a piece of tape as a security feature. It is well that I did. When I got back I found that the rubber band had broken.

The vibration that is such a problem every where else is non existent at this point, and the camera view is much better. One bug scoring a direct hit will wipe every thing out however. :-)

I flew for one hour and 5 minutes. The file size was 1.2 gigs. I then edited it down to two clips of 4 and 5 minutes, and they are being posted to You Tube, and face book now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqLMXIP5c94

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bafUEL_WzPw

Low tech solution to hi tech problem

I found the picture quality crappy on the video's that I uploaded the other day, so I began trying to find a way to cushion the camera enough to make it clearer and cut the vibration enough to watch it.

A bungee cord and a bit of foam will handle the vibration problem. At least until I can find some other way to isolate the vibration.

I took off this morning and ran a bit North and circled around to come back to the Crooked Creek drainage to get the sun behind my back. I also made a sun shade for the lens to cut down on the glare and the wash out caused by the sun.


The shade is a piece of 3/8 PVC pipe that I found here on the place. I painted it black before hot gluing it on the camera. Seems to work just fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iSiJGg4FhM

The video is located at the URL listed above. I am afraid that you may have to copy and paste it on your browser to be able to see it. It is also on face book as well. The clip is 176 MB and there is no way that the blog would accept it.

New Camera!

I have been watching a friend of mine post videos on Facebook using a small spy camera that he sticks on RC airplanes. I decided to bite the bullet and buy one of them, and it was delivered yesterday. ( http://www.hobbypartz.com/hicocagrforf.html ) So I modified one of my old baseball caps to hold it.

As you can see its not much of a camera. I used a scrap of aluminum from another, by this time, forgotten project and riveted the holder to the bill of the cap.

The camera has a mini card in it that holds about two hours of video or acts as a recorder. It shoots in 648x480AVI, which is as good as my digital camera, and I will be able to use both hands. The only real problem is that there is no shade on the lens, so sunlight really hits it hard. Need a VG or two. Maybe a cigar as well?


The lens opening is just above the clip, and it is designed to be worn in a shirt pocket.

The morning was really quite nice, small breeze out of the WNW, temps were 72 degrees at takeoff.

I made my first run in the Crooked Creek drainage. The walls are about 50 feet high and it varys from 100 feet to 200 feet. It has enough twists and turns to make it interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IotKGVi21Z8




After I came out of the drainage I traveled over to the Owyhee Canyon and took a run through there. It is nice to have both hands free. I do notice however that while my brain seamlessly smooths over the quick darting movements of my head, the camera of course does not. It would be nice to have the camera outside of the Lexan windscreen, it would make it sharper, but the problem before was that any camera had to be cushioned in foam to keep it the vibration from the motor from screwing it up. Will have to do further research.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Z1ENQM1LE

More exploration and flight up the Steen's

The day dawned nice and clear with no noticeable wind, so it was time to go flying again. I decided to go back to the Eastern slopes of the Steen's and see if I could find the animals that I had seen earlier. This time the wind cooperated and I flew up past Cow Camp and down the face of the Sheep Heads. In my last post I mentioned that they were named because of the Big Horn Sheep. Since then in thinking about it, I am not sure that is totally right. They were either named that because of the Sheep, ( of which I have never found any) or because they look like Sheep Heads, ( which they do not to me, but who is to say)

The flight was fairly uneventful and I flew down the valley on the other side of the hills toward Hwy 78 with hardly any "pucker factor" at all this time. I did not however, see any sign of life at all.

I flew across the road and up the canyon where I had seen the critters all the way to the top of the Mt. seeing nothing at all. I decided to fly on along to the Steen's and the Alvord to see if the Glider group had made it to the Alvord. About half way to the Alvord I realized that if I did land on the Alvord, I would be a bit longer than Karen might think that I had gas for, so not wanting to worry her, I climbed for enough altitude to be able to talk to her on the radio. At about 8700 feet I decided to call, since I was high enough to clear any hills in between. At that time I was 37 miles away and she came in loud and clear. Since I was that high I decided to go ahead and fly on up to the top of the Mountain.

In all my flights I had never gotten a look at a lake that is located just under the rim on the South West side of the range. It is called Whitehorse Lake and is quite lovely, although I an not sure that I want to walk to it. A drop of the 700 feet or so that is required, might be just a bit more than I want to do at 10,000 feet altitude.

The winds were calm on top of the mountain and after traversing the majority of the Mountain, I decided to cut my engine and drift down to the lake bed. I did some experimenting with best glide speed and came to the conclusion the 50 MPH was probably my best glide, although this conclusion may or may not be accurate, it suits me. I restarted the engine at 1,000 feet and continued on to the Alvord, landing and talking to the glider guys for a while before heading on home.

Upon arrival at the Rock House I had traversed 149 miles in 2 hours and 24 minutes. I had climbed to 6,000 feet initially and then to 10,500 feet going up the Steen's. I had burned 7 gallons of gas for 21.2 MPG.

Desert Exploration

I wanted to get a closer look at the country just past Mann Lake Road, where I had seen the Kiger Mustangs on my return from Burns. I checked the Wind Speed forecast for the area on the computer, and it showed that it was going to be a bit breezy. However the wind wasn't blowing at all at the house, so I rolled it out, warmed it up and off I went.

Once I got up above the protection of the hills to the NW of me, I could feel the wind. Nothing serious, but bumpy none the less. I went up past Cow Camp intending to drop down in front of the Sheep Heads, ( Rather large Sage covered hills, with Big Horn Sheep on them of course) and then on to the area that I wanted to look at.

The wind wasn't too bad, but I was still crabbing a bit and my speed was down about 5 MPH. I dropped down over the Sheep Heads and turned to the East. There were some pretty nasty cloud formations brewing a desert storm, that generally doesn't produce anything other than turbulence and lightning. It didn't take long to convince me that the weather was going to get worse before it got better, so I turned to go to the Alvord instead. It was clear in that direction but still a bit cranky.




The quality on this thing sucks and even though the camera is recording at its highest level, it is still a bit fuzzy. (and takes forever to upload) I was running at low cruise, (5100) I was still doing 85 to 87 MPH. The funny part was that the airspeed indicator was showing the same reading. I decided to cross over to the Mickey Basin and then on down to the Alvord. The closer I got to the Alvord the bumpier it got, even close to the ground. About that time I developed a desire to watch TV, so I climbed high enough to clear the hills and headed home. Once I got over the boundry hills around the Alvord it smoothed out and it was fun flying again. I called Karen for a wind check and to tell her that I was returning to the house. She gave me this. "Wind out of the North 6 to 10 right down the runway". So I knew it was going to be windy. The plane started to crab again and I was out of the wind shadow that had favored me after clearing the hills at the Alvord.

I checked the ranch next door as a matter of courtesy and found every thing to be under control. None of the cows were stuck in any of the "pot holes". I could see Sam turning hay on one of the pastures that had been cut, so I went by to say "Howdy". Apparently my engine was louder than his tractor and ruined my surprise.

I landed on runway 34 and it was indeed 6-10 right down the runway. It was good to be back on the ground, and I was glad to close the hanger doors. No problems, but not a lot of fun either.

I flew for 1.5 hours, covered 89 miles and burned 3.5 gallons. I had changed my jets back to the original .135 thousand instead of the .125 that I had put in before installing the HACman system. The 125's were not small enough to put my EGT's where they needed to be without the system, but with the system I now would need the bigger jets if I ever decided to fly to the coast at sea level. I removed my plugs for a check to see how they looked with the increased EGT's, and found that they were just right.

These plugs now have 50 hours on them.

Fishing

I decided to try my fishing hole again, since on my flight the 5th of July, it appeared that the river had finally gone back down. I didn't go over the weekend simply because it was a holiday and I tend to stay home to stay out of trouble. My fishing hole would not have had any visitors other than my self. It is quite remote and I never see anyone there after rafting season concludes.

I bought a new fishing pole from BiMart, since I wore my last one out on the Catfish that I caught last year. They are cheap Black Eagle fishing rods and even come with a reel, so they are almost disposable, but I like them and the soft action that they have. I may not buy any more of them however since they are now being made of IM6 Carbon fiber. The reel seems to be of superior quality as well, so I may have to give them up.

Nobody sells worms here, or rather close to here, so I have to use cut bait. Seems to me to work just as well. So when I go to the river, I first see what it has to offer in the way of Smallmouth Bass. If they are of any size, I keep them and when I catch a little one, he becomes bait. Getting bait isn't a problem as most of them are really small. Can't catch any big ones because you can't keep the little ones off the lures.

The weather today was actually pretty nice, a bit windy, but only about 80 degrees. The Ticks were even way down from the last time we went there. I only found three or four this time. Perhaps the floods washed them down stream.

I had a bit of a distraction today in the form of a Golden Eagle, female I believe. She landed on a rock formation on the hillside above me and stayed there for quite a while, watching. The wind was up and that of course is when they are at their best. She stayed there for at least an hour and a half, finally flying up and over the hill. After a time she came back, circling no more than 50 feet over me, and finally landed on the side of the hill just across from me. I got the idea that she was a young one who was very curious and perhaps a bit hungry. I tossed a Small Catfish on the bank and walked off to see if she was considering lowering herself to Bald Eagle status. Apparently not. As soon as I left, the entertainment factor apparently left with me, so she left.

I ended up with a gallon ziplock full of Catfish filets, and came on home. I mixed up a batter of Sourdough with beer, Lemon Pepper, Savory, and Terragon. A little Baking Soda and Baking Powder. I cut them into strips and then deep fryed them. Good stuff.

Low level HACman test

Today I flew to the Alvord to test fuel burn close to the ground with the system. It is a given that leaning your engine at altitude makes quite a difference. I was interested to see if it did the same where I like to fly, close to the ground. First I marked the front tank's fuel level, so that I could be at least close to correct. I started and warmed up the plane using the back tank, and when it was ready to go, I switched to the front tank, climbing to 500 feet to activate the GPS timing system, then only maintaining enough altitude to clear the hills between me and the Alvord. I did not change the throttle position once I established about 5360 RPM's until I set up for a landing here at the house. I did dial in the EGT to 1350 degrees and changed the setting to match the MSL as needed. Keep in mind that the higher you go, the richer the fuel mixture, so on occasion a change was required.

The flight covered one hour and 24 minutes from warm up to landing. I burned a total of three gallons of fuel from both tanks. I burned 2.3 gallons on the timed front tank flight, and 7 tenths of a gallon on warm up and the extra 24 minutes.

The OAT was 70 degrees, winds mostly calm, approximately 5 MPH wind out of the SW. Average speed of 62 MPH. The CHT's were well within limits at around 306 degrees. A great day for flying, and I am very happy with the results.

Of course there was the obligatory picture of the Steen's Mt. This time showing how much water is still on the normally dry lake bed. It however is a lake bed and therefore holds water quite well. You can see where the water is receding each day. Being very shallow it disappears quite fast due to evaporation. With a humidity of 14 % you can almost watch it move.

The wild (Feral) horses are quite scattered with so much water available all over the desert landscape. Little groups of three or more are scattered all over.
The first video shows some wild horses that happened to be on my flight path. The second shows the HACman in operation. At the beginning of the video my EGT's are shown with the HACman turned off. As the dial is adjusted, the EGT's come up. Since there is a bit of a delay, it exceeded what I was intending, so I tuned it back to my goal.

The third video is of the water level in the lake. Apparently the high water has put a ?damper? on the normal activity of the lake. There were only two vehicles in the area yesterday. Normally Gliders at this time of the year spend a week here using the thermals and upslope wind.



♦

HACman fuel system

Yesterday I received my new "HACman" system that is designed to allow one to lean the fuel supplied to the engine for both economy and power without having to change the jetting. This would allow me to fly both at sea level and 10,000 feet with the engine operating at its peak by just twirling the little knob that you see in the above picture. I didn't get it installed until midday yesterday, and only flew long enough to make sure that it was installed properly. Today was to be the test to see if it indeed did give me better fuel economy and performance. For that I decided to fly to Burns, refuel there and return home. At 88 air miles one way a suitable test.


In the photo above I am at 1000 feet above the ground on take off, with the engine 100 RPM's under maximum. The EIS (engine information system) shows left to right- top left-RPM's, bottom left is Oil temp/oil pressure. Middle top is amount of fuel, bottom middle is an unused aux gauge. Top right is EGT (exhaust gas temps) bottom right is CHT (cylinder head temp)

Maximum rpm's is 6200 for no more than three minutes, max sustained cruise is 5800. Maximum EGT is 1400, max CHT is 338 degree's.


I of course could not resist an early morning shot of the Steen's.

I had decided to climb to 8,000 feet on my trip to Burns, keeping the engine leaned to maximum. I had a bit of headwind, and my speeds were just under 60 MPH in straight and level flight.

This is "Cow Camp" for the ranch next door. A very nice spring with the cabin and corrals.
As is shown in this photo, I am leveling off and just about to throttle back to save as much fuel as possible. It has taken me at least a gallon of fuel to climb to this height, but I have also flown about 24 miles towards my goal.
The surface here is about 6500 MSL. Lots of water, for a change.

More Steen's, Mickey basin is the dirt in the top of the picture.
The picture above is just a bit East of where I flew the other day looking for Elk. I had intended to expand my search to this area, but I wanted to try a bit of 100 LL in the engine, having always burned auto gas. Therefore I decided to go to Burns and refuel there.
Crossing the Mann Lake road, with Mann Lake in the top left of the picture.
Interesting texture to the hill below. I assume Lava flows are responsible. This stuff is all over the hills here and, is red and very brittle. It is almost like Shale. Flat and flaky.
Over the ridges that separate us from Burns, the terrain flattens out and allows more habitation and ranches, and hay production.
This EGT setting seems to be "peak" fuel mixture. Richer and RPM's drop, leaner and they also drop. The Air speed and GPS were reading the same.
Malheur Lake in the distance.
Hay production is much in evidence every where they can provide water to the pivots.


Burns Airport is in the near distance. Interestingly enough my GPS, using the 196 data base was showing the airport several miles to the left.

I landed and refueled at the self serve pump. My tanks are marked in gallons and are in full view. I need 3.5 gallons of fuel to replace what I burned on the way here. I was surprised to find that the pump showed that it delivered 4.1 gallons of gas. At $4.57 they overcharged me $2.87. Glad that I only needed 3.5 gallons.




A trip to the boy's room, and I took off for home. I decided this time that I would only climb high enough to clear the mountains.
This area below me is the rest of the area that I wanted to check for Elk. I saw a bunch of animals that resembled Elk, run out from a pond, Light tan on the back and dark in the front. I thought at the time that they were Elk, but the next bunch I saw were definitely horses, most were colored the same way. Since they were horse's they would have been Real "Wild Horses", the Kiger Mustang. Goggle the breed, very interesting. All of the other ones out there that are black, white and other colors are merely "feral" horses.


Upon landing I found that I had been in the air for 1.5 hours burning a bit over 3 gallons of gas, again traveling at least 88 miles. This betters my "mileage" by 9 miles per gallon. Before installation my best mileage was 20 MPG, this works out to be 29 MPG, and somewhere in the area of 2.3 GPH. I think I will keep it.

One thing I forgot to mention was when I was installing the setup, I folded the wing back to give me room to work on the engine. As is normal, when I took off the lift strut, I drop it onto my foot and then the rest of the way to the floor. It only falls about a foot, but it does fall. After tripping over it a couple of times I decided to take it off. When I picked it up a bat flew out of the end of the strut where there is a bit of room in the plastic fairing. I guess he went for the ride over the Steen's the other day. I have been seeing ?mouse? crap on the floor. Apparently I don't know mouse crap from Guano. Must have been quite a ride.