EAA Sport Aviation

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Automated Engine Monitoring...

..of up to 29 parameters with 62 alarms. From RPM to peak-detection leaning, the EIS does it all. Includes graphical and digital displays, customizable screens, and alarms with external warning light. Models for all engines up to 9-cylinders. Find out why the EIS is the choice of thousands of pilots.

All-cylinder EG T/CHT analyzer
functions for 4, 6 or 9 cylinder engines.

Actual Size 6"W x 2. 75"H x 2. 5"D

$995
$553
$473

4-cylinder

2-cyl 4-stroke

2-stroke Prices include probes.

www.GRTAVIONICS.com
Grand Rapids Technologies, Inc.

616 245-7700 Fax 616 245-7707

3133 Madison Ave SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49548

COMMENTARY / FLYING LESSONS

LANE WALLACE

I was a little skeptical about his approach, but once we were in the air, it was clear he knew his way around both devices, which was a huge help. Ditto for his ability to figure out a MacGyver-style fix for a leak in the whiskey compass that developed 4 5 minutes into the trip, using only a few scraps of paper, a ratty tissue, and a single Band-Aid scrounged from the depths of my purse.

But Connor’s real contribution to the trip was simply the company and perspective he provided. The first part of our journey east was actually north, to Idaho. That isn’t exactly a straight line course to Boston, but I’d learned over the years that the Cheetah doesn’t like altitude in hot, summer weather. Coming across Texas one time, it was a challenge to maintain 8,500 feet in the airplane. If a downdraft cost me 400 feet, it would take 20 minutes to get it back.

As a result, I don’t plan routes on summer trips that require altitudes higher than 8,000 feet. And there are only two places in the Rockies you can reliably get through at 8,000 feet or less: the pass near El Paso, Texas, and the Monida Pass, just north of Idaho Falls, Idaho.

The route north from Livermore ( just east of Oakland, California) took us over terrain I’d flown over many times before: Sacramento, Redding, Mount Shasta, Klamath Falls, and Redmond, Oregon. But to Connor, it was all new. And so it became new again to me, as well.

As we passed the two, 11,000-foot-long parallel runways at Travis Air Force Base, just north of San Francisco, Connor asked what the pilots did when a crosswind was blowing there.