N88NC is home!

[hawgdrvr]

I'll keep this as brief as possible for now as I'm catching up after a 27 hour journey home from Hood River (south route) to Virginia (KFCI) in my new FX-3 "N88NC". This has been a long road but not as long as some prior to me that had to wait two years for delivery. I ordered a little over a year ago, went to build week Feb 8-12, final build around May 24/25, and took delivery Aug 10th at Hood River. The plane came out amazing. But to put in perspective as I've told several at CC "the plane is great, the people are amazing". Every single one. Customer service has been unlike any other company I've dealt with, if something isn't quite right they fix it.

I took delivery as stated on Aug 10th, a little later than expected, and between the crazy hot weather (110 F) and fires/smoke, and a few issues it had to go back to CC for I had to leave Hood River and return home for obligations. CC picked up the plane and flew it back to Yakima, did their thing, and brought it back October 11th when I planned to return. I had TacAero do around 14 hours of the fly-off after I left and before CC took it then I completed the fly off last week prior to starting the journey to VA.

It is great to have someone to ask questions to, huge thanks to TSquared (Trent) and turbopilot (Bob) that were such a huge help during this process including the flight home. Turbopilot tracked me, was on text with me, and helped me with things as did TSquared as I was learning the Garmin G3X and GNC355, ForeFlight, and everything else. I spoke with Trent after arrival discussion the concept of a "Sponsor" was we had in the Air Force whenever we moved, we always had someone assigned to help with the move and transition between bases. It's great for new owners to have someone to ask questions whether your dealer or another previous owner, whoever you choose to have in close contact for this journey.

I can't say the 27 hour journey was "fun" but it's done, primarily crossing the continental divide without supp oxygen in my stellar shape when I really didn't have a northern option due to weather. Some areas such as MOAB, UT were a fun "ride" with the turbulence then experiencing mountain wave activity over the Appalachians which was a strange elevator ride down at times in high AOA at 7500 trying to conserve fuel to make the what turned out to be 3.9 hour final leg home (10 gals remaining, 29 added at refuel).

The endurance and range is amazing if you do things right. The first thing I cannot stress enough to new owners is your FUEL FLOW SENSOR CALIBRATION aka K-FACTOR. It is calibrating the G3X so it calculates fuel flow properly and gives you great info on fuel over destination, etc. Essentially if you don't do this then your gph readings are invalid. Kari was wonderful giving me a nice guide at delivery on how to calc K factor and I got it dialed in during the trip, a good thing to do during the fly off but you should fly over 2 hours to get good values and trend data.

I could provide a lot of feedback from pre build week to build week and beyond which I may do later. There is a lot of room for improvement but if you work hard, do your research and talk to many others you'll learn what's needed. The moral is you don't want to get to delivery wishing you had picked something different or chose to not add something you later want. I got mine exactly how I wanted and if I did it again I'd do it the exact same way.

My config is essentially:

-83" prop
-31" heavy tread bush wheels
-G3X
-GNC 355
-G5
-Two radios (oddly the GTR 20 is better than the GNC 355 I found out) so I definitely would get the additional radio in this config
-BRS
-USB A/C ports (black panel)
-HD fabric belly and horiz stab
-Halon fire extinguisher
-SBS-J16 Battery
-4 snapvents
-Enclosed rudder cable covers
-Float plane mod
-Carbon accented vinyl
-CarbonConcepts cargo pod
-TK1 shocks with safety cable (absolutely love them!!)
-T3 tailwheel
-Pig tail on battery for XP1 start
-Custom wiring to right wing for GoPro etc.
-Added a GEAR LT switch and 5A breaker for gear/taxi lights
-Beringer wheels/brakes/stainless steel brake lines
-Reiff engine preheater
-Forward looking camera ($45 item on Amazon as discussed in this forum) which I absolute love for safety and forward visibility while taxiing. CC should offer this
-Aithre Shield CO monitor integrated in G3X (CC should offer this too as a safety item)
-Rosen sunvisor. I added this later. I was told to avoid this if using a helmet - bad advice. The big yellow orb is bright, get the visor and it doesn't conflict with my helmet
-Cabin cover and cowl plugs from Bruce's Custom Cover

I probably missed something but that's the gist of it. Again, CC and all involved were amazing. I'm super thankful for the TacAero FX-3 training to make me a safer pilot better understanding this plane, constant speed prop which is new to me, and tailwheel flying.

Attached is the picture I was hoping to be able to take, not all get this far for one reason or another, it's a picture with the plane in my hangar. And another is at Spanish Fork, one of the prettiest places I've been, although the traffic there is insane!

Thank you to all those that helped me along this journey which had many ups and downs. Chip for answering the 2.3 million questions, Kathy (Chip's wonderful helper), Trent and Bob and many more here on the forum and those at CC (Zach, Laceigh, Kari, Todd's wonderful repair shop personnel, on and on...).

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[Andy]

Congratulations! Getting mine home safe in the hangar after phase one and ferry home was a significant milestone for me.

Factory fit for that equipment list is an eye watering price. That's why I added the G5 when I got mine home and plan to add a GPS 175 later. Even with the fit I have now I've been flying practice RNAV approaches well below minimum and seeing perfect runway alignment.

I'm very surprised that you have your K factor dialed in that quickly. I'm still tweaking mine with 150 hours on the airplane. I suspect the fuel flow sensor calibration is flow dependent so high power settings may give a different K factor that loafing around at 6 gph. Mine left the factory with K=68000 and is now K=59000.

Curious to know what cruise speed, power settings, and fuel flow you were seeing on the ferry home.

[hawgdrvr]

I cruised typically around 22/22 or 23/23 depending on fuel requirements. High altitude obviously mag was lower. So at least for my cross country flying my K factor is at 72000 which put me within a 1/2 gallon of the G3X.

Altitudes average 7500 to 5500.

[aeroaddict]

Congratulations! Very nice. Now it's time to get that thing dirty!

[hawgdrvr]

Thank you! Oh she's dirty. Today's task is clean!!

I left out of my config info:

-31" heavy tread
-83" prop

[Narwhal747]

Beautiful airplane, what’s she weigh empty with all that gear if that’s not too personal a question? Gotta be 1225+? With that prop/engine it doesn’t matter a whole lot anyway and you’ve got incredible safety margin and capability. Congratulations!

I’m hoping to skip the autopilot and get GNX375, GTR200, and G5 plus pitot heat in mine for IfR
legality. This would save me the substantial cost of the the GTX345R while giving me a knob adjustable radio tuning head through the GtR200. Additionally, I believe the GNC355 still requires a separate intercom if it’s the only radio, adding weight and more cost. Hopefully cc can accommodate, it looks like they can do anything that’ll fit in the panel. Would love to see your panel with that second radio!

[Dan L]

Great looking airplane and a fun trip home. Those long cross countries do a good job of helping you find the inevitable bugs. You’ll have a lot of fun and adventure in that plane.

I smiled when I read your comment about crossing the continental divide. Last week I flew west over the divide in Montana and saw a ground speed in the 30s for 5 miles or so. Amazingly it became smoother the closer I got to the pass.