All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

[Grossman56]

Okay guys, did a quick dash to the field before the weather really went sour to get My Little Gal II in the air. For those of you who don't know (there may be one or two out there) The 'My Little Gal' project started last year when Motion announced the end of the Freewing P-51 Iron Ass. My Little Gal I was the result of that, she was stock with some paint work around the nose to remove the Iron Ass decal and install 'My Little Gal; named after my wife. After a great maiden, I dropped the gear on her and lost all control, she smucked into the ground, total write off. After going through all the pieces, I found that the gear door sequencer would blue screen my servo tester, so there was the problem. So now I have all these parts and so 'My Little Gal II' was born. New fuse wings and tail, but this time with Flite Metal!!! Too Cool!!
Anyway, had Captain Mike maiden her at Nefi last year, because, to be quite honest, I just had too much time and stress invested in her. I was going to get Charlie to do it, but he suggested it would be just too cool to have Captain Mike (The infamous Captain Mike is how we put it!) and so, if you watch the videos from Nefi that Lon and Ben took, you can see it.
So, this is her first flight since then, but with a new 650 kv motor in her. Realize I've put every good talisman on her that I could think of. She has the wife's nickname, my three daughters first initials for squadron/airplane numbers and our anniversary for a tail number. What more can I do??
So, like I say, the weather wasn't the best and deteriorating rapidly so one flight and that was it. Here are the pictures...

[Twowingtj]

Awesome Grossman, that came out sweet! I like that you payed tribute to your other half. I did the same for my wife with my P-38 by going with Irish Angel.

[Grossman56]

And as a finale, here;'s a pic that really describes, flying in Wyoming...

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Cool Twowing, the least we can do for them since they put up with all our madness!!

Grossman56

[Twowingtj]

Cool Twowing, the least we can do for them since they put up with all our madness!!

Grossman56

You've got that right.

[Oxotnik]

Great story, Großman. Thanks for sharing.

I did something similar on my Ta-152, but not to near the detail that you did. I ordered a Kristy Jane (my wife's name) vinyl decal from Callie, along with the tail swastikas, to look like Barkhorn's 'Chrystl' on his Dora. I scored big points for that, and she now calls the Ta-152 'her plane.' LOL


[edit] Grossman, sorry for Germanizing your name. Autocorrect is responsible. But, I found it kind of funny; so, I didn't correct it.

[OV10]

Gman.......I was looking very closely at the touchdown pics and I see that you HAVE taken the guidance you received last year at NEFI to earnest action and that was a nice 2 point(the way tail-dragger warbirds should) landing. :Cool:

[OV10]

He crashed it and they cancelled the project due to it's poor handling...:Devil:

Awwww C'mon TI ! ! ! :( I used to like you LOL

[TiredIronGRB]

Awwww C'mon TI ! ! ! :( I used to like you LOL

It's ok, he said the 2000mm one flys great.

[Grossman56]

Gman.......I was looking very closely at the touchdown pics and I see that you HAVE taken the guidance you received last year at NEFI to earnest action and that was a nice 2 point(the way tail-dragger warbirds should) landing. :Cool:

You got that right! When guys like you and Mike and Ryan tell me something, Iand go :Cool:!!
Fuse level, wings level, flaps at 30 degrees and use throttle to control descent rate. I'm proud to say that by listening, over 90% of my landings are just like that! Such a great feeling!!
The funny thing was with Old Crow on Saturday, we had a pretty good headwind to land into. Plunked her down on her mains, let her run off some speed and settled the tail down. She got caught in a gust and decided to do the Stork hop, it was hilarious. I just leveled her off again and let her settle, she was fine, looked funny as hell though!

Grossman56

[OV10]

It's ok, he said the 2000mm one flys great.

OMG........:Whew:I can see it now :Smug: Twin 5060's on 6S and hopefully a single piece Skyraider like 17" (1/6 scale) props :)

[Lon]

You got that right! When guys like you and Mike and Ryan tell me something, Iand go :Cool:!!
Fuse level, wings level, flaps at 30 degrees and use throttle to control descent rate. I'm proud to say that by listening, over 90% of my landings are just like that! Such a great feeling!!
The funny thing was with Old Crow on Saturday, we had a pretty good headwind to land into. Plunked her down on her mains, let her run off some speed and settled the tail down. She got caught in a gust and decided to do the Stork hop, it was hilarious. I just leveled her off again and let her settle, she was fine, looked funny as hell though!

Grossman56

Hey Gman, looking good on those landings. Does that mean I don't have to be worried about being buzzed, and scrambling in the pits like last year at NEFI? :)

[TiredIronGRB]

OMG........:Whew:I can see it now :Smug: Twin 5060's on 6S and hopefully a single piece Skyraider like 17" (1/6 scale) props :)

Take a deep breath... ;)

[Shirty]

Hey Gman, looking good on those landings. Does that mean I don't have to be worried about being buzzed, and scrambling in the pits like last year at NEFI? :)

Lmao... :)

[Grossman56]

Dang Lon, don't give away all the fun!
I don't recall that one, except when the P-40 did a sideways bounce on a touch and go and stood on her nose! That was priceless!!
Took me until September to get her back in the air as there were no spinners in stock.

My favorite one was landing the P-40 near dusk the first night with Charlie, dang thing went below the horizon and the Camo took over, had to pull her up and go around, keeping some altitude just to see her.
Definitely came away a better pilot, I seem to recall an 'interesting' landing involving a certain F-86 driver as well....
LOL!!!

Grossman56

[Lon]

Dang Lon, don't give away all the fun!
I don't recall that one, except when the P-40 did a sideways bounce on a touch and go and stood on her nose! That was priceless!!
Took me until September to get her back in the air as there were no spinners in stock.

My favorite one was landing the P-40 near dusk the first night with Charlie, dang thing went below the horizon and the Camo took over, had to pull her up and go around, keeping some altitude just to see her.
Definitely came away a better pilot, I seem to recall an 'interesting' landing involving a certain F-86 driver as well....
LOL!!!

Grossman56

"Interresting?" Heck!!! That ended up being a bouncing betty crash landing!! And I have it on video to prove it!! Let this be a good visual, reminder for when you get your EDF. When landing, get her down and close to touchdown, but keep presure on the up elevator, holding off as long as possible before letting her touchdown, bleed that speed off. Otherwise!!! She'll do a skip/bounce on you, and if you make the wrong correction like i did...well, watch the video. But that F-86 really took that crash landing well. Remind me at NEFI this year, I'll have it along. To look at the scars from that landing. Except for the front landing strut, all parts on this bird are still the originals...300+ flights on this 86.

[Shirty]

Nice flying tho! Always looks awesome when you can get em nice n close in formation like that. And as anyone who's tried it knows, it's harder than it looks. Bugger of a landing though, it looked so good just before touchdown. :)

[Oxotnik]

It was a boost to my fragile male ego to know that flyers, other than just me, have an occasional less-than-perfect landing. :Cool:Seriously, it was a great video. The formation flying was awesome! My friends and I try to fly together in pseudo formation, and it's hard as hell. And, honestly, my respect for good pilots greatly increases when they're willing to show their own mistakes.

[Grossman56]

I personally witnessed that landing and I was really impressed how well the F-86 took it. Can you imagine a balsa plane doing that well. Lon, it was ready for another flight if I remember right?!

Grossman56
BTW, just got a notice from Jay Smith, pilot registration for Nefi is now open. I'll post a link on the Nefi 2017 site.

[Lon]

I personally witnessed that landing and I was really impressed how well the F-86 took it. Can you imagine a balsa plane doing that well. Lon, it was ready for another flight if I remember right?!

Grossman56
BTW, just got a notice from Jay Smith, pilot registration for Nefi is now open. I'll post a link on the Nefi 2017 site.

Yes Gman, I had her back in the air right away. Besides the cosmetic damage, I just had to tweek the front strut, and the little spring on the nose gear door was gone. When i think back about that landing, it wasn't 1 or 2 things that made a landing go bad..I myself frequently say that excuses are only good for those who they satisfy. But with that...here's my list of "excuses" for this bad landing.
1. I broke my rule of "You don't HAVE to land that first approach, when things aren't going/feeling right, power up, GO AROUND!
a. My approach was high and fast. As you see in the video, I zoomed right by myself, standing about in the middle of the runway.(had not dropped flaps to land as i do 98% of the time)
b. I was very conscious of being filmed by Cpt Mike , wanted to nail the landing(which means no abort, go around)
c. End of the runway was approaching fast.."I can set her down a little early and handle a skip that will happen because of the speed" I KNEW, I was still too fast to touchdown, but thought, ok, rolling out into the grass is no big deal after a little skip.
2. When the expected skip came, it was alot more than I expected, AND, I got stupid and didn't put in the correct stick inputs to make a nice soft and graceful skip and touchdown rollout.....sigh...

Aww gee...I'm rambling...

Anyway, I'm so pumped up about NEFI again this year. I predict the weather will be cooperative. No high winds..not TOO hot.

Looking forward to seeing you and others that was there last year. AND lots of new faces!!

Lon