What did you fly today?

[Evan D]

Sorry for the loss of your friend Dave.

[f4u ausie]

May ur good friend rip dave

[davegee]

Beautiful morning to fly here, today. I took my Freewing F-15C up for a special flight, one to honor my good friend Gary Turnipseed (Lt. Col. USAF, ret.) after he passed away unexpectedly last week. Gary was a 1976 USAFA grad, and after graduation went through pilot training and was assigned to the F-15C aircraft. He stayed with the F-15 almost his entire 20 year air force career. He really loved that airplane, and actually flew the plane that Freewing used as a model for the aircraft that they still produce to this day.

I feel privileged to have had Gary as my friend for the past 20 years. He was an awesome guy. He will be interred at the USAFA cemetery in Colorado Springs.

Davegee

[Lon]

Very pleased with my new F-16 V2 8s. I have a dozen flights logged on her now.

[Quadflyer68]

I've been flying my first EDF jet for a couple of months now - it's awesome.
Ready for my 2nd one :)

[testfly]

Having fun with the little stuff these days for sure!

[davegee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxWKOHPPNlM

davegee

Dave ran across this today, thought you might like the content as I know you love the subject.

Best, LB

Thanks, Elbee! I recently saw some footage of this aircraft on display and flying at Oshkosh this summer. An absolutely beautiful restoration of this aircraft in the colors of Bonnie, flown by Col. Bill Dunham in the Pacific Theatre during WWII. He was quite a pilot, himself!

For modelers of the P-47, this is an excellent walk around video for razorback jugs of that era. With only a handful flyable these days, a real rare find.

Best,

Davegee

[Elbee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxWKOHPPNlM

davegee

Dave ran across this today, thought you might like the content as I know you love the subject.

Best, LB

[davegee]

Took my F-22 and F-35 out to the field today. Recorded my 18th flight on the F-35 and 7th flight on the F-22. Getting better and a little more confident flying both of them, still need a lot more flying under my belt as I try to get better. No damage on either today in their flights, so I've got that going for me!

The F-22 has a new printed more in scale double landing light on the nose wheel strut instead of what I call a "locomotive engine light" that comes with the kit. This print design comes courtesy of Fast N Light who did a great job on it. I still am waiting for some clear lens covers via Ali Express and they should be here in a week or so to finish the look.

I used to have my venerable T-33 as my "weather ship" and warmup airplane before flying my bigger EDFs. I flew a zillion flights on it since 2019 and finally retired it after a gear failed on landing. It was just plum wore out. I may still get it operational again someday by buying a ARF+ and putting all the inner parts from my T-Bird into that one. Not sure if I'll do that, or buy something else someday.

Both the F-35 and F-22 settle into a nice high-alpha attitude for landing so that is pretty realistic and cool. I hope to get someone else take some pics of it in flight someday.

Happy Flying,

Davegee

[Elbee]

Higherandhigher, Good lookin' T-28. Welcome to "the Squawk". Glad to have you onboard. Best, LB

[Higherandhigher]

[davegee]

I took my Corsair out for a couple of flights this morning, along with my F-35 V3 that recorded its 22nd flight today. For the Corsair, I brought along my printed copy of Elbee's excellent 500 lb. bomb and the scale Brewster bomb rack for another test flight. As long as you don't land gear up or partial gear down, there is no worry for the bomb and bomb rack! It doesn't seem to affect the plane with extra drag that I could tell and there is always lots of ground clearance in any normal landing configuration. The two small magnets on the rack that slide into corresponding holes on the plane fuselage hold it secure, even with a few moderate test maneuvers in flight.

The Freewing F-35 V3 that I have, everyone says it's easy for even beginners, but I am finding it a challenge for landings with its low drag profile, no flaps, and our very rough runway and high altitude and temperatures at this time of year. I thought my larger, heavier, Freewing 90mm F-22 wouldn't have these problems with its big wheels, but sure enough, it does, just not quite as bad. It's all a challenge, fun when things work out well, frustrating when you make a satisfactory touch down and then it hits a large fissure in the asphalt, catapulting it several feet into the air and crashing on the ground! I am hoping I get just the right touch with this airplane for landings at my field. I think grass fields with very short cut grass or a decent runway and it would not have all these problems. But there you go. It is what it is and we just deal with it and fly again another day!

Cheers

davegee

[Grossman56]

No, that's Jeff's

Grossman56

[Coconut]

Is that your Ram, Grossman? Nice clean Ram with no rust.

[davegee]

Love your Pitts!! She's not Old, just experienced! I love a good Bi-Plane and get my 2 out occasionally, but not enough. The Beast flies incredibly well, too bad it was discontinued after the fatal accident. This was my first balsa ARF and only my 4th RC plane, but from day 1 it was surprisingly easy to fly, but of course took a while to really take advantage of it's aerobatic capabilities. Even put a sound system in both.

I knew the pilot and owner of the Beast back in the day, prior to his accident. Nice guy, he was checking out as a 747-400 captain when I met him.

davegee

[Grossman56]

I happened to comment , in passing that one of our members, who scratch builds should do a Wright Bros. airplane. Lo and Behold, a Wright Bros.-ish/Curtis scratch built!



Still working the bugs out, but pretty cool nevertheless.

Grossman56

[f4u ausie]

Dumbee. Me 1 pick. B safe hav fun

[f4u ausie]

Flew 2 jets this morning. Sunday... The Jumbo my brother calls it. Al37... And f4 phantom.. very different to fly had little misshap with f4 .. got it bit slow...(Woopsy). But good save me.
Was fun... Charged bats to 4.3.. no fires above. Great southern land yet... Flew 37 for 430 minutes. On 6000 HRB
. Flys well even in turns at 50 percent.. here's pics

[Hugh Wiedman]

Haven't had the Pitts out in quite a while and she handles wind pretty good for an 8 year old lady.

Grossman56

Love your Pitts!! She's not Old, just experienced! I love a good Bi-Plane and get my 2 out occasionally, but not enough. The Beast flies incredibly well, too bad it was discontinued after the fatal accident. This was my first balsa ARF and only my 4th RC plane, but from day 1 it was surprisingly easy to fly, but of course took a while to really take advantage of it's aerobatic capabilities. Even put a sound system in both.

[davegee]

I maidened my Freewing 90mm F-22 this morning. What a beautifully flying bird! I went with all stock settings, no extras at this point. But it was easy to fly, has amazing presence in the air, and landing was easy, too. Probably fly it again on Monday. Also took my Freewing F-35 V3 out and had an equally great flight with it. I had some damage to the plane about a week ago when it landed but then hit a big crevice in the runway that flipped it up about 5 feet. Had to get a new nose gear servo because the steel nose gear pin got totally bent to where I couldn't get it out of the retract. Fortunately it was pretty inexpensive for a replacement and Motion got it to me right away.

Here's a couple of pics after the successful maiden of the F-22 this morning.

Davegee