What did you fly today?

[davegee]

Last couple of days I've gotten in a few flights. I took my B-2 Spirit out yesterday as the winds were pretty light (the only conditions that I'll put it up in the air) along with my T-33 as my faithful "weather ship."
This morning, I flew my FMS Penrod and Sam and E-FliteThe Hun Hunter from Texas. Both flew great, although I had a crack in the plastic mount for one of the main gear on P&S that cracked on landing. Shouldn't have done that, I was trying to execute a two-wheel, tail low landing, which I screwed up and converted it to a three point, which probably put a little more stress on the gear. I think there had already been a crack in that cheap plastic part that finally gave, but I have it glued up now and should be ready for another flight next time I take it up.

Being that next Monday, May 27 is Memorial Day, my flight with the B-2 Spirit took on a little bit of personal meaning for me. I changed the markings on the main gear doors from the stock to Spirit of Missouri, which is based (as all B-2s are) at Whiteman AFB Missouri. I was born nearby in Warrensburg while my dad was stationed there as a B-47B Stratojet pilot in the 1950s during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. If the weather is nice on Monday, I might take it out again to fly it. It's just a cruiser, but really looks great flying past in the air. I logged my 35th flight on it yesterday.

[Wild Man]

This is what I flew TONIGHT My new mini Draco night Flyer LOL!!! needs a couple more lights on the tail like big brother Draco has

[Wild Man]

I took these three out to fly today and set all three up to use as Instructional Aircraft. My older brother helped with the Three to make sure I had them correctly slaved to my IX20 as Master and a DX9 for the slave all flew great and my brother got a little time flying the B-25. just getting ready for the Season. An older gentleman out riding his bicycle stop by and I gave him a couple flights with the Aero Scout. We had a light North wind of 8 to12. I took up the little mini Draco, a Little breezy and I landed it in 3 feet the mini Draco is a blast.

[Wild Man]

I flew this bunch of goodies today had a blast

[davegee]

Hi Dan: proper scale weathering has always been important to me, as it has undoubtedly been for you, too. The story I always allude to was when I was in a competition for the US Scale Masters many years ago. The guy parked next to me had a nice P-51D gasser. Unfortunately, he weathered it so much that it looked like it had gone through an Earth reentry from space! It was hideous. Of course, I didn’t say anything to him about it, but it is true sometimes that “less is more.”

My take on UK based RAF aircraft is that they didn’t suffer as much weathering as planes from other theatres, like the South Pacific, did. And, they had access to paints and repair on the ground to keep them somewhat presentable for their pilots. I haven’t seen any photos of UK Spitties that look like hell. I think if you go easy on it and make judicious use of weathering in the usual places, based on photos and any other supporting sources, it will come out great!

If I can be of any assistance, let me know.


davegee

[Grossman56]

Looks good Dave. Got the gear doors and the RX for my new-to-me Spitfire installed yesterday. I want to weather it so I'm sourcing out pics, got a book on Canadian Spitfires that shows some wear and weathering. I'll have to get some pics of your bird. On a side note. I augured in the Avanti on the 2nd flight. Just lost connection, my own fault though, I for some reason, placed the receiver right beside the battery. Dumb, expensive mistake on my part. At some point, I'll buy the motorless version and install the motor/ ESC from this one.

Grossman56

[davegee]

Took my venerable Flightline Spitfire to the field this morning. Hadn't flown it much or any throughout the winter. Except for missing finding a slightly loose set screw for one of the landing gear, it flew great, getting in 4 flights. I've had this airplane, with almost All original parts, since I bought it in 2017. I never logged how many flights I have on it, but I would venture to say it is at least a couple hundred.

The plane is based on an actual aircraft that operated in WWII, and a real pilot who flew it. In this case, it was a plane flown in the RAF, and the pilot was a famous Polish ace who was able to escape the Nazis when they conquered Poland. He and other Poles made it to England, flew with the RAF, and some eventually flew with the American USAAF in the 56th Fighter Group, flying P-47 Thunderbolts. The pilot's name was Witold "Lanny" Lanowski. I know his son, Rhys, who lives in England. I decided on this paint scheme back in 2017 as a nod to Krys and his famous father and ace Lanny.

Here's a few pics from today, a cool, cloudy day that reminds me of England in some ways. Plane flew great, as always.

Cheers

Davegee

[davegee]

Nice to meet u dave,,,,, great shots also dan,,that incredible mountain.
luv that f18 incredably detailed as usual... can i ask how does it fly compared to the f4?,

Hi F4u aussie: The Hornet and the F-4N are great airplanes. Flying them for me increases the "pucker factor" a bit over some of the other planes, but it gets your heart pumping seeing them fly by at over 100mph.

I still have some minor adjustments to do with the Hornet, mainly increasing the roll rate with the ailerons a bit more for better handling. Right now, I have it too low and it is sluggish in responding to roll commands, especially turning to get lined up from base leg to final for landing.

The F-4 is another great Freewing airplane. I have about 30 flights each on the F-4 and the Hornet. One of my first flights with the F-4 I got it a bit slow on short final approach, and it stalled and rolled over on its back and nose from about 4 feet high. I repaired it so you would hardly notice it, but the nose is slightly "bent" to the left after the "surgery" so I had to add some aileron trim to keep it straight. But it flies great with a lot of authority. Landings and takeoffs aren't bad from our very bumpy runway, and I don't put on the big wing drop tanks because one usually falls off right at or after takeoff, making for an "interesting" flight to get it safely back down again. A smoother runway and I'm sure I wouldn't have this issue.

The F-4 tracks well on the ground and the addition of the JP brakes gives me an extra amount of comfort that in most cases I can stop it by the end of the runway should it float too much before landing.

I like both of these planes. I hope to have them for a long time.

Cheers

davegee

[davegee]

davegee Phenomenal Photos, my friends.

Very pleased your functional tail-hook assembly turned out so well.

As always, great work, Dave.

Best, LB

Hi Elbee: all of your ingenious scale designs that I have added to my planes work fabulously! I flew with the "Deluxe Elbee Cockpit" TM, today, it hung in there just great. I move the battery back about an inch and a half to put the CG right on the money. I have another marking in the fuse when I fly the standard issue cockpit from Freewing. The printed Sidewinders look SO much better than the foam "noodles" that come with these kits.

BTW, I'm working on a really beautiful model of the SpaceX Starship, with detachable stages. It is about 30 hours of printing involved for all the parts, and I had to switch out the silver filament for the black for those parts and was able to figure things out how to change filaments. I think I have that down now, and this was a good exercise in that regard. I should have the whole thing completed in a few days and will PM you some pics of it. You can even print up a stand, too, which I will do. Amazing, these 3D printer machines!!

Cheers

Davegee

[f4u ausie]

Nice to meet u dave,,,,, great shots also dan,,that incredible mountain.
luv that f18 incredably detailed as usual... can i ask how does it fly compared to the f4?,

[Elbee]

davegee Phenomenal Photos, my friends.

Very pleased your functional tail-hook assembly turned out so well.

As always, great work, Dave.

Best, LB

[davegee]

Took the F/A-18C and the T Bird out to the field this morning. The latest scale addition is the Elbee tail hook extension/retraction mechanism, printed up from my printer. I flew two flights with the Hornet today, and tested actuating and retracting the tail hook on both flights. Worked phenomenally well, and scale looking. Elbee, your tail hook device gets my firm thumbs up 👍👍👍!
T Bird flew great as a warmup, and the JP brakes installed on both of these aircraft work well. Also installed on my F-4N that I'll probably fly later this week.

In addition, I got a decal sheet from an outfit in Texas called "Two Bobs." This has all the decals for the AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-7 Sparrow missiles with several variants thereof. I scanned the sheet which was like in 1/48 scale, and had Callie reprint them in 1/11 scale for the Hornet. One pic shows some of these scale decals on the missile. Not totally sure I have them right, but should be "reasonably close" for what I was trying to do.

Last, I had Dan Gross who arrived at the field take a picture of me with these planes after I flew them so readers wouldn't think I'm just a "meme."

Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Hey Dan: after the "less than optimum" flying conditions over the past week or so, yesterday was glorious! (Not to rub it in!) I was glad to be able to fly again. Did some important tests on my P-47D, and I hope to do some more flying next week. We'll see, but weather looks good on at least some of the days next week. Hope to see you out there. Which days work for you to fly with your work schedule, these days?

Cheers

Davegee

Going to head out there tomorrow morning, hopefully around nine. Maiden flight for the new Avanti and some fun flights with one of the Bearcats. Have to get Diane out to Powell by one for a Dr's appointment but can't resist getting some flying in first.
Grossman56

[shortround91]

Got to Maiden the J-10 yesterday what a beautiful flying plane

[davegee]

Yep I knew it! I said to myself as I was hauling out garbage this morning and the weather was perfect, I said, "I'll bet you that dang Dave is out flying right now!" Guess I was right, I could almost see the planes from the hospital (wishful thinking!)

Grossman56

Hey Dan: after the "less than optimum" flying conditions over the past week or so, yesterday was glorious! (Not to rub it in!) I was glad to be able to fly again. Did some important tests on my P-47D, and I hope to do some more flying next week. We'll see, but weather looks good on at least some of the days next week. Hope to see you out there. Which days work for you to fly with your work schedule, these days?

Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Yep I knew it! I said to myself as I was hauling out garbage this morning and the weather was perfect, I said, "I'll bet you that dang Dave is out flying right now!" Guess I was right, I could almost see the planes from the hospital (wishful thinking!)

Grossman56

[davegee]

We've had to stand down for close to a week due to winds and rain. But today, the winds died down and brilliant blue skies are in the forecast for several days ahead, which is good news.

I brought my T-33 and FMS P-47D "Ol Cock" that had been hanging in the garage over the winter. I found out how rusty I got to be on this airplane. I have others but this particular one was a devil for landings. I had a couple of less than perfect "bouncy" landings with those hard plastic wheels, but the last two flights I finally got back in the groove again. Turns out, these hard plastic wheels are the same ones, more or less, that E Flite uses on their 1.5M P-51D. For those who flew with stock tires on the Mustang, you probably found landings "challenging" with a tendency for the airplane to bounce on landings, at least I did. This was remedied by putting Robart 3.5 inch tires on the P-51, and that pretty much solved that problem.

However, with the FMS 1.5m P-47D razorback I didn't seem to have those problems, until recently. However this morning, the light finally clicked on in my brain and I got back to the proper landing position that works for nice smooth landings, for me. I found that if I keep the power up some even through touchdown and really work the landing to just "kiss" the runway, consistent landings are now back for me, after a lot of frustration. Everything else about this plane is great, I think. I love the big V3 Corsair prop on these planes and even with those hard wheels, that bounce issue can be overcome, most of the time. I left the field with a good feeling about my T-33 and the P-47s.

Have a great weekend flying, wherever you are!


Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Dang Dave, you seem to always hit the good mornings, I was out there yesterday (Sun Apr 29) just as the storm rolled through, no flights, and again today. Wind was up and it started to rain. The trouble with working, all the nice days seem to be week days.

Grossman56

[davegee]

Another beautiful spring morning, I took my Corsair out before heading for the pool for some laps. Hadn't flown this one for a couple of months, good to get it out again. For some reason my tailwheel steering needed a little tweak for a left turning tendency on the ground, but that was about it. I think the stock kit tires are probably fine, but I've had the 3.5" Robarts since it was new 3 years ago, and it really helps with tracking on the ground and sticking the landings. What a great plane! One of my favorites.

Davegee

[davegee]

I seldom get down to Cheyenne any more unless we are driving to/from Denver which is becoming a rare event. But next time we do go, we’ll check it out.

I hope you do convert one of the Freewing T- birds to that paint scheme someday.

davegee