What did you fly today?

[Grossman56]

She looks great Lon!! Glad to hear she's behaving herself as well!

Grossman56

[Lon]

Maiden +2 in the books!!

[kallend]

[Grossman56]

I almost made it three Mustangs and now wish I had as Big Beautiful Doll stayed home, the best flying one of the bunch.

Live and learn
BTW the Fly In at Thermopolis airport is coming up in Sept, seriously thinking of going.

Grossman56

[Elbee]

Grossman56 As davegee wrote and great lookin' Mustangs, Sir. Best, LB

[davegee]

Had Old Crow and My Little Gal II (or as I like to call them, "Double Trouble") out to the field this morning.
Old Crow hasn't flown in probably 4 or 5 years. Last winter, I removed the sound system as I never use it and it was excess weight. Got her all reassembled and with a lot of courage, hauled her and her sister out to the field.
MLG II got a new set of retracts and I got a servo to operate the tail wheel doors. Everything was set for success!!

Old crow actually got off the ground after a mean left pull. Retracted the gear and of course one got hung up half way. She was in bad need of trim so I worked that out as I fought the gear to no avail. So a one wheel landing . Flaps down, slow down for approach and actually brought her in with no damage!!!
Worked the gear and finally got the retract to work. So that was it for her, but hey, she actually flew so there is some hope!! In the past, I've had her take off and drop a wheel and came home otherwise intact. The last few times I've attempted to get her in the air, she had a hissy fit and headed for the side of the runway so to see her actually fly again gives me hope. Swapped out the retract with one of the old ones from MLG II and tested the sucker right side up, up side down, side ways other side ways, functioned perfectly every time, so she's ready to go again.
After getting her down on the ground, I went to fly MLG II take off run was good until she hit one of the many cracks in the runway and it caused her to turn into the stand of weeds at the side of the runway. Two prop blades and a main retract door. (for once it was the door that I have at least ten of) The only thing missing is one clevis wire that goes to one of the tail wheel doors so I'll see if I can find it on the next trip out. How that happened, I don't know
I haven't had a bad flight in so long, and what with losing the Avanti last week and these two evil twins, I guess I was due for some humbling.

Grossman56

Never a guarantee in this hobby, is there, Dan? All you can do is your best prep work, and go fly. I've always maintained that there could be 20 things you check on your model before a flight, it's usually number 21 that you didn't or couldn't check that fails and there you go...

I was going to come out to the field but I'm grounded due to a failure of the roller switch on my DX 18. It's making it's way to Horizon to get it fixed. I also ordered a factory reconditioned as new DX 9 that will serve as a backup in case my primary DX 18 goes down again. I've had it for many years and it does a great job, still.

Happy flying, the two P-51s looked really good on the flightline there, Dan! We need to get those two airplanes of yours and my two E Flite Mustangs on the flightline for some pics someday soon.

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Had Old Crow and My Little Gal II (or as I like to call them, "Double Trouble") out to the field this morning.
Old Crow hasn't flown in probably 4 or 5 years. Last winter, I removed the sound system as I never use it and it was excess weight. Got her all reassembled and with a lot of courage, hauled her and her sister out to the field.
MLG II got a new set of retracts and I got a servo to operate the tail wheel doors. Everything was set for success!!

Old crow actually got off the ground after a mean left pull. Retracted the gear and of course one got hung up half way. She was in bad need of trim so I worked that out as I fought the gear to no avail. So a one wheel landing . Flaps down, slow down for approach and actually brought her in with no damage!!!
Worked the gear and finally got the retract to work. So that was it for her, but hey, she actually flew so there is some hope!! In the past, I've had her take off and drop a wheel and came home otherwise intact. The last few times I've attempted to get her in the air, she had a hissy fit and headed for the side of the runway so to see her actually fly again gives me hope. Swapped out the retract with one of the old ones from MLG II and tested the sucker right side up, up side down, side ways other side ways, functioned perfectly every time, so she's ready to go again.
After getting her down on the ground, I went to fly MLG II take off run was good until she hit one of the many cracks in the runway and it caused her to turn into the stand of weeds at the side of the runway. Two prop blades and a main retract door. (for once it was the door that I have at least ten of) The only thing missing is one clevis wire that goes to one of the tail wheel doors so I'll see if I can find it on the next trip out. How that happened, I don't know
I haven't had a bad flight in so long, and what with losing the Avanti last week and these two evil twins, I guess I was due for some humbling.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Awesome shot Lon! Got Old Crow and My Little Gal II all ready for the field tomorrow, weather permitting. All rebuilt due to an awesome donation from you. Thanks!!

Grossman56

[Elbee]

Lon, she's a beauty! Great photo, too. Best, LB

[Lon]

I'm a member of the Iowa City Aerohawks club. We had our annual airshow this month. Here's a picture that captured my ME-262 on final.

[davegee]

You will Dave! BTW, have you installed Robarts on it yet?
RC Geek had an interesting way of getting them to fit

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

Grossman56

Hi Dan: I used a modified method of what RC Geek did his, the thought that you needed to trash the OEM stock hard rubber tires is a good one. Unlike RC Geek, I elected to not use the Robart wheels at all and the complications of bushings and other hardware. Using the stock EFlite P-51D wheels and then adding the 3.5" Robarts which needed some "surgery" to fit onto the wheels became a superior way to go, IMHO. The stock P-51 wheels do come apart into two pieces, so that helps. Huge difference in performance! We are agreed on the conclusion that the soft rubber Robart tires make landing and all ground operations easier and better than OEM tires.

I flew both my P-51s this morning, as well as my T-bird. Actually fit all three in my truck, hadn't done that before!

I got 4 flights on the new Hun Hunter and just one flight on LOU IV. They both fly great. Takeoffs and landings could be a bit better, or more consistent regarding tracking the centerline of the runway, but making very soft, no-bounce two point, tail low touchdowns doesn't seem to be a problem on any of my taildragger warbirds. Below is a pic of my two planes nose to nose showing the stock E Flite P-51 wheels and the 3.5 inch Robart tires.

Now that I've figured a way to get both planes in my truck at the same time to bring out to the field, we definitely need to get together to fly and photograph yours and mine all together sometime. I'll be out of town at a funeral until Tuesday afternoon, but let's schedule something on your days off from work and a nice morning to fly.

Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

You will Dave! BTW, have you installed Robarts on it yet?
RC Geek had an interesting way of getting them to fit

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

Grossman56

[davegee]

They look great Dave, I'm not surprised at how well she flew after seeing Lou IV fly the other day. Sure glad that the electrical problems worked out, now you can sit back and enjoy. That is if you get out early as the 90 degree days are coming our way!

Grossman56

Thanks again for your help, Dan. If not for that, the original LOU IV would have been in the scrap heap or parted out, and I would have painted the new one as LOU IV. But I'm glad things worked out. I've always been impressed with these EFlite 1.5M P-51Ds since first saw them a few years ago. I couldn't abide the blue painted fuselage, but I worked out ways to make it more scale like the real one from WWII.

I'm really enjoying that the Hun Hunter came out well, and I hope to get a ton of flights on it in its lifetime.

Cheers

davegee

[Grossman56]

They look great Dave, I'm not surprised at how well she flew after seeing Lou IV fly the other day. Sure glad that the electrical problems worked out, now you can sit back and enjoy. That is if you get out early as the 90 degree days are coming our way!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

👍 which P40 is that?

That's the FMS 1400mm Flying tiger P 40
This was an old fuse I had that I experimented on with Aluminum Duct Tape. Second pic: The new fuse courtesy of my buddy 'Hardway' all covered with Flite Metal. One of the wings in the background.

The bottom of one of the wings. It's tedious work, but well worth the effort.

Grossman56

[davegee]

After just finishing my Hun Hunter from Texas the other day, I brought it and my other E Flite P-51D LOU IV out to the field this morning. It's good that the outer wing panels come off these airplane for transport as that made it doable to bring both planes to the field today.

I'll attach some pics of the new plane and some of the two planes together. Interestingly, the serial numbers of the two planes were only 105 aircraft units apart when being manufactured at North American Aviation during WWII. Both planes came to grief within a couple months of each other in the summer/fall of 1944. LOU IV was lost on a dive bombing mission and Hun Hunter had to make a forced landing after attacking a German airfield. That pilot survived the landing ok but became a POW for the rest of the war. He lived to the age of 85 after completing a long and productive career in the USAF.

Both of these early model D's sport the missing triangular fairing that attached the fuselage to the vertical fin that was added to all other later models for longitudinal stability. I had to cut out the foam to do that, but it isn't all that big a deal if others are up to the idea of doing some surgery on their airplane. It flies great with it on or removed.

[Coconut]

👍 which P40 is that?

[davegee]

I had Silver Bird Day at the field. Got a couple of flights on the P40 and one on the Mustang. Still having recurring gear problems with the Mustang, keeping them aligned. Probably time I just broke down and replaced the mains from the retract on down. They are over 6 years old after all.
Both birds look great in the air, the P 40 is a little difficult to keep an eye on when coming straight at you. All you can see is the white and blue spinner. I may ad some red to the end of the nose just to help seeing her. Both flew fine.

Everyone came home happy. Man it was getting hot out there, supposed to get into the 90's today.


Grossman56

Look Beautiful, Dan!👍👍👍

Davegee

[Elbee]

Grossman56 beautiful birds, Sir. Best, LB

[Grossman56]

I had Silver Bird Day at the field. Got a couple of flights on the P40 and one on the Mustang. Still having recurring gear problems with the Mustang, keeping them aligned. Probably time I just broke down and replaced the mains from the retract on down. They are over 6 years old after all.
Both birds look great in the air, the P 40 is a little difficult to keep an eye on when coming straight at you. All you can see is the white and blue spinner. I may ad some red to the end of the nose just to help seeing her. Both flew fine.

Everyone came home happy. Man it was getting hot out there, supposed to get into the 90's today.


Grossman56