What did you fly today?

[DCORSAIR]

Same here as for weather in Ca., test flew my buddies HSD F-16 and put 4 more flights on my A-4, light breeze blowing and nice and cool, we were out early so the lights on my buddies F-16 looked awesome as the sun was breaking through the clouds.

[davegee]

I just had to take advantage of this beautiful late summer weather to fly again this morning. I had an "interservice fly off" with the USMC Corsair and USAAF P-51D. Both flew beautifully and takeoffs equalled landings with no damage, so that is a good thing!

[davegee]

davegee Beautiful shot, Sir. Your Phantom is gorgeous. Best, LB

Thanks, Elbee. The paint scheme is based off of a real airplane that flew off the FD Roosevelt about 1975, or so. I like that the tradition of the Jolly Rogers in naval aviation history goes back to WWII, the brainchild of skipper Cdr. Tommy Blackburn and his famous Corsair squadron VF-17.

Cheers

Davegee

[davegee]

That is an awesome shot with the mountains in the background, great job.

Thanks, DCorsair. Not hard to get a decent picture with beautiful Heart Mountain in the background. I haven't summitted it yet, have to be careful as parts of the year it has grizzlies up there! We're going to try later this month, weather (and bears!) permitting

[Elbee]

davegee Beautiful shot, Sir. Your Phantom is gorgeous. Best, LB

[DCORSAIR]

That is an awesome shot with the mountains in the background, great job.

[davegee]

Took my Freewing F-4N and B-2 Spirit airplanes out for some flights this morning. Haven't flown these airplanes all that much, and it has been a month or two since I flew them last. But they are a lot of fun each time they take to the air. I completed a total of 28 flights on the B-2 to date, and 18 with the F-4N. I know that's not much to many of you who get hundreds of flights on their airplanes, but I'm pretty happy with each time a takeoff equals a landing with mine!

[davegee]

Turns out that the 'fog' that Dave saw was, in reality, smoke from fires in Montana and Idaho. What would Summer be if the smoke didn't show up?? I was just saying the other day how lucky we've been. Fortunately, the wind is blowing right back into Montana!!

I think there was probably some fog mixed in with all that rain we got last night at least at 8 am when I was there. My thermometer showed a humidity reading of 90%, pretty moist air, along with that Montana fire smoke!

[Grossman56]

Turns out that the 'fog' that Dave saw was, in reality, smoke from fires in Montana and Idaho. What would Summer be if the smoke didn't show up?? I was just saying the other day how lucky we've been. Fortunately, the wind is blowing right back into Montana!!

[davegee]

We had a pretty rainy day yesterday here in Northwest Wyoming, and this morning, a lot of fog was around (pretty darned rare up here) but I still took my "Ole Cock" P-47D and my T-33 up for some flights. The fog essentially "erased" 8,500' MSL Heart Mountain that is usually in my backgrounds but today made for a look like a hardstand at Halesworth Air Base in England during WWII. I took a couple of pics after I flew. The bird is really flying nicely.

[ridgerunner]

Today I flew my 51 year old Delta 707. I built it in 1972 from Aeromodeller plans. It is loosely based on the Avro 707 research delta from the late 1940s. I converted it to electric some years ago.

*Very* cool!
or from the parlance of the time... Far Out Man!
I, for one, would like to hear more about this one!
Size?, construction?, launch method/landing gear?, channel count?, aerodynamic features? (i.e. washout, sweep angle?,) etc. But please, more pictures!

[DCORSAIR]

Oops, for some reason I get a double post lately..

[DCORSAIR]

Flew the HSD F-16 and the FW A-4 in the early morning hrs.

[kallend]

Today I flew my 51 year old Delta 707. I built it in 1972 from Aeromodeller plans. It is loosely based on the Avro 707 research delta from the late 1940s. I converted it to electric some years ago.

[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