What did you fly today?

[davegee]

Some of our wonderful club members came out to the field before I got there and mowed down all the weeds around the perimeter of the runway, and a bunch that had grown up through the cracks in the asphalt. Whoever you were, I Salute you! You did a great job!

I flew my Flightline 1.6M Corsair this morning, a little windy but mostly down the runway. My Corsair was up to the task. This old airplane, which dates back to about 2019 or earlier, has been one of my favorites of all time. I just marveled how well it tracked the centerline for takeoff and landing, with very little input from me. It's just a wonderfully designed airplane, and one of my faves of all time. I have no idea how many flights I have on it since I bought it, gotta be at or over 200 or so. I recently replaced both the main gear retracts and it is running in tip top shape.

I also took up my FMS F-86 on its 75th flight today. One complication I noticed a small flash of light (the airplane is silver) and I suspected maybe one of my large foam wing drop tanks had departed the airplane. As it got closer to me, it was indeed gone, but the airplane was still pretty manageable flying. without it. The plane landed fine and then I made the trek through the field to find my tank. Sure enough, it was WAY out there on line with the runway. The little plastic clip that is glued onto the foam tank and attaches to the pylon on the wing had come undone (it is a new tank from FMS and probably needed more glue) but I have remedied that with some good E6000 glue and will let it set up overnight or longer before I try flying it again. Overall, a nice day to celebrate National Aviation Day!

Cheers

Davegee

[davegee]

The other day I took up my Flightline 1.6M P-51D Hurry Home Honey up to do some more ordnance and drop tank testing at the local field. The first flight went great with dropping the two OEM 75 gallon, foam drop tanks from an altitude of about 80 feet or so. Came out great, and they landed undamaged within about 3 feet of each other on the ground.

Then, I put two of my printed 500# bombs up for their second test. The first test went perfect. So, I was hoping for a repeat performance. Unfortunately, I might have released the bombs just a second or two late and they sailed again in a ballistic arc well past where I planned to retrieve them. Instead, they landed in a bunch of sagebrush and their OD color didn't help pick them out in the bushes! I found one of the bombs quickly but just could not find the other one, and I was assuming it would land closeby. But I started a search in expanding circles around that tank, still no go. Eventually, I got a bit disoriented and couldn't find the First bomb again! I tried and tried, but after an exhaustive search, it was as if the Earth itself had swallowed them.

I decided to print up two more bombs, and just completed them this afternoon. Callie made some nice stencils for me to put on the bombs. I plan to do another test next week.

Of the two larger 110 gallon drop tanks, I did get in one drop test last week, but one of the two tanks broke up on landing. The other one was just fine. There was no salvaging that one, but this time I printed a thicker tank, with advice From Elbee for changing a few parameters on my Prusa mini printer. They are printed now, but I won't be done with them unitl next week sometime. Then I'll see how strong they are.

Always something, but still fun and a challenge. I have learned to bring some flags on sticks with me to mark the initial tank that I find in the brush, should I do that again. And the second thing is to try to get better at placing the drops near a clearer part of the field. That's not easy, at our remote field.

Here's a couple pics I just took of the bombs and big tanks. You can see HHH standing up against a wall, ready for its next flight.