The Mighty Howard

Willy

Willy

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Took a break from the Howard 500 to work with some DC-4s, but I got back to it today. Installed a missed update earlier and have been flying it around. First left the home airport at Gibson County, TN (KTGC) and did a short hop to Nashville (KBNA). That went pretty well so then I decided to live dangerously and fly it up to Bill Lyons' Phenick Field in Ohio that comes with his Travel Air pack. Phenick is a small grass field surrounded by trees, fences and hills on three sides. There's a road on the other side, but the town is there too. Makes for an interesting approach that in the Howard, amounted to only being able to come in over the town as at the other end is a steep hill with a bunch of trees on top.

My first attempt to land, I saw that I was too high so I did a go around. But I did spot my way in for the second. There is a gap between a house with a telephone pole on one side and a building on the other that's just big enough for me to try to fit the Howard in between. So I came in lower, flew down between the gap, touching the wheels down just across the road. After that it was just a matter of slowing it down to keep from hitting the fence at the bottom of the hill on the other end of the field. I was down to 20kts on the ground with the fence getting closer than I liked, so I jammed on the left brake and turned the Howard around back the other way. Then it was just taxi back up to the hanger and gas pump to park and go for a cold soda.

I've saved the flight there still fully loaded with having just burned off what gas it took to fly up from Nashville. I'm thinking that if I can land the Howard anywhere, then I ought to be able to take back off from there too. Just undecided on where to go from here.
 
Had a little work done on the tail while I was there. Then it was time to fire up the engines and taxi to the other end of the field. Once there it was turn around at the fence, line 'er up and just go for it. Piece of cake!

Flew on to Richmond Virginia to check out the Museum of the Confederacy.

Edited to add, check out the AI people in the first pic on the left side next to the panel truck. She just walks around there.
 
Great bit of scenery indeed. Was that Travel-Air package free or purchase ??

Looking at the shot of the engine start in the hangar reminds me of an accidental start on my friends Comanche while in his hangar.
We were working on finishing up her annual inspection and had just buttoned up the airplane except for a few inspection covers and the cowling. During the annual a new light-weight starter had been installed so Ed decided to just bump it once to make sure everything was working before fitting the LoPresti Cowl which is a bit of a pain.
He had the mixture closed but she had enough gas to cough to life momentarily and the resulting hurricane in the hangar pretty much cleared out any loose debris...including all paperwork that was not tucked away in a cabinet or the airplane.

That answered my own question if I should ever taxi my Saratoga out of my hangar instead of pulling her out with the tow-bar :D :D

Stefan
 
It was payware when I purchased it, but Bill Lyons eventually released it as freeware. I think it's at FlightSim and possibly AvSim.

Hehe, I didn't think of any loose paperwork when I started the Howard :d

I think the file is cc10taf.zip at FlightSim
 
We've left the Howard sitting in Richmond long enough.

Took off from Richmond in the middle of a storm, but it didn't take long to climb above the weather and head north to NYC. Had a pretty nice tailwind so that shortened the trip up significantly. I was trying to maintain radio silence so the ATC wouldn't bother me, but the darn thing turned itself on somehow. I just didn't send anything until I was close to LaGuardia, then got permission to land on Runway 13 in between some DC-3s and a Martin 404.

The only difficult part was slowing the Howard enough to land. Once I did get some speed scrubbed off, I was able to lower the flaps and land. From there it was just taxi to the gate and park.

Now to figure out where to take it from here. Don't really have a plan, just following the nose.
 
:applause::applause::applause:

The Mighty Howard indeed - I for one am gonna sit back & enjoy this!

Nice CalClassic La Guardia + AI there, Chief. :salute:
 
Nice screens and a fun looking trip, Willy. The Howard is "slick" as can be...really takes some forethought to get her at approach speed...and like yor experience, the fence at the end of the rwy comes up fast.
 
Looks like fun Willy :)

I am attaching a document you may not have. It talks about the history of the aircraft, but it also takes you through all phases of flight with appropriate settings.

In working with Dave during flight testing, he verified that slowly pulling the throttle back to 19-21" of MAP was okay for descent if conditions permitted.

Also, at 190 or less you can drop gear for the drag, and flaps at 155. You should be using a long approach like an airliner for the aircraft.

Looking at your pics, you MP was high for descent. YOu can reduce MP to 21 until you get to 135, then set throttles to maintain 135 until short final, then go full flaps. YOu should be crossing the fence at 115 under power to keep the tail flying. You can touchdown at 95 or so.
 
Thanks Milton! I've been figuring that most of my problems are probably self induced. This file should go a long ways towards learning to fly it better. So far my flying the Howard has been mostly by the seat of the pants and keeping the needles in the green. Time to start studying and taking notes.

I almost messed up the approach last night. I was studying where the runway was and the best way to approach it without hitting a building on Manhattan and lost track of my speed. I was down to 85kts (full flaps & gear down) going up the river before my turn before I knew it. I realized it about the time that I needed to start making my turn to final, so it was a quick throttle back up and turn while starting my final descent without gaining too much speed. I landed just short of the numbers on the runway rather hard, but luckily nothing broke.

I'm thinking of just heading in a general eastward direction. It's been a while since I last crossed the Atlantic. Greenland is supposed to be pretty nice this time of year (yeah, right).
 
I started out with the idea of making a short hop to Martha's Vinyard, but changed my mind before takeoff and went almost due north to Montreal, Canada. Experimented around with power settings and altitude while I was enroute. When I got to Montreal, the Tower said to take a left pattern to 24L and I almost mucked that up. I had the left pattern thing down okay, but they almost suckered me in with a set of landing lights on the wrong runway and none on 24L. Got to keep a close eye on those Canadians, they're tricky. I figured it out and did a fast go around. Still got set down before a Trans Canada DC-4M North Star who was behind me got there. Didn't get a picture of him, but think DC-4 with Merlin engines.

Kind of got an idea of where to go next, but then I started out thinking about going to Massachusetts tonight too....
 
Nice shots of the vintage stuff. I think you need to open the curtains to get some sunshine in that cabin though. :wiggle:
 
Man, you put me on an appetite, I think I'm gonna dust the wings off and take her for a Spin

:jump:

Bugg*r!! Overspeeded and killed the bird, lots of power there
 
I went into an overspeed last night when I got a bit distracted and like to have never got her slowed down before she overstressed. Thought for sure I was going to have to restart the flight.

You can open the curtains? How's that work? Never even suspected that one.
 
Same as second door, or cargo door: Shift+E, 2 or whatever key combo you have assigned for that.

Cockpit door opens as do the curtains.
 
Cool! Time to let a light into the cabin and wake the passengers up.


Edited to add pic

Open windows!
 
Milton Shupe said:
Same as second door, or cargo door: Shift+E, 2 or whatever key combo you have assigned for that.

Cockpit door opens as do the curtains.
Click to expand...

One of my favorite parts. Love to put Otto in charge and stoll in back for a cup of coffee, maybe a sandwich and sit and watch the clouds go by. :)

Thanks Milton!

The Mighty Howard's been on my original FS2004 system since February 8 2006 (directory created).

It's fun to put her up against a "shop heater" if you pick your routes. She can get into that little dirt field thats just a 20 minute walk to that fishing spot on the river. Much quicker than adding a 5 hour jeep ride from the nearest field that can handle a kerosene burner. Kerosene... uh... yep, put that in my lanterns when I'm camping.

I'll take her into Aspen (KASE) just to make the Falcon and Gulfstream types nervous. They seem to wonder how an "old plane with propellers" can be so fast. And loud... ;-)

She is my "go to" ship for long, fast, stylin' trips and I take her everywhere in the world.

:applause::applause::applause:
 
Left Montreal behind and headed east to Halifax NS. Fun flight over thunderstorms most of the way. Climbed up to 17,500, leveled off, turned on the tunes and just flew on. When I was about 20 miles out, contacted the Halifax tower and was told that I couldn't land there. Said they were IFR. Heck, I didn't see any roads, and made it in just fine.
 
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