TLH101

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Here's some links to the vids of Miguel B's D/S Connie flight at Bomber Field last weekend. The model was flown by RCU member "Fighterpilot". You will have to agree, he did a pretty damn good job.
There are 4 seperate vids starting with a T/O, then 2 flybys and the landing. ( I haven't figured out how to make them into one vid)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_laB8yq8WGo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZKEz00GKUA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbon4jMwzPM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--awW9uyJcY

gary9648

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Fantastic!!!! That's scale. Great looking subject. there is an AWACS Connie at the National Museum of the US Air force called the tripple nickle. This is due to her serial no. of 555.
Hughs designed a timeless creation in the Connie.

Gremlin Castle

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Kelley Johnson and Hall Hibbard were the designers of the constellation. It was done at the request of Howard Hughes because he needed a pressurized 40 passenger medium and long haul airplane for TWA.

Fighterpilot

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Just saw the video of the Connie's take off for the first time. All I can say is I came that close to being the "goat". Airplane was very light on the nose gear and down elevator was also the application of the brakes, so I couldn't get the nose gear to steer the danged thing. Full left rudders didn't work until the plane got to flying speed and then we were at the fence. Thank God I had enough speed to yank her up and go full left everything. I guess all's well that ends well; but, I'd add a little nose weight if it were mine.
That was just too close for comfort. On Sunday, we flew the exact same airplane, this one built by B.B. Weber and painted in the Flying Dutchman color scheme. It was a totally different experience on the take off roll. The nose gear actually stayed on the ground and allowed for the aircraft to be steered down the runway.

scalebldr

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nice,any info as to what was used for power plants on the two different models?

scalebldr

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Kelley Johnson,that name souns familliar,didn't he also design the p-38?

TLH101

My Feedback: (90)

Miguels has Magnum .91 four strokes, not positive, but I believe BB's has OS .91's.

Edwin

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Fighter Pilot,
I was waiting for someone to figure out what the deal was on takeoff. I saw that same Navy Connie do pretty much the same thing last year. Scary takeoff, but beautiful in flight and landings. I didnt want to offend anybody by asking what the hell the problem was on takeoff. Thats seems like a perfectly logical explanation. Did it fly like its a little tail heavy? I've got this plane and DS large B-29 on the long list for projects later in the distant future. The next build for me is a ugly stick kinda looking 4 engined C-130, fuzzy scale, to get used to four engined concepts.
Edwin

Fighterpilot

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I believe that Doc is going to make some modifications to his CG to insure there is more weight on the nose gear. I don't believe a little nose weight will hurt the flight performance because it did seem to fly a little tail heavy with the tail somewhat down. It is certainly a beautiful airplane and I believe a little fine tuning of the CG will help with the performance.

Gremlin Castle

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Big Bird has an interesting perspective on the takeoff that you are talking about. He was making a video of the flight and had to duck because it looked like it was coming through our tent. It missed by about ten feet and continued on to make the spectacular flight that you saw. But you were right in that the takeoff gave everyone pause.

silver_cloud_3

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Did you guys do a CG check on the first Bomber field takeoff? I have heard that Smith's plans place the CG too far aft....somewhere I read that it should be around Former 13. How much noseweight and where did you CG the airplane, that is, at what point? our Connie is slated to start production in a month or so