FM-2 Wildcats!

[51fixer]

All this and he needs to upgrade his photobucket account.
He needs more staff!

[Obergrafeter]

Didn't get your response until now (18:30) but hope everything went outstanding. Hate to be a bug,......................tomorrow per chance?

[fighter_ace06]

The flight went great!!! About 30 min long, no problems and nothing fell off! More debrief and pictues to come

[LadyO2Pilot]

The flight went great!!! About 30 min long, no problems and nothing fell off! More debrief and pictues to come

[mustanglover]

Lets try this!

A new never before flown Wildkitty is now gracing the skies of the world!!!!!

Clicky Clicky...

[mustanglover]

All this and he needs to upgrade his photobucket account.
He needs more staff!

Gonna have to work on that for sure!

[fighter_ace06]

Great day today. After 3 years of work, we finally got to take to the skies. 86774 hasn't been in the air since the late 40s so it was a little scary flying for the first time. I was very excited to see that the moveable trim tab had only a few degrees after the flight, better than I thought after building a wing from scratch.

First off I couldn't get replacement parts to complete my Red Line brakes so I went ahead and relined the original brakes with a stronger copper woven lining, "I'm much happier with this route". A quick taxi test in the morning proved satisfactory and we prepared for flight. Takeoff went good, pulling 43 inches and 2700 rpm. I let it accelerate to 120 kts to make sure everything was running right, then pulled power back to 30 2000 and pitched up to 85 to retract the gear. Everything flew nice and straight, little more rudder response than a T-6 and the ailerons felt a lot like a slow roll T-6. All of the controls were well balanced and responsive. My dad chased me in the RV-8 to check the exterior, everything looked great. We flew for about 30 minutes, it took me about 12 minutes to finally roll it. I slowed her down and did a clean stall and stall with flaps down. Vacuum flaps are a little different, once selected above 120 nothing happened. After I started to slow down one would deploy a bit and give me a little roll. Once I slowed a bit more they both started to come out evenly. I didn't get full flaps till about 80 kts. Landing gear came down easy and approach with full flaps and 20 inches was shallower than I expected. Came over the fence around 85 and touched down in a tail low attitude. Rudder control was a lot easier than I expected especially with the locked tail wheel tracking everything straight. Struts kind of wattled down one at a time as it slowed. Brakes worked great with good response and effectiveness.

Last edited by fighter_ace06 on Sat Jul 13, 2013 11:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

[lmritger]

SOFA KING AWESOME!!!

Conrad, you have done AMAZING, and I do mean *AMAZING* work here, and you've brought us along on every step of the journey. I am so incredibly thrilled for you and cannot congratulate you enough on what you've pulled off here.

And speaking as a long-time WIX member, I'd say the spirit of Gary Austin continues to shine brightly through the efforts of you and Taigh.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Lynn

[TAdan]

Congratulations Conrad! Nice job by you and your team. Thanks for bringing a piece of history back to life.

[SaxMan]

Congrats!

[Dan K]

Yahooie!

[Junkyard36]

Congrats on both the first flight as well as the outstanding work on the Wildcat! So excited to see another Wildcat back in the air!

Mike

[bluesky23]

Congratulations to you and your staff. The first flight looked great and promptly reminded me of Howard Pardue and his Wildcat takeoffs. I was surprised to see that the RV-8 caught up with you and the air-to-air pics were quite good. Try the T-28 next time! When will you fly her again? Thanks for your courtesy and it was a great pleasure to meet you. Keep 'em Flying!

[Chris Brame]

Speaking of FM-2s:


Found these Wildcat photos in the San Francisco Library's collection. The first caption reads "Aircraft class at Samuel Gompers School" dated October 26, 1946. The second reads "Two airplanes used for training at Samuel Gompers School" dated March 30, 1948. Anyone know what happened to this one? (And what is that biplane?)

[Obergrafeter]

N3N?