Dudley

Never flew a light bird like yours and Lenoch's with all the crap
removed. All my time was in a combat ready bird with guns and ammo.
Got the fuselage tank down to 20 gallons which was supposed to give a
neutral CG (or some such) before spinning or other extreme maneuvers.

Max turns I made at one time was 6 and was winding up pretty good.

Of course we weren't supposed to spin but in those days all us young
ones thought we were invincible ). Of course a lot got bit in the
bird when their luck ran out but that's the way it was.

I'm assuming Lenoch is reading this posting and I wonder how much
weight got taken out of the 'civilian' birds?

I flew D-10's to D-30's. Each version got heavier and didn't fly as
well in a dog fighting situation. If we were going to go up and rat
race it behoved you to go and get one of the early (light) birds )



On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 14:40:25 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:


"Big John" wrote in message
.. .
Dudley

Understand. I on several occasions was sent around for some reason or
another and after cleaning up bird was cleared for a closed pattern,
close base and short final.

My normal landing used the standard GUMP check and several
transmissions of "Gear down and locked", the last turning final and
with the change in procedure I almost landed wheels up a couple of
times over the years because my concentration was broken.. Only didn't
because of my 'double rubber' approach to things when I was flying on
the edge with hard adherence to check lists.

If your up in the air you can get away with a lot but low there is
maybe only one shot so it better be a good one (or be lucky)..

The TB accident has been covered pretty well so we should leave it and
let it RIP. As you stated, those in the business will learn from what
happened, but it was an expensive dollar wise teacher.

New subject. Did you spin the '51 when you were flying it?

I've spun it power off, but never with power on.
Dudley