guy
DC-3
Posts: 37
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Post by guy on Feb 9, 2009 15:35:30 GMT -5
Hi all, I have tried the Stratocruiser in FSX today. I had to replace several gauges (attitude, vertical speed, altimeter etc) by those of the default cessna. But otherwise it flies very well in FSX. I went up to 29000 feet along the Himalaya without problems. Happy flights to all. Guy  |
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Post by Tom/CalClassic on Feb 9, 2009 17:31:03 GMT -5
Hi Guy, Glad to see it doing so well.  |
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Post by eddiejez on Feb 11, 2009 12:10:34 GMT -5
Hi Guy , Tom I to made a conversion to fsx for the strat a couple of years ago and yes it works fine used it quite a lot to rgds Edd |
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guy
DC-3
Posts: 37
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Post by guy on Mar 30, 2009 10:44:19 GMT -5
I flew her again today around MontBlanc in France. Btw I had always some difficulties not to land on the frontwheel first with the Stratocruiser. Now I read recently that the real aircraft had effectively the tendency to land on the frontwheel first! So the flight dynamics must be perfect. Guy Some more pictures:         |
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Post by eddiejez on Mar 30, 2009 11:49:19 GMT -5
HI Guy, great pictures ,what airport is that ? rgds Edd |
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guy
DC-3
Posts: 37
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Post by guy on Mar 30, 2009 12:59:04 GMT -5
Thanks.
The airport is LFMN (Nice in France, Mediterranean coast).
I flew from LSGG (Geneva) over the Alps to LFMN.
Guy
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Post by Tom/CalClassic on Mar 30, 2009 15:13:11 GMT -5
Hi, Most airline manuals I've found say not to land nose wheel first, although they also warn about flaring too much. I guess a 3 point landing is about right. |
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Post by hobofat on Mar 30, 2009 17:06:24 GMT -5
Hi, Most airline manuals I've found say not to land nose wheel first, although they also warn about flaring too much. I guess a 3 point landing is about right. Favorite quote from a Strat pilot, from an old magazine though I forget which website I found it at: "One did not land a Strat, one arrived." |
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guy
DC-3
Posts: 37
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Post by guy on Mar 31, 2009 3:00:12 GMT -5
I found this, from a former Boac Strato captain: "The Stratocruiser was unusual in several ways.It both landed and took off on its nose-wheel. The robustness of the nosewheel leg was proved on almost every landing, as the Strat, when near the ground, had a mind of its own and we used to arrive (one did not land a Strat; one arrived) with the most appalling thumps. No amount of heaving back on the pole would induce the mainwheels to make contact first. Various explanations were offered for this peculiarity. Some said that the wings, which were essentially those of the B-29, had been mated with the double-bubble fuselage at the incorrect angle of incidence. Others pinned the blame on the pernicious lift-spoilers. As the aircraft also ran on its nosewheel alone for several hundred yards during take-off, this, too, could be quite exciting in a strong crosswind. The huge tail made the aircraft try to weathercock into wind." So they landed frontgear first and took off maingear first! He says also that when the lift-spoilers were later(ie after 9 years) removed, the Strato behaved better. Here is the complete, very interesting article: www.ovi.ch/b377/articles/speedbird/index.htmlExcellent site about the Stratocruiser. Guy |
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Post by dave mcqueen on Mar 31, 2009 5:11:02 GMT -5
Jessie once wrote that you NEVER land a C97/B377 nose wheel first, but apparently it can be done. I have a photo of one of Transocean's Stratocruisers (ex-BOAC of course) landing at OAK close to the ground nose down attitude with the nose wheel nearly touching the ground. I always assumed they would level off prior to sticking the nose wheel to the runway.
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Post by dc6tryer on Mar 31, 2009 8:58:58 GMT -5
Hi,
Reading the article about the Strats and here is a wonderful line from it.....
"An engine once caught fire, burnt itself out, then conveniently fell off"
ah yes, a different world altogether !
Andy.
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Post by capflyer on Mar 31, 2009 11:05:35 GMT -5
You can nosewheel land many airplanes - once. Then you have to do a lot of inspections to ensure you didn't do any damage to the gear attach points. The nose landing gear wasn't intended to be landed on. It was designed to be the last thing to touch the pavement. It's kinda like the IL-76 can be nosewheel landed - and then inspected heavily. The biggest danger of landing an aircraft on its nosewheel is that you have a steering device that is only designed to be a support element, not a primary element of your weight bearing and can turn. If you land on it wrong, you can overpower the hydraulics and have an uncommanded steering input that can (and probably would) cause you to ground loop and crash. |
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guy
DC-3
Posts: 37
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Post by guy on Mar 31, 2009 14:02:22 GMT -5
You can nosewheel land many airplanes - once. Yes, but it seems that the Stratocruiser landed always on the nosewheel first. The fact that they took off with the main gear first seems quite as incredible to me! Must have been a funny sight. Guy |
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Post by dave mcqueen on Apr 1, 2009 17:49:34 GMT -5
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guy
DC-3
Posts: 37
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Post by guy on Apr 2, 2009 2:00:03 GMT -5
Thanks for the picture. I haven't found a Strato landing picture on the net. But I found a pilots handbook of American Overseas. It says for landing: "Contact the ground with main gear first, keep the nose up for a time then ease nose down." But probably it wasn't possible to do so in practice. The handbook is here: www.tailwheel.nl/b/boeingstratocruiser/index.htmlGuy |
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