The Mighty Howard II

[Willy]

Haven't flown Milton's Howard 500 in a while so I took off from the local airport here and flew down to Memphis. Enjoyed it so much that I decided to fly on to New Orleans with a few stops along the way. First up was Greenville Mississippi. Taxied up to the terminal and then back to the active and was off again to Jackson.

[Willy]

Landed at Jackson, did a quick turn around at the terminal and it was off to Baton Rouge (aka Red Stick). At Baton Rouge, I hung around a few minutes playing with the AM-FM/CD player, then made the short (in the Howard anyway) hop to New Orleans. All in all a very enjoyable flight.

For being several years old, Milton's Howard 500 is still one that I really enjoy flying.

[Willy]

Left New Orleans and headed north up to Shreveport, LA and then on to Texarkana AR. I've got on and off of many a Convair 600 at Texarkana. This is fun!

Pics are backwards

[Milton Shupe]

Landed at Jackson, did a quick turn around at the terminal and it was off to Baton Rouge (aka Red Stick). At Baton Rouge, I hung around a few minutes playing with the AM-FM/CD player, then made the short (in the Howard anyway) hop to New Orleans. All in all a very enjoyable flight.

For being several years old, Milton's Howard 500 is still one that I really enjoy flying.

Actually seven years old ... holds up fairly well for its age but better things are coming. :-)

[Blackbird686]

A NEW Howard 500??

Just kidding!!

I have always liked the Howard and it's been in service with my virtual vintage airline and vintage cargo airways outfits since day one. The Howard is a bit like the XA-38 Grizzly.... "What's not to like about that plane?"

BB686

[Willy]

One of the things I like about the Howard 500 is that it's got speed and range in a classy package. And it's got the right combination of not being that difficult to fly, but still a bit of a challenge to me to get the most out of it. I've flown it around the world once but unlike a lot of the aircraft that I've done so with, it's not become boring. Anything that will be better, will have to really be something!

[expat]

Big, fast, loud, classy, fast, um brutish, but nice manners, fast, thirsty - YEAH!!

[Milton Shupe]

I was referring to the Lockheed Harpoon, newer and therefore better, I hope. :-)

[TuFun]

I'm big time Mighty Howard fan too! Proof...

[Willy]

I was referring to the Lockheed Harpoon, newer and therefore better, I hope. :-)

And we're looking forward to it and the Lodestar! But the Howard sets a pretty high bar to beat!

[Willy]

Decided to fly on up to Saint Louis by way of Little Rock. You know, I was raised just a few miles east of Texarkana but I sure don't remember any canyons like the one I flew over coming out of there on Millwood Lake. Deep rascal too.

I seem to be having an AI parking issue with St Louis - Lambert. Going to have to dig around under the scenery's hood and look into that.

[fliger747]

WilyHope you stopped into see Henry when you went through Shreveport. All the best. Tom

[Willy]

As I don't do enough night flying, I decided to do a night flight to Dayton (KDAY) from St Louis. Turned out to be a good night for a flight. Although I did get a bit confused trying to find the active runway in Dayton. Then I got lost on the ground, but fortunately I found a DC-3 taxiing to the terminal so I followed it in to park.

Yep, I need more night flying practice...

[Willy]

As Flight 19 is taking a break today, I thought I'd get in more quality time with the Howard by leaving Dayton and flying on to Roanoke Virginia over the Appalachian mountains. On the way, I figured I'd play around the throttle, pitch, mixture and altitude to try and figure the settings that would give me the longest range in the Howard. Let's just say that things got very interesting when the engines died and I couldn't restart them at FL200. Stalled, went into a spin and finally got the engines restarted at 8000ft and pulled out of it. It sure was spinning around fast while losing a lot of altitude. After that, I quit playing with the knobs and levers and flew on into KROA.

I'll probably go for another flight later on.

[Milton Shupe]

Adjust the power for max bmep, then go lean one notch of bmep for best fuel economy.

Ensure map and rpms remain at proper settings.