The Mighty Howard II

[Willy]

Thanks Milton, I'm still sorting it out, but getting there.

Left Roanoke for Baltimore. Nice flight while I fiddled with the controls some more trying to sort out this long range thing. It was almost dark when I landed there. I've got something in mind that I'm going to need all the range I can get.

Pics are in reverse order...

[TuFun]

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.

Just out of curiosity, read up on how to fly the Howard by David Cummings.

Little piece from his article...

"We usually climb to about 9000 ft on short trips of 100 to 150 miles. If we go say 300 miles we go on up to about 15,000 to 16,000 ft. For long hauls of up to 1500 nm we play the winds aloft and like to go to about 20,000 - 22,000 ft. The cabin at these altitudes stays about 2500 ft if we don’t go above FL220, above that it begins to drop off to about 4500ft at FL250."

"As we level out we gain speed to indicate about 200 to 210 knots which gives us a 260 to 270 knots true. We lean back to auto lean then to peak on our BMEP and back another 2 to 12 drop below that. This gives us about 50 to 55 % power at 32.5" MAP and 2200 RPM. The adjusted fuel flows are now about 91gal/hr per engine. Our props settle down to a quiet 990 RPM and we usually switch tanks to the wings or rears and put on the tunes to enjoy the rest of the flight as the noise level comes down so much that we don’t have to have headsets."

Article link: http://www.flightsimonline.com/howar...500history.htm

[Milton Shupe]

Thanks Tufun. That article by Dave Cummins is also included in the Docs folder with the aircraft. :-)

[Willy]

Left Baltimore at dusk for Bermuda. Another night flight in the bag. Did some more playing with the controls to get a feel for them. I've got a long over water flight next and want to make sure I make it.

[Milton Shupe]

Willy, if you have AFSD, you can set the fuel air mixture perfectly at .0830 at any altitude for optimum performance.

But using the BMEP gauges to peak torque, then going lean a touch, you should be fine.

You can also watch the fuel flow gauges as you adjust that and see the impact.

[Willy]

I replaced the flowmeter with a fuel status gauge that gives flow, fuel remaining, fuel used, time to empty and range. Just lightly bump the mixture levers, throttles or pitch and you'll see a difference immediately. It comes in very handy for this kind of stuff.

[Willy]

After a week or so of enjoying Bermuda, it was time to head on. I took off before daylight with a full load of fuel and headed east to Flores in the Azores. Sure is a long flight when you're trying to manage your fuel, but I managed.

Place sure looks different than the last time I was here and there was an aluminum scrap drive going on....

[Milton Shupe]

The Azores were always a favorite place for me to fly, especially in older aircraft like Jan Visser's original DC-3. Nice little jaunts from island to island in foul weather.

Oh, BTW, did you know that the GPS on the main panel can be turned off? Scott added an off/on switch top right, just a little round button that, on most of that ilk, do nothing.

[Willy]

Didn't know that about turning the GPS off. O' course if I did turn it off, I'd probably end up in Antarctica while trying to go to Cleveland.

Haven't flown in the Azores much, but right now, I'm just passing through.

[Willy]

Decided to press on a bit more and left Flores for Santa Maria. It's probably a good thing that the Howard doesn't have a tailhook as it would have been tempting to land on that old aircraft carrier that I overflew enroute. Anyways it wasn't a bad flight even with the fog at LPAZ on landing.

[Willy]

Departed Santa Maria heading on in a eastish direction to Madeira. Still working out a few minor problems with my descent from cruise altitude, but it's coming along nicely. Just got to get a better feel for it. At least this time I wasn't at approach altitude 20 miles out.

Working on ideas for my next destination....

[Milton Shupe]

Great shots Willy. Thanks for sharing the adventures.

Well, if it were me, I'd head to the Africa coast, then up to Casablanca.

From there, since I prefer mountainous scenery, to Lisbon, then North to Spain following the Pyrenees across Spain catching Santillano, Santander, Bilbao, then on to the catch the French Alps,


Alternatively, from Lisbon, you could head East to Seville, then down to Malaga, then follow the coast up to Cartagena, Valencia, and Barcelona as you head to the French Mediterranean. :-)

[Willy]

That's kind of what I've had in mind.

[Willy]

Flew on from Madeira on into Casablanca. Nice flight although it did get a bit foggy at the end. I did find the Howard parking at the airport though....

[Willy]

Not much going on here this afternoon, so I took off from Casablanca to Lisbon. Nice flight and got a good parking spot at the airport. I did watch an Aeroflot Ilushin land before I hit the pilot's lounge...