:newstuff:
Tony has been working on a (Hangar Nine, I think) T-34 Mentor airplane for several weeks now.
He wants to have something for the upcoming ACMA Warbirds Fly-In.
Much head scratching on engine mounting and retracts installation. :unsure:

Tony says that he has it all sorted and working real slick now. No malfunctions anticipated.
I asked him who would do the honors on maiden flight, Frits or Jon.
Tony indicated that he just might do it himself because he has practiced his trike gear takeoff/landing technique with my Sonic 25. :huh:

This topic will be continued with report and pictures (before and after) in a day or two.

Everyone keep their fingers and toes crossed, hope for the best, Tony don't take crashes very well.
:plane_crash: Has not really had enough practice.
He might get instructor Steve or Lanzo to stand by on a buddy/rescue box. :spin:

I have read reviews about this particular model and it has some areas of concern.
I tried to get Tony to read them to be prepared, but he refused, saying he would write his own review. :(

I feel Tony is quite capable of his own test flights. I'm sure that of the T-34 will go just fine.

:bigplane: Thank you little Mike, Alvin :fuming: :paci: likes to keep the pot boiling. mentor should fly much better than that sonic. :boxers:

Saturday, Cloudy, Windy, but not too cold.
I found out that Tony was taking his new Mentor to field and I did not want to miss any possible first flight. So I headed that way and when I arrived, Tony had his Mentor all set up, but was too windy for a first flight.
Found several of the fellows enjoying some good fried chicken and fixings.
Elton and nephew Trevor were present and Jon showed up to check the starch in windsock.



I managed a windy flight on my Sonic and got Tony to pose with his Mentor.





Tony and gang did check out radio install and worked on getting the retracts working just right.



Tony spent rest of afternoon contemplating the first flight slated for tomorrow, Sunday is forcast to be much better day.



We pulled a trick on Frits. Tony called him and said that he could use some help with recovery of his Mentor from way up in a tree. Frits took the bait and soon arrived at field saying that he never really believed the story, but always has the tree climbing spikes with him just in case.
Called Steve Drake, but he could not come out because Margo had him doing some house work so they could all come out Sunday. Steve will have something new to try, he is going to fly his little biplane with just the bottom wing.



Stay tuned for hopefully a first flight report on Sunday for the Mentor and the single wing biplane.

I seen a yellow one flew
it did just fine

That is a Nice looking plane.

It sure is, can't wait to get a shot at it in Combat next month. B) hope the first flight goes good and the landing is smooooooooooooooooooooth !

DEAR GOD he's going into a midel combat dogfight with that nice looking plane.

Sunday, Beautiful Weather, Large Crowd, Fine Food All For The Mentor First Flight.

Got to the field and no Tony. I thought he had chickened out, but found out that he was on the way.
Pits started to fill up, Tony finally showed, Margo made a run to store for Ice Cream, and me some new batteries for my camera.
Robert Sanderson brought a big color TV for us to watch race on and also some fine sausages for the grill and some of the bestest smoked pork ribs. Tony got to cooking and soon we were chowing down.

Tony had brought his pretty Titan chopper as well as the T-34 Mentor.



He got the Mentor fired up and did a knifedge takeoff because of crosswind and aileron out of trim. He handled it like a champ and pulled it out for a successful first flight. Tony did have to visit the portalet right after the flight and was gone a good long time according to David Lanzo who was timing Tony for some reason.
A couple more flights were made and some radio glitching was apparent and will have to be sorted out. He flew his helicopter and everything went home in one piece.



Not to be outdone in trying something new today, Steve Drake had his old biplane converted to a monoplane for first flight. A little while back Steve was showing out for his paw-in-law and had did an inverted landing with the bipe and sort of tore up the top wing. It flew with just the bottom wing seemingly very well. Steve says that he might use it in combat. Picture below, the single wing biplane is on Steve's right.



Here we have the 'Good Egg" Margo herself, enjoying some of the delish food hot off the grill.



And playing with her little electronic game device, is James Sansing's sweet daughter Elizibeth.



We had a wonderfull day for flying, eating, enjoying good company with the large attendance (so large that you just had to be able to find someone you liked to talk to). Hope that we have many more days like this one was.
Bye now, the full skinny on days activities will be in Frits' Pits Report for sure.

That's what good about clubs Alvin

<_< the only reason I was timing him was because I was wondering why both of you were in the porto let together...... :biggrin: :lol: :roflmao: