Don Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 I believe the gear stays down to essentially keep things simple and minimize potential problems during the first flight. Keep the gear down and focus on testing the more essential systems like engines, instruments, and flight controls/flight characteristics/aircraft handling. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steve N Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 (edited) I watched the live stream of the flight at work (not supposed to use work computers for such frivolites, but I'm the only one there on Sunday mornings ;) ) what an awesome sight! I'm assuming more and longer hops are intended in the coming days. I certainly applaud them for being very cautious and methodical..the B-29 is an incredibly complex aircraft. Edited July 18, 2016 by Steve N Quote Link to post Share on other sites
yardbird78 Posted July 18, 2016 Author Share Posted July 18, 2016 The flight plan for DOC's first flight called for just one lap around the pattern and then land. If they had raised the gear, it would barely be in the wells when they would have to put it back down. I would imagine that the fuel load for that 1st flight was pretty small, so if they raised the gear and then had a problem, they might not have enough fuel to fly long enough to sort out the problem and fix it. The runway remaining markers seem to indicate a take off in about 3,000 feet, so she was really light. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TaiidanTomcat Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 Epic!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
yardbird78 Posted July 19, 2016 Author Share Posted July 19, 2016 One report that I just read says that they had an engine malfunction light and decided to land. The initial plan was to fly a little longer. Darwin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Don Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 I remember when my house was on...under...FiFi's flight path for hauling around the "Fly in a B-29" baggage. FREAKING WOW on the thunder noise level!!! I'd be sitting on my deck and that B-29 shook everything! I can't imagine a whole squadron of them flying over. DOC is GREAT news! Now...where's that B-36! Never seen one fly nor even heard one run up but that must have been amazing!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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