Hi: I had the privilege of flying this very F7F as a fire retardant aircraft when it was owned by Johnson Flying Service of Missoula Montana. It was one sweet machine.. Even with a 900 gallon tank on the belly it handled very well.I could fly it with just 2 fingers on the stick. I would go to a fire at 275-300 knots and come home at close to 400 knots. When dropping the retardant it would tend to pitch up but that was reduced if you dropped with gear down. It is great to see this F7F restored to its original colors and still flying. Cheers Jack Yarnall
John Yarnall Hi John, How many horse power per engine you had on your bird ? And what about shock cooling the engines .....did you have to deal with this issue ? Cheers from France lucky man 👍
Hi: The engines are Pratt & Whitney R 2800 and about 2000 to 2200 hp. You could get another 200 to 300 hp by using the water injection. As for cooling the engines I usually maintained at least 15 inches of manifold pressure during a drop. I also dropped with the gear down to slow down and reduce the tendency of the nose to pitch up during the drop. I used the flaps as well once the airspeed was within limits. I would usually go to a fire at 275-300 knots and come home a good bit faster. It was certainly a beautiful plane to fly. Cheers Jack
John Yarnall Thanks JOHN for your reply.very interesting infos. We would need your expertise down here in France....we are experiencing forest fire everywhere since July ......as usual. Take care . Cheers from France
And best sounding... two big twin-row radials, and in a fighter they're going hard, not just tonking along like a passenger plane. One of these making a fast low pass sounds incredible.
This video is the best looking, sweetest sounding of all Tigercat vids on YT. Thank you, Voodoo, for posting it. For those unaware N700F was an EAA Grand Champion/Warbird Restoration in 1985. I recall working her first flights, post restoration. Very little, if any, expense was spared in the restoration effort. Better than fresh-from-the-factory 40 years prior. I had the privilege of riding shotgun in THIS aircraft back in September of 1998 with a parachute on my back and one BIG grin on my face during a museum open house at Kalamazoo, Michigan. The backseater does not sit on a seat, per se. It's a wingspar and to sit correctly it must be done cross-legged. No flight controls in back and in no way could tall Marines fly in the back of this machine. If one is a 6-footer or more one's head is kissing the canopy. For me, the overall feel of riding in the back of the Tigercat was akin to riding on rails. So smooth and powerful. We were lead ship in a formation flight of 3; P-47 and F6F on the wing. To John Ellis, the man who commanded N700F over Michigan's blue skies for 25 years: Thank you again, for the joy from that afternoon.
That was Frickin' SEXUAL in stereo!! Gotta change my underwear as I think I happened to "Spot" a little. Or a LOT! EXCELLENT AIRCRAFT and my All-Time Favorite!!
So true. They hold an air show at Avalon in Australia and bring an american announcer that won't stfu and play "I went to the danger zone" full volume on a shitty p.a system.
I recognize this one, she came from the airzoo in Kalamazoo. I remember seeing her before she was sold. Happy to see her flying again! Those R2800 Double Wasp engines are music to my ears!
This is my boyfriends computer....... My Dad was a test pilot for this plane in WWII. He flew so many different planes but this was his favorite. because he had training in twin engine planes he was assigned by the Marines to fly this one when it came out. He was a 2nd lieutenant, and his birthday is July 21! So thank you for this it gave me goose bumps the engine sound is amazing! And the barrel rolls!! Awesome.... he's in heaven now but I feel close to him watching this. p.s. I have his flight book , which my cousin who is a pilot is deciphering now and he's amazed at all the planes he flew and taught others to fly!
Sure do miss this big beast over the skies of Michigan. Many a time, I watched John Ellis lead the Air Zoo's FLIGHT OF THE GRUMMAN CATS in this very Tigercat.
Beautiful Aircraft! Incredible filming an editing! You had the second best seat in the house it looks like! Couldn't beat stew' s seat. Lol! Great to see Stewart performing. Need to see him perform at an airshow or reno someday. Tigercat has got to be Cadillac compared to the bear. Especially during landing. Lol!
IN THE WORLD OF OLDER WARBIRDS THERE NONE FINER THAN THE F7F TIGERCAT, IN MY OPINION , IT WAS SO UNDERRATED , I BELEIVE IT WAS BETTER THAN ANY OTHER TWIN EVER BUILT, THE MOSSIE, THE LIGHTNING , THEY COULDNT HOLD A CANDLE TO THIS BEAUTIFUL BIRD
I'm sitting at the 'board' in a recording studio. Huge screen. To-die-for sound system (If I remember correctly, each side has a Crown XTi 2000 watts feeding a custom built crossover in turn feeding: 3 each 24" sub's, 4 each low-mids and 5 each hi-mids, and 8 tweeters. It was built for sound quality, not necessarily for quantity....but it'l do in a pinch for quantity if needed). At 6:08 I think the whole building was going to come down on my head! Watching this specific video was GLORIOUS! No talking, just beautiful 'music'! This system also does a fairly good job with Rush or AC/DC when nothing else is going on. Jus sayin.... Many other vids has music or talking or yuck. THIS is a dang good video!!
Played this thing in war thunder and fell In love with it. Its a beautiful aircraft. It's incredibly fast and really loves to keep it's speed. And in a dive it picks up speed like nothing else and keeps it. And that beautiful sound it makes irl
So... Not many people can probably appreciate this, but for a WWII fighter to go from a loop straight into an Immelmann and then into a half Cuban. That is a ridiculous power to weight ratio. I'm not sure any other plane from that era could pull that series of maneuvers off as quickly as this plane did.
