Ok – if you saw the test flight video – the trim settings were as follows – full right aileron, full right rudder trim and lots of down elevator. As you can see the aircraft was flown full throttle right wing down until landing, at which time the RPM matched up and she flew straight.
Post flight inspection will follow, but first I need to tell you about the plane as we found it. I do not have any photos but she was found on the bottom storage rack of a garage virtually rotting away, there were no servos or gear and the ailerons were hanging by a thread. The nose and cockpit glass were cracked and falling away. The owner had planned to rebuild her some day but never got around to it so it sat in an Arizona garage collecting wasp nests.
The idea to build a “Battle Damaged” aircraft originated during a F4U Corsair project for a 
One Eight Air force Show in which I came across this photo. Clearly you can see this pilot is having a somber moment after having flown this bird home.
Anyway – when I saw the B-25 I knew right away it was the perfect candidate to run the “Battle Damaged Experiment” so a little wheeling and dealing and she now occupied Roy’s Garage.
For essentially $600 in plane and used parts everything was prepped and ready for building. This was exactly 30 days before Warbirds Over the Rockies and every turn of this build revealed dried out, brittle or rotten material – so the comedy statement in the garage became “JUST GLUE IT!”
Nearly everything on this bird was patched with CA or Epoxy and small strips of fiberglass. A good example of this was when we ran the G-38’s for the first time - a small crack appeared where the left engine nacelle mounts to the main wing assembly. By the time we got the engine shut down the crack had grown nearly 2 inches and the engine almost fell off. The fix was rather complex – 6oz cloth, 5 minute epoxy thinned with rubbing alcohol and paint.
Somewhere along the line the entire fuselage warped, twisting the tail section. The fix for this was a little more complex we applied 6oz cloth, 5 minute epoxy thinned with rubbing alcohol and paint.
If you saw the video of the first test flight, the post flight inspection revealed even with a soft landing the main gear blocks had completely fallen apart – the fix was complex - 6oz cl
oth, 5 minute epoxy thinned with rubbing alcohol and paint. I can tell you about more problems but they were all fixed the same way- - 6oz cloth, 5 minute epoxy thinned with rubbing alcohol and paint :)
The real beauty of this plane was not the plane; rather it was the realism of battle damage reflected in Roy’s final paint job. While I can achieve an excellent weathered look, Roy can simulate heat, fire and burn damage beyond expectation as evident in this photo of the nose. This was an effect both Roy and I have been developing in our building and painting skills for a long time.
The previous Ghost Squadron award winning projects (P-38 Death Dealer and P-61 Widow Maker) were preludes to Last Ride. We had considered battle damage on both projects, but after the final project cost were in, there was just no way we could justify blowing holes in either of these planes.
So Last Ride was the test platform – and I have to say once you make the commitment to build a plane that you know will crash, your imagination is “Freed” in ways that you would never consider in the traditional RC world of war birds.
For example, Roy and I entered into discussions with the pyrotechnics team at WOR to load the plane to explode during the main event. However the WOR safety rule is, “If you haven’t done it before, don’t do it here”.
So we decided not to risk an incident and instead planned to try and hit the plane with the simulated FLAK shots and fire balls. The FLAK missed but it sure was exciting trying.
In this photo you can see the size of the pyrotechnics, which would clearly down a plane.
The flight on Friday is probably going to be the best film footage when it comes in as Last Ride was the only plane flying at the time. The flight will look identical to the test flight but we did retract the gear and run the smoke system. If they filmed me, you will see that I’m shaking so bad trying to hold her in the air that Team Powers said, “The antenna of my radio made it look like I was trying to Hook the big one!”
On Saturday just before take off - we noticed air was leaking out of the main gear so we took the air pump with us to the line and filled up just before roll out. By the time she rotated and lifted off the ground the air pressure was gone and the gear were left dangling.
n our opinion this just added to the effect of battle damage and with the plane already so out of trim we pushed on with the flight. The plan was to fly into the FLAK, pop smoke, simulate loss of control and come down for a simulated crash landing.
Essentially Last Ride would be the first up and first down in the 
bomber gaggle. Everything went as planned and with the gear hanging down it only added to the realism of the plane.
Last Ride flew several passes and settled in for the FLAK run, after the big booms smoke went on and to simulate loss of control I stop holding right aileron which caused her to begin rolling and pitching.
During the build we had considered making one gear fail but decided instead to shim out the gear. The result was, in the fully retracted position each wheel hung out of the wheel well half way. This effectively allowed the plane to sit on the tires even when fully retracted, as you can see here in this photo of LR just after the belly landing. To support the back end there is a round belly gun turret that is filled with hardened liquid foam.
The props are Master Air Screw plastics and there was no fear of these things breaking, if you have been in the hobby for a while you know these will take a beating and keep on going. Anyway, as you would guess the crowd loved it. Rick of Team Powers said, “It all looked planned and the crash landing could not have been more perfect”. We picked the undamaged plane up, extended the gear, set her down in the show center grass area and watched the rest of the bombers and fighter fly, including the full scale fly over of a P51 Mustang.
There is so much going on at WOR that we never flew the P-38 or P-61. Roy and I spent the rest of the day helping Team Powers, looking at planes and talking with other pilots. Roy and I both did interviews with the film crews letting them know, “Last Ride was designed to Crash on Both Days” and make sure to get film on Sunday.
Saturday night at the WOR Banquet I thought there might be a chance the (Ghost Squadron) combination of P38, P-61 and the PBJ could get recognized with one of the smaller plaques.
Last year I brought home a plaque award for the WWI aircraft JN4-Jenny and the DH4. The Big Eagle awards are for expert builders such as Ken Perkins, Bob Fry and planes like Dave G’s Fire Ball.
But as the award ceremony progressed and the seven small plaques were handed out – Roy and I just sat back to enjoy the rest of the dinner show and watch Ken Perkins collect several of the big Eagles awards. Never, in either one of our minds did we ever consider the surprise we were in for.
Sitting on the far right of the award table are the “BIG” awards, you know the ones reserved for the big time modelers like Paul LeTourneau and his giant B-25. In fact during this part of the dinner I was busy stuffing my face with Prime Rib and talking to Sam W. about his idea for a new Magazine dedicated to Scale planes. (U.S. Scale Aviation)
Subsequently when Brian O. announced they had a new category this year for best “Static Display,” I just kept on chewing. Roy and the guys from Team Powers had to point out Brian was talking about Last Ride. So, with a face full of Prime Rib I accepted this beautiful award from Brian and WOR team.
Who would have thought a garage beast would be so well received? It just goes to show it’s not always about the $’s - WOR is full of good people who like to have fun.
Now here is the crazy part of the story, its starts later that night back at the hotel when Roy and I are trying to decide whether to fly on Sunday or pack it up and head home. Here is what I said about the subject of flying on Sunday. “You know Roy, there is an Evil God that roams the flight lines of RC Scale Warbirds, and this god says you can only have so much luck. If we stay and fly - the only thing that can happen is the gods will strike us down.”
After a few minutes of quiet contemplation, we both looked at each other and said, “It’s called Last Ride for a reason, Brian needs pilots on Sunday, it was built for this show and this is the best place for a crash - let’s fly the damn thing!” Now after an opening like that do I really need to tell you what happened on Sunday?
Well I’m going to anyway :) Sunday was the same plan as Saturday – try and hit the FLAK. 
Everything went perfect until… Yes, until we hit the smoke, apparently the belly landing on Saturday knocked the restrictor valve open on the smoke pump, so effectively we were pumping one gallon a minute of smoke oil directly into the right engine.
I have to tell you this was the coolest thing any of us had seen to that point. With all the battle damage and drag, the plane could barely reach flying speed, and because the G38’s were screaming wide the smoke poured out billowing – it was so thick it actually got caught up in the vortex and swirled around the tail; it was a thing of beauty. (Hopefully the video crew caught the effect on tape)
While we were enjoying the smoke, what we did not realize was, one gallon a minute of smoke oil is going to foul the engine - which it promptly did. The plane immediately flipped over and spun straight down; I recovered initially but was pointing right at the crowd. Prior to the event, I had promised the safety officer, air boss, pyrotechnics team and Brian O. that if an engine failed, I would just point it toward an empty field and plant it. There was no reason with a nasty flying plane to try and bring it by a crowd of over 3,000 people.
So after the first recovery, instead of forcing a landing we pointed it toward the northern field, just for a second I thought about a belly landing out there, but with no air speed she flipped over on her back and spun in. As you can guess the crowd loved it!!! I think the only ones upset about the loss were the pilots.
The way Roy and I see Last Ride is this; she was one of a kind, designed to test our modeling skills and teach us new techniques for scale realism. Last Ride accomplished her mission and much more. Had we brought the plane home it would have needed to be retired because the airframe was just literally “Shot.”
Last Ride is best “Remembered” than actually scrutinized – because if you saw the mechanics up close you would run!!!! When the video comes out I will announce and post it.
Be sure to go to WOR next year, by then we will be ready with Part 4 of the Ghost Squadron - (Son of Last Ride)
