I've taken the Lockheed Constellation around the globe three times now with 1580+ hours on the airframe and my second set of engines were getting due for some attention. Sense I was headed back to the U.S. I decided to take her home to Burbank, CA to the Lockheed factory. Three weeks ago I landed at KBUR with an appointment at the maintenance hanger. They were to have their best mechanics waiting for us. They were instructed to spare no costs on the overhauls. I wanted the engines run and tested and all four engines are to be evenly match in performance across the board. Upon completion, myself, my copilot and my FE did some ground tests putting the engines through runups and such. The mechanics did an amazing job with all engines performing almost 100% equal in all aspects, i.e. MP, RPM, Fuel Flow, BMEP, Oil pressures, etc. Each mechanic received a little extra for their efforts. We filed a VOR flight plan for Puerto Vallarta, loaded passengers, started engines and did our final preflight checklist. Everything was looking great and we were anxious to fully test the new power plants. When we got to the item of cycling the props we could not get the light on engine 1 to show full coarse. The light would work on full fine but not on full coarse. We disembarked the passengers and told them to go grab a Grape NeHi. The mechanic found an actuator that was sticking and replaced it. Several more runups and we were loading passengers. Betty had scurried into town and brought back some Bear Claws and Apple Fritters for everyone from a local bakery.
We're currently over Los Mochis, Mexico at FL230. All engines are within 0.1 MP, 2-3 RPM, 5 PPH fuel flow, 1-2 BMEP, 5 PSI oil pressure, etc. The only constant with all three sets of engines has been that engine 4 runs cooler than all the rest. I'm thinking this has been coded into the aircraft on purpose.
I certainly hope that the L049 makes the leap into MSFS.
Thanks for the awesome product A2A
Cheers
Roger
