Tense moments for the Connie over Sun N’ Fun

The CONNIE is one of the most beautiful flying machines ever to grace the skies. So glad it is still flying for generations to enjoy.

"A down gear is a happy gear" No, don't 'cycle' it. My vote too.

By Far.... the most beautiful airplane in the skies today. THANK YOU for "Keeping" it Flying!!!!!

Can you imagine back in the day when keeping hundreds of big radial engine airliners operational and flying safely was everyday stuff? God bless people who are willing to invest the blood, sweat, tears and $ into keeping such classics flying. Thank You

I remember this beautiful bird sitting in a fenced lot at Ft Rucker Al, years ago just rotting away, all I could think at the time was "What a shame." Thanks for all the effort in bringing her back to the beautiful machine she was meant to be.

In December of 1949 I flew on a MATS Connie (as a 5-year-old) from San Francisco to Honolulu. Even at that "tender" age I was struck by the inherent beauty of that "beast". It was the first time I'd ever seen an airplane, but my little mind still marveled at the overwhelming majesty that lay before me.

What a goat-rope. Since this is a very old aircraft and just out of heavy maintenance, I don't believe I would've screwed around with the landing gear. The video is edited so I'm not sure what transpired from the decision to just leave landing gear down and the approach & landing, but it appears there was no crew briefing on how this was to be accomplished, and assignment of duties. The video gives the impression that the PIC had something unusual he wanted to do (like hold the nose up as long as possible, etc.), but the SIC seemed to have other ideas as to what his function was and during the landing rollout proceeded to inject himself into the program causing a lot of barking back and forth with the pilot flying. They did manage to take out a couple of taxi lights, but the aircraft appears undamaged. Hopefully, going forward, they'll have a debriefing, critique their performance, and come up with some crew procedures. Gorgeous aircraft - one of my favorite since I was a kid.

Best looking airplane ever built

Towards the end of the landing roll, there were too many “cooks in the kitchen” and the left seat pilot started to protest for everyone to just wind it back a bit. That’s command authority right there.

There is nothing like hearing her approaching our house and running out to see her fly over! Makes my week❣️🙋🏼‍♀️

During the takeoff runn, I thought about the incredible complexity of the engines, and all the other systems...that Constellation is one of the beauties of the propeller age, like the Mosquito, Spitfire, and Mustang! Thanks to all who keep her in the air!

Never said what they found as the problem….left me hanging.

I piloted the Super Connie for Eastern between Houston and NY back in around 54 or 55 , Of course I was only 5 or 6 years old and sitting on the captains lap and steering the wheel. Now that guy in the right seat was just resting his hands on the other wheel because I was flying the plane, at least in this little boy's mind, I was flying the plane. I'll never forget that experience. Worked at IAH in later years and one came in as a cargo hauler (late 80's-early 90s), I crawled up in it and when I stepped down into the flight deck it all came back after all those years. Love that plane and Howard Hughes was the driving force behind engineering the Super Connie.

Utter professionalism. Obvious care for safety, the crew, crowd, and preserving that beautiful bird. Well done to all involved.

Rod Lewis ,Thank you for having this beautiful airplane restored and made flight worthy so many people like myself can appreciate what our fathers flew in during their time in their militaryu services. My father flew with tha Paang ang crewed on some of the remaining static c-121's left . So again thank you Rod Lewis for bring Bataan out for everyone to see , and thank you to Steve Hintons POF for the amazing restoration.

The Connie is such a beautiful aircraft! Lockheed with help from Howard Hughes designed a gorgeous airplane! This is an excellent video, thanks!!

My late Father-in-law's favorite airplane to work on. Came out of the Navy working on P2Vs and worked for TWA for 37 years at San Francisco International. Always liked the Connie the best of all the airplanes TWA flew. At the beginning of the video when you were starting #3 engine, reminded me of a story he told me about having the number 3 engine tear its self off the wing during start up. They found out that the pin that holds the massive counterweight in that big ole R3350 had broken and the engine was so out of balance on start up it torn the motor mounts before they could shut it down. He said the engine came to rest on the spinner held vertically by all the cables and hoses still attached to the wing. Said it was a really long night getting that engine off and replaced to get the aircraft back in flying condition.

Beautiful aircraft. So glad they got back safely. It was awesome that there are dedicated people who preserve and maintain these aircraft from a time gone by.

Thank you all for taking care of this world asset. It needs to fly but it needs to fly safely. Wonderful job

Wow, I recorded this startup, take-off and flight. But never knew there was an issue with the nose gear. It was definitely a smart decision to come back and land when you had "3 green" after cycling the gear. This is no doubt the most beautiful, majestic aircraft I've ever seen! I hope we get to see it again at Oshkosh 2024.