First Look: Boeing 307 Stratoliner Improvement mod, Full flight

In this video I will be looking at a recent improvement to the Boeing 307 Stratoliner for MSFS 2020. I will be carrying out a full flight from La Gaurdia to Chicago O'Hare. This is a full rundown of what the mod changes as well as a brief history of the Strotoliner.
The Stratoliner was one of the most iconic aircraft from the golden age of flight. I hope you enjoy this glimpse to the past through the lens of MSFS. If you enjoyed it please let me know in the comments below. Giving it a like and subscribing would be appreciated as well. Thanks for watching!
Redgrave Redux Improvement mod:
flightsim.to/file/68959/micro...

[@rileyreynolds924]

This is stellar, thank you! There are often so few resources for these old planes, which are my favorite. The default condition of this plane was unacceptable, and I'm eager to finally experience it!

[@Fly-to-the-past]

You’re welcome! The old planes are my favorite too and I wasn’t seeing a lot of coverage on them so I decided to do it myself. I was not happy with the default setup for this beautiful aircraft either and didn’t fly it for months because of it. This mod adds much needed life to the stratoliner. It was recently updated too so perhaps I need to do an overview of that. Thanks for the comment, happy flying!

[@eduardogranja6418]

Awesome video, will have to try it again. Thanks for the history pice!

[@Fly-to-the-past]

Thank you! It’s a huge improvement and it has been updated even since I did the video. Highly recommend it. And you’re very welcome, I hope you were able to learn something from it.

[@MrWildbil7]

enjoy your vids of the old planes of yester year.

[@Fly-to-the-past]

Thank you sir. I’m glad you enjoy them. I enjoy flying these old planes and sharing their history with others. If there is a particular plane or route you’d like to see featured let me know.

[@anthonyvallillo422]

Excellent video! The Redwing 1935 sceneries are a welcome addition indeed, for this sort of golden-age flying; however, I would have voted for 1940 as a timeline instead of 1935 precisely because of LGA. Actually, in this era, EWR was the airport for NY, and the Redwing 1935 scenery for EWR is fairly accurate. I think they also have a decent Chicago Municipal Airport, the predecessor of Midway. The navigation would have been by 4-course range, of course, but there is already a mod out for that in MSFS. DIfferent matter - are you certain that the run up prior to takeoff was done side to side; ie, with 1 and 2 and then 3 and 4? Running the engines on one side up to a high rpm would be problematic, particularly on slippery surfaces. I believe they did 1 and 4 and then 2 and 3. Nice flight overall. Hope the bill for the several runway lights wasn't too costly!

[@Fly-to-the-past]

Thank you! I certainly agree with you on the timeline. I would have liked to see it be more like 1940 and perhaps a set up for more in the 1950s when propliners were really kings of the skies. I normally do fly from EWR but I chose this route because it was part of the virtual airline I am a part of. If I recall correctly, wasn’t LGA started because Gov. Laguardia got upset at having to drive for longer to get downtown from Newark? Radio range is also something I normally do but felt it would be too much to do while trying to record a video. It is quite the challenge to use those old school ways of navigation! I’m looking to dive into celestial navigation next. As far as the run up is concerned you could be right, I just did what made the most sense to me. I didn’t see anything in the manual about that but I could have missed it. The bill for the lights wasn’t too bad, they went easy on me. I really have only landed the 307 probably 3 times. Obviously I need more practice at that. Thanks for the comment and I’m glad you enjoyed the video!

[@anthonyvallillo422]

@@Fly-to-the-past-- Yes, Fiorello LaGuardia (the mayor of New York then and for a long time) started pushing for an airport in New York City when he got tired of seeing his city's airport located out in the wilds of New Jersey. Actually, the drive from downtown to EWR was and still is shorter than the drive to LGA, provided there is little traffic. Of course, that situation never prevails! The publicity "stunt" that the mayor pulled to draw attention to the situation involved his refusal to disembark from a TWA flight to "New York", which of course had landed at EWR. He had the press along on the trip, and he made a big deal of pointing out that his ticket read "New York". TWA, which apparently was not completely in the dark about what was to happen on this flight, obliged by continuing the flight to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, satisfying "hizzoner" and opening the political gates to the development of the super airport that would eventually bear the Mayor's name.

[@Fly-to-the-past]

That is the story I remembered. It’s very interesting to get into the history of the airports that we fly out of. It’s also ironic that the drive is shorter from Newark, I did not realize that since I don’t frequent that area in the real world. Ernest Gann talks about flying out of Newark in Fate is the Hunter and his perils of trying to tame the DC-2 on landings there. What a time to be flying, with new technology coming out and being used and danger around every turn.

[@anthonyvallillo422]

@@Fly-to-the-past I spent most of a 31 year airline career flying out of all three NY area airports, and it depends upon where you are in NY as to which of the airports is nearest. Obviously, from Queens it is JFK and/or LGA. This is true of at least the upper east side of Manhattan as well. But from lower Manhattan, especially on the West Side, EWR is closer in both distance and, usually, time. This is largely due to the near impossibility of getting cross-town in any reasonable length of time! I once had to drive from EWR to JFK, which is a trip best taken via the NJ turnpike to the GW bridge and thence via the Triboro bridge past LGA and down the Van Wyck to JFK. Of course this is over twice as much distance as a route through lower Manhattan, so since it was somewhere around 02:00 in the Big Apple I decided to cast my lot with the trans-Manhattan route. Big mistake! Cross-town traffic was still a nightmare, even at night! Took twice as long as the long-way-round would have done. We live and learn!

[@Fly-to-the-past]

That’s quite a long career flying. What types were you typically flying? It’s an intriguing layout that NY has for airports. I would have thought at 02:00 that it would have been quicker to do it that way as well. I guess it really is the city that never sleeps. Lesson learned that day I’m sure.

[@French28Pilot]

My stratoliner cant level off: with the kap 140 when I flick alt hold it holds and levels off for about ten seconds and then it starts climbing again. what is surprising though is that when I bring back tge throttles it levels off. In fact, my stratoliner cant level off cuz when it says ALT HOLD, If I am at a higher thrust than climb setting then it will push the aircraft upwards, but this is not a problem since it does this in all aircraft but the problem is that my kap140 cannot handle that speeds and it just dont fight it just let it climb so yeah I have to go to like 150knots knowing that it can go way faster so plz can someone help me plz? Also, does the improvement mod fixes the issue I am dealing with rn?

[@Fly-to-the-past]

@French28Pilot that is an interesting problem. I don’t think I’ve run into this issue. What power settings are you using for cruise just out of curiosity? I know there are some conflicts between the sperry gyropilot (in the center pedestal) and the KAP140 so that could be the source of the issues you are having. The mod is a huge improvement over the default aircraft. I believe there was some work done on the autopilot and further work is planned. Could you walk me through your level off procedure? Perhaps I can render assistance better by knowing that.

[@French28Pilot]

@@Fly-to-the-past Ok so I downloaded the improvement mod and it seems to have fixed my issue: my issue was that in cruise , I used like flex or sometimes even maximum thrust and that makes the plane pitch up you see? But the kap140 was in alt hold mode so he should do so but it didnt it just let the plane pitch up. So I thought: well , maybe I have to reduce the thrust. And I did so and I put the "climb" setting and it went fine but like I cant let it cruise at 130knots its way too slow so I downloaded your mod and it fixed it . I went into TOGA thrust and it leveled off perfectly and now I can cruise at like 185knots which is better. The only thing I notice is that the MAXIMUM cruise speed it around 220knots and so it makes me say: But this airplane is pretty slow. So is it an error of mine cuz I put all mixtures to auto- rich, propellee to max 100%, everything to max like max thrust, I even let on the fuel boost pumps. I cant find the supercharger button like in the dc6 because I think this would give it a LOT more power. Please can you tell le where is the supercharger ? And thx for the mod link it fixed the issue like I said even at 180knots it doesnt pith up anymore

[@Fly-to-the-past]

@French28Pilot I'm glad the mod seems to have helped with your issue. The superchargers on this plane, with the mod, kick in at 10,000 feet automatically. On the TWA version of this plane it had a lever on the floor to shift into the second stage, on the Pan Am versions (which this plane is modelled after) there were no two stage superchargers. With that in mind the mod creator coded them to automatically engage at 10k feet. I have found that I have been able to achieve the correct speeds at altitude, cruise setting is around 30" of manifold pressure and 2,000 rpm, set mixtures to auto lean to save fuel and get better power up high. Keep in mind that at higher altitudes the pressure altitude may be different leading to you indicated airspeed (what is shown in the plane) being lower than your true airspeed. Give it a try up around 18k to 20k feet and see how she does. Let me know if I can be of more assistance.

[@French28Pilot]

@@Fly-to-the-past wait do you mean that above 10K feet I should put auto-lean mixture instead of auto-rich? Ok I got it for the superchargers so in the TWA variant theres a lever and on the others it just auto kicks in. Ok thank you for this information this is helpful for me thx and also beautiful scenery of La guardia I dont even imagine how they would land at night cuz theres like no papi at all haha:) Super vid

[@Fly-to-the-past]

@French28Pilot typically I leave the mixture in auto rich until I level off in cruise. Then as part of my cruise checks I set mixtures to auto lean, regardless of what altitude I’m cruising at. The TWA vs Pan Am differences are only on the real aircraft, there is no lever in this model and both have automatic superchargers. Sorry for the confusion. As far as night landing in the scenery for 1935 it’s a challenge for sure. You really have to memorize the sight picture during the day and use perimeter lights to try and match that, it’s not easy at all. Those guys were the real deal back then.