Here's the story
To borrow from the late Bob Serling’s excellent corporate history of TWA:
“The Connie arrived in Nassau August 2 and didn’t leave until October 27, when Hughes flew it out alone. Why he decided to fly back to Los Angeles solo, Bushey never could understand (Bill Bushey was a check FE at TWA for the 1649 and flew with Hughes in Nassau – there was no copilot aboard). They had ben discussing the return trip and Hughes suggested that Bushey might as well go home. Apparently he wasn’t sure of an exact departure date and didn’t want the flight engineer to be away from his family any longer. During that stay of almost three months, Burgess (TWA president) had been phoning Hughes in Nassau – first pleading and the demanding that he return the 1649 so it could be put into service. (Hughes had taken the second 1649 from Lockheed, destined for TWA, and would not return it until he was ready).
Bushey said “Why he didn’t ask me to wait until he was ready to go back is a complete mystery to me – he damned near killed himself flying back alone.”
“That he did. He had radioed ahead to have Lee Flanagan (TWA guy) meet him at LAX . Lee was waiting in the hangar-it was a rainy night, about 10 p.m. – when the control tower called. Hughes was trying to contact him for advice on what to do. The airport was almost socked in.”
Hughes circled for two hours and landed after midnight after flying without a copilot or FE all the way from Nassau.
Others have flown big airplanes solo but flying and watching the Connie’s FE panel at the same time would be a chore. Maybe Hughes didn’t care about temps and pressures and just flew the hell out of the bird.
Would any of you Connie guys try such a thing?