Kee Bird recovery, a curious queston

[engguy]

On that show, it said Rick had a back problem. It looked that it was the case, if it was a kidney problem I doubt he would have made it as far as he did.
Other than the cold that would have been a fun expedition to be on. I wish they would have shown more than what they did. It could have been a 6 hour or longer movie. I'm guessing they brought some machines for the machinist they had with them.
The thing I don't understand at all is that they had to transplant many parts off the old engines on the plane to the engines that they brought with them. Rick mentioned having to take the carburetors off etc. I don't get that, I would think the carbs would be pretty crusty after sitting in that cold for so long. I would have thought they would want those new engines to be as complete as possible.
So are there anymore aircraft like the Kee Bird out there waiting to be fixed and flown?

[Second Air Force]

engguy,

Don't forget that Kriege got at least one of the ORIGINAL engines running the first year. Cold storage kept that airplane in remarkable condition until the "gotta go!" syndrome caught up to her.

Scott

[coastdef]

Filling tires with propane was extremely common among farmers where I grew up (western Oklahoma). Many of them had trucks converted to run on propane, and everyone had a hose that hooked onto the vapor outlet that they used to air truck tires, equipment tires, etc. Amazingly, I never heard of anyone being injured doing this (and I did it myself a million times as a kid), though it doesn't sound like a good idea now!

Regards,

Andy

Wasn't there a part where the tire(?) came of the rims and he got them
back on and inflated them with propane. He clearly was a problem solver

When I flew Twin Otters in the bush on oversize "tundra" tires we always ran them with tubes for the very reason you saw with the Caribou's nose tires.

I've seen that movie numerous times and it sure looked to me like they were gonna pull the gear once they got airborne. I kept waiting for the big, pink, explosion watching that sequence.

Dan

[Second Air Force]

Disregard.

Scott

[Sgt13Echo]

Rick Kriege died of internal bleeding two weeks after they brought him back to a hospital.

He had been taking pain killers for what he thought was back pain. I am saddened every time I watch this episode of NOVA.

[agent86]

Oh and we used bailing wire to attach the APU and tank right?

[Matt Gunsch]

How about this, the tank for the APU worked, but it was the idiot who forgot to turn the APU off like he was supposed to..........

[wwrw2007]

How about this, the tank for the APU worked, but it was the idiot who forgot to turn the APU off like he was supposed to..........

It was my understanding confirmed by the late great Gary Austin that the APU had to be running while on the ground as the generators at low speed don't produce enough current to operate all systems. Supposedly he was adding or proposed adding more batteries to FIFI so they didn't have to run the APU.

[wwrw2007]

I found the thread where Gary discussed the APU. One other point he made. Even if the APU was shut down it was still hot from running while starting the engines so there's a good chance it still would have caught fire when the gas spilled on it.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11236&hilit=kee+bird+apu&start=15

[the330thbg]

from my understanding you need to run the APU to get No 1 started.., after No 2 starts that generates enough power to enable you to shut down the APU.

[Stephan Wilkinson]

Wasn't there a part where the tire(?) came off the rims and he got them
back on and inflated them with propane. He clearly was a problem solver

A pretty standard field technique. Been around for ages. Not to disparage the mech, but it's not like he came up with the idea out of the blue.

[Enemy Ace]

Just FYI everybody severe back pain is a symptom of Kidney problems, most commonly with kidney stones or kidney infection. If it is a stone the pain goes away when the stone begins to move and passes... but that's about like saying hitting yourself in the head with a hammer will make you forget all about your stubbed toe.

[agent86]

Just FYI everybody severe back pain is a symptom of Kidney problems, most commonly with kidney stones or kidney infection. If it is a stone the pain goes away when the stone begins to move and passes... but that's about like saying hitting yourself in the head with a hammer will make you forget all about your stubbed toe.

approx.20 yrs ago,I had kidney stones and believe me .they hurt.worst pain in my life.took MORPHINE to settle me down

[p51]

I can’t go into too much detail on it, but I served with someone who’d been with a government team of people from various agencies looking over the broken arrow incident at Thule in the 60s (BUFF crash with several nukes, ending the “Chrome Dome” missions. The HE charges went off on most/all of them but the primaries did not), and was at Greenland in the late 90s. He told me that while he was there, he asked about the Kee Bird incident as it hadn’t been but just a few years. One of the higher-level USAF folks there told him that the base HQ was well aware of the recovery operation at the time. What the USAF didn’t tell anyone at the time was they were going to ground the B-29 the moment it landed there had they recovered the plane. From what I’d gathered, they were going to ground the plane until it met USAF standards to leave, which would have meant a great deal more work to be done. Given the bare-bones nature of the operation, I’d think that the B-29 would possibly be still sitting on the ramp or in a hangar at Thule had they managed to get it off the ice and to that field. I can’t imagine it’d been in the states for the Reno air races that year, anyway.

approx.20 yrs ago,I had kidney stones and believe me .they hurt.worst pain in my life.took MORPHINE to settle me down

Yeah, I had a huge one in 1996, they had to use lithotripsy (sp?) to break it up and it just congealed and two nights later I felt like I was going to die. If I'd been able to get to gun I would have shot myself it hurt that much. I can't say I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but I can't think of anyone I dislike that much personally...