Warbird Information Exchange

Chuckie loaned us her replica .50 and looks like it fit to the mounts in the K perfectly. Made my mouth water. NO, not for BBQ pig, but how cool it looked sitting in the nose bay just begging to be locked down and the barrel sticking out of the nose. Wouldn't 8 of these things look great?? Found some of the rubber rings with canvas seals that go around the barrel/blast tubes inside the nose to seal the compartment. Have heard that anything canvas did not hold up very long in SEA so these and the canvas curtain between the nose bay and the cockpit were the first things to go. Couldn't hardly keep them going so most just flew without. I suppose a certain gunplumber might attest to this?? Randy? Randy? anyone? anyone?? Bueller took the day off. How come you haven't gotten Walt to speak up yet? And where is that O2 Lady hangin out now? We need to ask about her measurements. No, not those measurements..... the armament panel on the side of your airplane. What size is it? We know that some of the earlier aircraft in SEA did not use them, but later ones apparently did. We want to put one on the right side below the cockpit. Don't know that you would license us to copy what you have on your airplane, but that is the coolest thing. Speakin of, what do you have written on there now? This is a test to see if you remember. Ha... Mah best... JR

LOLOL Jim....I don't the size......but maybe I can go out to the hangar and measure for you......as for what it says........not sure I can write it here in the Polite Company of WIX. <busily looking for a picture of it to add....later>

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Geez, that gun looks good in there. You know, somewhere, someplace, there has got to be some of them tucked away. I read somewhere that owning any part of a real 50 cal. was illegal. Hard to belive, since you can get a permit for them. Seems like if they were de-milled they would be OK. Those replicas are really pricey, especially when you do "times 8". Looks like if you had one of them, (like the one you borrowed) you could make a fiberglass mold and cast them, and possibly use an aluminum barrel. The ammo boxes should be easy to replicate, but those feed belts would be a challenge!.
The top gun is the trick to remove and replace. When we were training to work on them at EAFB, they had us up on the flat bed and the two training Sgts. on the ground were talking us through removing the guns, starting with the top one. Somewhere I apparently missed them saying, "BE CAREFUL". While I was working the gun to remove it, I cut my hand on something, not severely, but enough to draw some blood. We were handing the gun down to the ground, the Sgt. looked at it and saw a few drops of blood on it, and calmly said, "OK, which one of you just learned how NOT to take out the top gun!" Humiliation is a great way to make you remember!!
Randy

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

O2Lady... well, of course, size does not matter except in armament panels being correctly placed etc. I think we are all adults here who may act like kids (no problem with that) so the contents of your panel would not offend 99.99 percent of the people who read these things. The other .01 percent either won't get it, or won't see the humor, in which case, there being no hope for them, they can just go stick their heads in the sand. We shouldn't run our lives for the sake of a few complainers, now should we?? Do it!!!!! Waaaa... JR

Well, I do have a line on some feed belts, barrel jackets and ammo cans. They are just expensive. I see no monetary reason why we can't go get those except we don't have any monetary. Bought R-2800 top overhaul tools this week from Sun Air. Took care of the budget for this month!!
Earlier was talking about connecting the dots for the loss of 643 at NKP and the incident I described. Got a PM that they were not the same. Thanks for that. Good to know. Now, back to dreaming up new ways to harass O2Lady!! I think it was Yeager or Hoover who said... "never fly the A model of anything" Your airplane, which was at NKP I undertand, is an O-2A. So I waited to fly the O2B, but it only dropped BS bombs and played really obnoxious speeches. Kinda like watching CNN now that I think about the political campaign season. Oops, I did it again. My bad. I have to go now!! Night, JR

Love it........but figure this "military intelligence"......the O-2A is a M337B and the O-2B is a M337A........go figure......so in fact I am flying the B model that did not drop pamphlets and play nasty music.

and ps. I actually am trying to find the picture I have of the panel so you may revel in reading it again......

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JR, I think you wanted a better shot of the water colors done by Frank Gorski. Here they are.
Randy

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

This is the only picture I have of Capt. Frank Gorski. (in the flight suit). This was taken at one of our Nimrod parties, I believe the one where he put the rotating beacon on the roof. He is surrounded by armament troops who are demanding to know how he "expended" their days work!


This is Joe Kittinger at the same party unwinding after a night on the trail. I think it's two Falstaff he's holding. We weren't choosy as long as it was cold!

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

OK gang... time to play the "Mystery Part" game again. See that little orange thingee in the picture and below it is a little white thingee? What are those and what were they for. None of the Nimrods that I have talked to remember ever using them. Didn't remember they were back there even. But JR... the real JR who has the magic hat found some replacements for the K. This tail is from #666 in the Hurlburt air park. The tail stinger is painted over, but is supposed to be clear as this is where the tail nav lights are located. EWWW, there is a clue maybe?? PS Randy and O2Lady, thanks for your pics and thoughts. I am anxiously awaiting more. Back to trying to go to sleep. JR

Formation lights??????? Heard the term before but didn't know what they were for. Looking at other pics I have they appear to be on both sides.
Or, (this is probably really a long shot!)---I have read that during WWII, when they would bomb while in formation, the rest of the formation would drop their bombs on a signal from the lead bomber/bombardier. IF they were flying at night, and under radio silence, maybe these lights would indicate "bomb doors open" and "bombs away". If it was dark, they wouldn't have been able to see the bomb doors open or bomb release from the lead aircraft.

Also found the excerpt below from another site.

"If the airplane was a former DC-3/C-47 used by the military in WWII, it would have been a light used during nighttime formation flying. This is different from, but used in combination with the navigation lights, which are red on the left wingtip and green on the right wingtip, and white on the tail, which may also have an amber formation light.

in the 1960s formation lights were mostly amber, but were changed to a green glow with the advent of strip lights. Red formation lights were discontinued shortly after WWII.

After the war, rotating red (or white) beacons or strobe lights were added and called anti-collision lights. These were mounted on the upper fuselarge or vertical stabilizer. Some aircraft (back then) also had them on the lower fuselarge."

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

I've heard of blue formation lights, but not red. Red was almost universally the passing light pre-WWII and through early WWII. They then used blue formation lights and occasionally amber. The only other red lights on the plane were the identification lights that were normally only turned on when approaching the airfield to land when you needed to identify yourself to the ground, not to your wingmen.

These "guess that part" post are fun!

Here is my guess
They are tail lights manufactured by Grimes.
Amber light is a bomb release signal lamp
White light is a position lamp
Both lights were originally located inside the clear plexiglass tailcone, but relocated to sides of aircraft as part of K model modification?

Dewayne

Aha, the game continues... clue # 2. These lights would be found on the tail of a vintage T-33 only there are just two of them and they are facing towards the back just above the tail pipe. What say ye now? BTW, I found 4 of them at Dixie Air Parts which specializes in T-33's, but they are not the same size as the ones on the K. I am coming to you from NJ tonight where it is cold and windy and can't find a good TX BBQ joint anywhere to warm me up. The other JR, Lonesome in Parsipanny!!

Maybe some sort of indicators while taxiing, maybe to indicate to plane behind you that you were stopping/proceeding????
To be totally honest, I never noticed them an anytime before this pic was posted. Course, that was the wrong end of the plane for me. If it didn't shoot or explode, I had very little to do with it.
Randy

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

I need a couple Orange ones for a T-6G.
Just hop the river over into PA, I'm not too far.

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Rich Palmer

Remember an Injured Youth
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