Warbird Information Exchange

The lights are on and somebody is home!! Tested the various lights that are located throughout the airplane such as this one in the bomb bay. There is another one in the avionics bay for inspections or work at night. Work progresses on getting all the lights doing their thing. Will be handy when we need to load or unload our BX materials at a show or something from the bomb bay at O Dark Thirty. Just keeping fingers crossed that it is not a toolbox we have to dig out, but the reality is ... sooner probably than later!! JR PS... thanks again... we just went over 49,000 views!! Appreciate the interest!!

This coming Saturday, the DC3 will be making the short trek over to Stephenville for a BBQ lunch and return. Leaves at 10 am for GGA members only. Returns at 2 pm. There is a ride scheduled at 2:30 pm that is open to the public. On the following Saturday, the 21st, the DC3 goes to Wichita Falls at 7 am for members only. On the Memorial Day weekend, the DC3 will go to Fredericksburg on the 25th of May and return on the 27th. The Hangar Hotel will be having its annual Hangar Dance and the DC3 will be giving rides all weekend. See our website for details and how to contact us for scheduling. http://www.gga1.org and click on the Facebook link. These activities will help fund our aircraft and restoration activities. Many thanks for the support. Come see us this weekend as the team will be working on the K. JR

Next target, the right main gear. The left is finally seeing some daylight. We need to paint the inside of the wheel well, reassemble the gear, get the brake assembly back from overhaul and then do the install. Our goal is to have her on her own feet by the time of the mini-reunion of the A26 guys on 5 May. Can't promise this, but we will sure give it a try. Would like to roll her out in the open for a bath as well. A lady always likes to be fresh when making an appearance!! After the excitement, we will tackle the right side. Will put up some close up shots later to show the before and then the after when we are done. BTW, JR and I are going over to Dynamold Inc. tomorrow afternoon to talk with them about moldable shims. We want to use some in the repair on the horizontal spar. We are excited about the added strength it would give it. Anybody have any experience with it?? The other JR.

For those who were asking, Greatest Generation's B25, Pacific Prowler, will not be attending the Doolittle Reunion this week due to mechanical issues. We very much regret having to miss out as we had been planning to join the group just as we did the previous time in Dayton. We wish the rest of our B25 brethren a hardy good luck and good tailwinds! Meanwhile, we will be working on the K this Saturday as well as flying the DC3 if the weather cooperates. We could use some more sheet metal hands if you would like to help out. Thanks, JR

We had a special guest this afternoon in the hangar. Richard S. Drury, author of "My Secret War" and Skyraider pilot at NKP dropped by to see K. He was there at NKP and hopped rides on the A26's when he wasn't busy doing his own thing in the Skyraiders over the HCM Trail in Laos. They basically had similar missions of night interdictions for the trucks and downed aircrew rescue when operating as Sandy's. The book is available from Amazon I think in paperbook. It was a great read!! Will keep you in suspense and on the edge for much of the time if you want to know what combat flying was like in the beast. He is in town until Wednesday so we invited him back to meet the restoration team tomorrow. He also signed the K in our special place under the armor plate on the fuselage on the right side. Most interesting thing he told us about was that he was there when the 26's left NKP to come home in 69. He said they looked and sounded so awesome. He was sorry to see them go. But alas, you can't fight the 4 stars and other staff weenies who think there should be no prop airplanes in a jet Air Force. I bet it was sure embarrasing to the General when the 26's only flew 2 per cent of the sorties and yet destroyed over 64% of the truck traffic. They actually got more, but the rules of engagement back then only allowed a truck to be counted as destroyed if it burned. If it was only blown to smithereens, that didn't count. Wonder if that is why the General tried to take away their napes and use GP hard bombs only? What a cluster that was. Doh! JR

We would like your input. As we are gathering art for shirts and hats, we thought we might ask for your ideas on what might be a good place to start. For example, with T shirts, any particular color that you would like? We have traditionally used black because they don't show all the oil that drips on us when we are working around the airplanes, but we are open to suggestion when it comes to T shirts that might sell better. What pictures or artwork would you like? Front, back or both? What would make a hat look good? What would you want on it?? What price range vrs quality would you expect in buying a shirt or hat? The whole idea is to make some money to support the K restoration, but we also want to spread the word about the airplane and its history. Nothing is nicer than a walking billboard who will help spread the story!! OK... so talk to us ... post here!! This is your chance to be in on the ground floor of a great and remarkable airplane!! Help us out!! JR

Three of us made the trek over to Dynamold, Inc. in Ft Worth yesterday to see how some of their products are set up and applied. We were particularly impressed with several versions of the moldable shim materials. They donated a couple of different products and we want to say thanks to Larry and Mike for these. Various aerospace manufacturers like Bell and Lockheed-Martin use the moldable shims. We plan to use it in the repair of our horizontal stabilizer spar. We will have doublers installed but the moldable shim will seal any minute gaps and the small area where the corrosion was ground out. With tensile strengths starting at 300,000 lbs, the moldable shim material should contribute to the better than new repair strength of the spar. When we get it all put together, will post some pics of it. Good morning!! Jim R.

This is a "before" picture of the right main gear. Most of this is simple surface rust, but we will be taking the gear out after the Nimrod reunion on 5 May to start the clean up and overhaul the same as the left side. This will give K three good legs for starters. With the history of gear collapses in the type, we will look at the gear swings very carefully and try to catch all of the "problem areas" before she flies again. Stay tuned!! Jim R,

Much progress today. Here Big Mike and Denis are prepping the various components of the left main gear for paint. Got most of it done today so that when the parts that are out for plating come back this coming week, it should go together in about 30 minutes... ok... so it never goes as planned.. 4 hours, then. Then when we get our brake assembly overhauled, it will be ready to put the wheel back on and presto, we will be off the jacks. Also, want to thank the CAF A-26 guys for trading us a good avionics door. Their airplane was fitted with a different door a long time ago so this one is no longer useful to them, but it has a good latch which is what we need the most on our door. It even has a lock on it. Not sure why, but we will make it operational. Maybe some of the old time avionics guys can tell us if they ever used these on the line. Perhaps it was intended for the "secret" missions to the Congo or other places??? I somehow doubt the AF ever used them. JR

David A and Arnold put up the two antennae, (for you TU grads, antenna's) today and got them all bright and shiny. Will try them out next week with a Ham radio and an antenna tester to see what they like in the way of frequencies. Personally I like two or three times a week, but Arnold said that wasn't what it was all about. Nevertheless, there was a lady visiting the museum today who walked by while the guys were working on the "wires" up top. She asked what those "wires" do and before I knew it, I blurted out that they hold the vertical tail on. I know, I know, I will probably burn in you know where, but I just couldn't resist. She was wearing one of those ugly burnt orange T-sipper T shirt and well, I just couldn't help it. Came out just like that. The funny thing is that she never even questioned it or anything. Just went her merry way. And yes, she was blonde. Not that it had anything to do with it, but.... I better go find another picture before I get in trouble again with the O2 lady.... and no, it wasn't her.... this time. JR

Dave Lester and grandson Ethan worked all day on the tail cone cleaning it up and priming inside while mounting the new formation lights on each side along with the rest of the nav light assembly. It was a really tight fit to get hands inside for the last screws, but Ethan managed to get it done without the thing biting too hard. Dave and Ethan are regulars every Saturday and together they make a fine team. This is a great example of generations working together and passing down skills to the next in line. The boys we are training now will be the ones who work on and fly these warbirds in the future. It is never too early or too late to start. Besides the great fun of working on or operating this A26, it is a living memorial to the folks who flew or worked on them... living history for all to see, touch and hear... and ok, smell when it cranks up with all the oil smoke. Special it is!! JR

Ditto above comments. This is Javier and son Ian removing one of the hinge bolts on the rudder tab. It might take a little longer to get the job done, but it is worth it to pass along some training and most importantly, some enthusiasm for what we do. Ian seemed to have that!! It is a pleasure to watch new generations preparing to fill our shoes. Just would like to make sure we give it our best shot that they do so with full knowledge of what it took to get us this far. JR

More landing gear wind chimes!! These were primed and hung to finish drying in the wheel well while the paint shop got the next round ready for spraying. We have decided to go back zinc chromate in the well wheels although the insides of the gear doors will be black. There is some disagreement on whether they were black all over inside, but most of the Nimrods remember green and that color would be best for showing up leaks or other maintenance issues compared to black. So there ya go!! JR

The right side battery box got installed and the left side is about ready as well. That is a full size 24V replica battery to test the fit in the tray. We are still working on converting the system back to the original configuration instead of having two car batteries in the right wheel well. JR

She asked what those "wires" do and before I knew it, I blurted out that they hold the vertical tail on

Now that's funny!!!!!!!

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