Here's a quick update for y'all showing some of the happenings from yesterday. As I mentioned briefly earlier, we had 14 or 15 folks from Dyess Air Force Base, in Abilene, TX, come out to give us a hand. As anyone who's ever worked with me will know, that many folks at one time, asking me "what next, what next," can tend to get me wound around the axle. I think, however, I handled everything fairly well given the circumstances, and was able to get job assignments handed out with moderate success. Some of the Airmen (and one Airwoman) were very skillful and jumped right in to some of the more difficult work, while others were still a little new to the "work ethic" concept, and preferred to just play with the guns and climb all over the airplane. That, however, was purely my fault, as I was simply unable to figure out what kind of work to give them all to stay busy.
While all of this was going on, there was yet another weekend event being set up in the hangar. I was told that it started at 4p.m., but we could still remain working, as this event was going to be a noisy one and we weren't required to have "quiet time." However, things got off to a bad start with me, as one of the new organizers for the event was being a royal b*tch to me and my crew. She yelled at me across the hangar (and yes, I mean yelled) for going across their area (for HER event) hours before anyone was even here. Then she told the guys that were working in our secluded sheet metal room, far away from anything the event folks were doing, that they needed to move away from their stuff, since food was being cooked in the vicinity (the freakin' food was OUTSIDE the hangar....UGH
)
The B-29/B-24 Squadron has a good history with everyone that has held an event in this hangar (including this particular one in the past), as we all try to work together. I think everyone knows my dislike for us having to stop working (for most events), even though we have a strict deadline to meet, but I still try to compromise, since these things bring in much needed money for the CAF. You can bet your butt that I'll be forwarding my opinions to the higher ups in the CAF who bring in these events....so if any of you are reading these updates, be prepared. What's more important? Finishing our airplanes or making a few bucks on an event? It's a hangar, not a party barn.
Rant over......for now.
Whew! Okay, now that that's out of the way...let's get back to airplane business. Here are a few photos of some of the work being done yesterday. I didn't get as many pictures as I'd hoped, but you'll get the idea, I'm sure. Here are some of the helpers attaching the gun mounts to the guns.......
Prepping the left side of the fuselage for paint......
And a whole pile of them working inside and out, making floorboards......
Daniel showed up in the early afternoon and started working where he left off the last time he was here........
And I had one of the helpers lay out the National insignias on the wings (top of the left wing, bottom of the right)........
I think I forgot to mention before that I was able to borrow a waist gunner's door (one that I was supposed to get from Ed Kaletta
), from the SanDiego Air& Space Museum. I'm going to just have to use this one as a pattern to make my own. But first, I needed to cut the hole for it in the fuselage plug that Consolidated put in the airplane to cover up the original waist gunner's position during it's first reconfiguration.......
So I had to draw the outline of the door on the fuselage plug. The top portion of a Home Depot 5 gallon bucket was the exact radius I needed, so I put it to good use, and then cut out the center piece.......
Looks like it'll fit pretty well........
And it seemed to look fairly nice on the airplane........
On another topic, I was also able to get the final version of our tailgunner's sling and head-knocker pads installed. Here are the head knockers........
And the sling. Notice the seat adjustment. Pretty straight forward stuff here (and nope, I'm not going to have time to paint that nasty looking interior back there
).......
When I got here this morning (late), I noticed that Daniel had pretty much finished the floorboard installation for the intermediate floor he'd been working on. Just smaller details to go..........
And I painted the left side of the fuselage this morning that the helpers prepped yesterday......
Oh, and one last thing for now...I did get the other two props installed on Friday. Here's a shot of them........
So that's it for now. Daniel has already been here for an hour or two and is probably waiting on me to help him shoot some rivets. I better get out there before he fires me.
Gary
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