Gary ~ What's The Plan For Diamond Lil ? 2006 and Beyond!

[retroaviation]

Thanks for all the congrats, y'all. I'm a little tired to do a very descript update right now, but here's the basic way it went today...

Don Obreiter and I got here at 5 a.m. to repair that aileron cable. After about an hour an a half, we had it fixed and the airplane ready to go. The groundschool took place at 8 a.m. and we were ready to fly around 10:30 or so, if I remember correctly. The test flight went well with no major squawks. I do have a small list of minor issues that I'll address in the morning, but overall, everything went well. The airplane made two flights today, with the first flight being both the test and training (recurrency) flight for the crew. The second flight was purely a training flight, which I stayed on the ground for.

Here are some pictures from the first flight.......

The Twin Beech was used as a chase plane for the first flight and we also got the first air to air photos from it. I'll be sure to post some of those when I get copies........




You reckon anyone was interested in seeing us depart? ........








Bill Goeken and Mack Deeds were our pilots for this flight. Don Obreiter was the Scanner and I was Flight Engineer........




From the waistgunner's position.....










From the tailgunner's position........






More of the crew......








The chase plane.......




From the radio operator's compartment (upper passenger seats).......




And finally...on final..........




I'm gonna put the airplane up and go home.


Gary

[TAdan]

Congratulations Gary and crew! Well done!

[APG85]

Aewsome!

[Rob Mears]

SUPERB Gary!!! I can only imagine how proud you must (should) be to see your work take to the skies. I'm relishing the day I see her airborne again myself.

[Steve Nelson]

Congratulations Gary, and all who helped with Ol' 927's rebirth! Can't wait to see her in person!

SN

[oz rb fan]

wooooohoooo!!!!!! great job well done to all involved.
paul

[peter]

That smile says it all! Well done to everyone that helped get her rejeuvenated and back into the air. No matter if it was a big job like painting the plane or doing that darn entrance door or removing paint from the fasteners you all have made a great contribution to getting "ol 927" back in the air again albeit looking much different.
I am sure she will bring lots of comments praise where ever she flies this summer!
Well done!!

[LadyO2Pilot]

WOOO HOOOO

Congrats to all who helped get to this day and especially Gary who took the time to also inform us all along the way with his wonderful recaps of days/weeks work.

[steve dickey]

Hi Gary, must feel good to see air under the wing's, congrat's
Stupid question, in the picture taken from the radio operator's window, is that outer wing flexing up or am I just looking at dihedral?(spell?) just wondering. T.I.A.

[Second Air Force]

Just thought I would post a photo of the old girl for everyone to enjoy--we'll sort through the rest of the pics in the morning and post some more.


Scott

[Jack Cook]

Congrads to all involved!!!

[JDK]

I'm gonna put the airplane up ...

I think you just did that.

Well done.

I'm sure I'm not alone in having a new appreciation of the work that goes into this kind of job, so let those who ask 'When's it going to be finished?' 'Who is going to fly it?' and 'What's it going to be painted as?' realise how trivial those questions are by being directed to this thread.

Regards,

[bawest]

Hello everyone, I was also on the C45 during the initial test flight, and I have to say that in all the time I spent looking at AM927, nothing came even close to comparing to what she looked like when she first overtook us over the airport. It was absolutely breathtaking. I later sat in with Don to prep for FE, she is equally breathtaking on board.

[Oscar Duck]

...and a big well done from me...

[Taylor Stevenson]

WOW!