Bald Eagle Aviation

Glenn Wegman · **Posted:** Mon Sep 24, 2012 8:47 pm

RobC wrote:

On a separate topic, is the spring that broke on Rednose the same type that broke on Precious Metal at Reno?

No

Rod Schneider · **Posted:** Tue Sep 25, 2012 8:39 am

51fixer wrote:

Brian Snow wrote:

51fixer wrote:

Its been pretty busy summer and I haven't posted as much as I would have liked but here are a few updates-
Andrew flew the T-6 and Jim the Spit at New Garden Airshow a few weeks back.
The CAF had the Rednose P-51 there but on Sat they had a Gear Door issue and brought it over to our hangar.
A video of their performance- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wl3QkydTBY
During that flight a spring broke and the broken end settled in the inboard gap of the inner gear door. It acted as a shoehorn and forced the edge of the skin outboard where it was forced into the bottom edge of the center rib creating a good deal of damage to the skin.
This was the result-

The scratch in the middle of the bent section is where the spring fragment settled.

I sent it off to Bill and Scooter Yoak and they replaced the skin on it.

After being fitted and painted

Jim Buckly picked it up yesterday-

Wow Rich, BEA sure seems to see it's share of the worn, the weary, and the broken.....LOL.......Repair looks nice on the Red Nose, and fortunate for them that you are so close by......Did they have any indication / incidence of flutter related to the deformation.......especially at display speeds..????
Brian

It would have happened when gear was extended just prior to landing.

In all fairness the CAF has invested a good bit of effort prior to the repaint this aircraft received a couple years ago.
The same skin had been replaced then prior to paint so its not like they have ignored maint.
This was an unfortunate event caused by a small part which failed. The fact it caused another problem was unforeseen.
The rubber met the runway and all is well.

Just a minor correction, the repaint was actually done earlier this year. Delta Air Lines painted the airplane at their paint facility in Atlanta. I helped out with getting the plane into the facility since my boss knew I liked war birds and have some experience with them. I got to spend a fair amount of time looking the plane over as parts were removed for paint, and it is in very good condition! Just one of those things that can happen.......

51fixer · **Posted:** Sun Sep 30, 2012 4:08 pm

Yesterday Jim flew the Spit and Andrew the P-51D over the Arlington National Cemetery in support of The Honor Flight Network.
http://www.honorflight.org/about/
89 WWII Vets were flown to the DC area on this mission arranged at no charge to them by the Honor Flight Network.
This photo was forwarded to me by Andrew and came from Bob Henley of the HFN.

Brian Snow · **Posted:** Mon Oct 01, 2012 7:14 pm

What a pic..........astounding......and nice to see the "pair"......

amckenna03 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 11, 2012 8:37 am **Posts:** 22

So we got a chance to do a "Fly-Over" at Arlington National Cemetary (ANC). Not only did we fly over our Nation's most sacred ground filled with over 250,000 hero's, but we also did it in honor of the living a group of Veterans from WWII. The real kick in the pants was that most of them were from our Army Air Corps. Totally awesome. This was the final mission for many of them and the only opportunity they have had to see Arlington and there Memorial. They were treated like rock-stars for a full 15-hour day and the fly-over was a huge hit.

The honor was all ours - thanks to Jimmy for putting together the proper paper-work and letting us both fly those incredible machines. Just thinking about it..... it's borderline epic - here I am on a incredible Saturday morning- flying and leading a P-51 and a Spitfire over Arlington with Jim Beasley. In honor of these brave men who did the real thing?.............very humbling.........I will tell you all right now, we did it right. We were on it - right at 3:15.(zero, zero) after a brief sprint to the hold point from Leesburg's airport and navigating through the SFRA and FRZ - we had an 18NM run from the OTT VOR near Andrew's AFB - we had about 4:38 seconds to get over Arlington - so the timing needed to be flawless- it was- and worked great........We had those engine screaming.........Thanks Rich!

JLoveless · **Posted:** Sun Oct 07, 2012 11:09 pm

Almost like you knew what you were doing. Almost. Looked good from kjyo that's for sure.

51fixer · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2012 10:06 pm

Found some SNJ-3 training material that seem based on the SNJ-3 training booklet.

Workbook page-

This pilot went onto seaplane training and related studies.

Some operational papers-

A list of names, recognize anyone?-

51fixer · **Posted:** Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:07 pm

On a worksheet from the collection of papers is a name of W. G Booze. A Wayne G. Booze from Chico Calif is listed on the sheet of names. A google of that name has lead me to an organization that has his logbook and some other papers-
http://www.vpnavy.org/vp209_1940.html

51fixer · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:41 pm

I received a NOS replacement rib for the corroded rib at the top of the SNJ-3 vertical from Lance.
Since it lacks any rivet holes I need to transfer them to the new rib. There isn't any access to put it in place and back drill through the existing holes so I used the original and made a template.

Most Structural parts have tooling holes as a part of their design. In this case it is two 1/4" holes on center 7 3/4" apart. Both the old and new part have these holes in the same location as specified on the blueprint. I laid the orig on a sheet of alum and match drilled the 2 tooling holes. After inserting 1/4" dia pins in the tooling holes I used the existing rivet holes as a guide to drill these #30 holes into the alum sheet.

Then I placed the new rib on the sheet and using the pins to locate I clamped it in place and turned it over. Using the #30 holes that I just drilled I drilled these hole locations into the new rib.

I then fitted the new part in the vertical.
Soon it'll get riveted in place.

51fixer · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:52 pm

On 22 the front control stick socket had 3 cracks. This has the control stick tube inserted and pressed in.
The 1945 certification papers from North American Aviation mentions inspecting this for cracks. I've had to replace this on other A/C as well.
To remove the stick is a pain and I will throw it in the mill and cut slots deep enough to get close to the tube.

Then I whack the end on a metal table until it splits and then remove the tube.

51fixer · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:08 pm

One thing you always seem to find is less than desirable workmanship.
The torque tube had been blasted with some kind of abrasive during previous work.
It was painted and installed in the fus when we purchased the A/C.
I found all 6 of the K-5 bearings in the torque tube to be seized with grit in the bearings.
I have removed the bearings and will plan on changing all the bearings in the A/C.

Lynn Allen · **Posted:** Tue Oct 30, 2012 4:19 pm

Rich, did Sandy come by to see you all? You all ok??

Lynn

51fixer · **Posted:** Tue Oct 30, 2012 5:29 pm

Lynn Allen wrote:

Rich, did Sandy come by to see you all? You all ok??

Lynn

Yea, we got slapped around where I'm at but others got it worse. I feel for those that live near the coast or have shore homes. At home pwr has been off since 10:30 mon night. I'm writing this from the iPad on the 3G wireless. What did we do before cell technology? Got to use the chainsaw a bit but expected worse tree damage than I did get. Neighbors on either side lost more trees than I did. Wind were in the upper 50s here and only upper 40s at Coatesville airport. Didn't get nearly the rain here we were expecting as well thankfully. Airport got less I believe. Should be out there on wed to get back in the action. Hopefully won't have to hear the generator run any more by then.

Lynn Allen · **Posted:** Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:51 pm

Glad to you all are ok, I know about the generators running all night, go Honda. I feel for the people on the coast. I wouldn't want to go into KTEB anytime soon. Even if you are able to get in, there are no roads to commute on. I hope the Meadowlands Diner on 17 and Patterson made it...

Lynn

51fixer · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2012 5:10 pm

Finished up the top rib replacement on the Vertical for SNJ #22-

Also a visitor that will leave soon-

And the Generator is still running at home.

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