Warbird Information Exchange

I do know that on jets they replace opposing fan blades in the field rather than all of them at once. Maybe you'll only need two blades then?

On the RB211s that I currently maintain I'll replace a single fan blade if I am able to get one with the correct weight and profile to closely match the removed blade. Then it just requires a fan disk balance check. If a much lighter or heavier blade is all we can get, then the standard practice is to change them in pairs, and possibly reshuffle the whole set to achieve balance.

Scott

I certainly look forward to seeing it back in front of the Warbird tower in Oshkosh where it belongs.

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-Al Sauer
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Bill, I'm sorry to say I've been visiting WIX a lot less lately and so missed your return. It's terrific to see you back, pal! Thanks for the update, hopefully you'll be back and flying before too long a break. As for Gary, well, I suppose it's up to all of us to try to fill his shoes. CErtainly no single one of us will ever do that. Your return has certainly filled a gaping hole in our ranks! Welcome back.

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

Bill, nice to see you back. I noticed a couple of posts and kind of wondered what was going on but didn't want to jinx anything. My question is about oil. Specifically how often do you change it, or do you?

In GA its 25 hours with just an oil screen and 50 hours with flow through paper element filter or quarterly on low use engines. More important than the straight weight, Ashless Dispersant, or multi grade choices is frequency of oil change. As important is to get the oil really hot. Flying before an oil change is best but a good long run to at least 180 degrees is necessary to boil off any moisture in the oil. (Tough to do on the ground with an air cooled engine in January.)

I know that for years the radial operators never changed the oil unless they were changing the engine. Then I read about a C-47 operator that switched to AD oil with regular changes. They found that cylinder changes during an overhaul run went from 7 or 8 to 1 or 2 and the five hours it took to clean the Cuneo oil screen went down to half an hour! Even with the increase in oil costs they ended up saving money.

I don't know much about operating any kind of Merlin.

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

It is good to hear about the spitfire Bill!
I look forward to seeing it fly over the Colorado Skies!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday, and get ready for some FOOTBALL!!!!
There should be some good games on today!
-Paul

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Bluedharma
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