Warbird Information Exchange

Look what Santa Claus brought us!! Or rather the real JR pulled another rabbit out of his hat. We have been needing a battery charger for quite some time. These batteries need to be taken care of.. especially in the winter so that the proper charge is kept up. They are way too expensive to let go without attention. This hi tech battery charger will do the job. Thanks JR... from the other JR

Ah, the look of cleaned and primed metal!! The right gear is coming along in the overhaul process. Tim, Denis and Big Mike are getting it all ready for assembly. JR

We had a special guest yesterday. Lt. Col Chris Foltz, USAF, from Hurlburt AFB, took some leave time to come fly the DC3 for the weekend Xmas lights night flights. He is one of our volunteer pilots who is checked out in the B25 as well. When our A26 is up and running, he has already called dibs on one of the early checkouts. We look forward to working with Chris especially on the next Air Commando Reunion at Hurlburt in Oct especially if we can do that flyover of the Memorial Service for them with K. Denis is showing him our right main gear pieces as he is prepping them for primer after doing the NDT. All has checked out so far. Just waiting on a set of seals that have been ordered and should arrive this week. JR

Meanwhile back on the left side, David A and company did the retract on the gear and continued working on the rigging. Big Mike is making up an independent reservoir/accumulator for our hydraulic mule to run just this gear up and down instead of possibly having trouble with leaks if we ran it thru the rest of the ship's system.

Work continues on the right gear. These springs are part of the "bear claw" in the downlock system. We suspect they may be part of the reason the downlocks sometimes failed back in the day. They are too long and over-compressed which could lead to fatigue and failure. We are replacing them with new, but will have it on our maintenance plan to change these out every 100 or 150 hours.

And this is what they hold tension against... the "bear claw". Yeah, I know, you were hoping it was the edible kind with all that good cinnamon coming out of every layer... Sorry, Charlie. JR

The real JR sent this shot of our main wheels coming out of paint and just waiting on some hardware to finish the reassembly. Cowabonga! Sure are pretty. Almost look gold plated??? I wonder?? Better go buy a lottery ticket me thinks to pay for those!! Wow... just a thing of beauty. The other JR

Some of our last Saturday's crew took a really nice lunch break thanks to JR and David A. JR fixed some penne and sausage that really warmed us up! David A brought the Italian bread to go with it. We are getting so spoiled with good food!! At least it is not turkey. Guess there will be one more go with the bird next week. We are just very happy that we have had good weather on Friday's and Saturday's. Who would have thought it was December?? It has been very pleasant in the hangar and has allowed us to continue working without too much discomfort. Being Texas, that could all change in a few hours! Come see us when you can! The other JR

Well, believe it or not, our boat, Jenny (as in Forrest Gump), won the "Fan's Favorite" award by vote of the crowd at the Eagle Mtn Lake Parade of Lights decorating contest. We had built a quad 50 mount for the stern and armed it with skyrockets and Roman candles. We literally blew away the competition!! Anyway, we want to wish everybody a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year. Enjoy a safe and warm holiday with your families from us to you. JR

Hola from the Pahonix!! It got cold in Tx finally so I escaped to AZ with the plan to let my dotters feed me Xmas din din. Plan is working so far. I am even writing a letter to Santa, but having some difficulty with it. We need an avionics pkg for K in the worst way. However, I can't seem to get past the opening.... "Dear Santa... I can explain......." somebody help me here??? JR

Come on JR get that list done. I bet there are some of us out there that might like to take care of a specific wish!
Thanks for all the great postings this past year .

Well sir, our wish list includes a Garmin GTN 750 and a 650 nav/com. The advantage to us is that we can put modern radios behind the existing radio heads and then velcro the old radio heads over them while on the ground for display. The panel retains its original appearance. The 750 allows for a remote audio panel, ADS-B, transponder, and encoding altimeter so we wouldn't have to mess up any other part of the panel to install each of these individually. When I get back to TX, I will post the Garmin numbers for these in a list. Perhaps somebody will help us out. So far, we have not had any response from Garmin directly on our request for donations thru their normal channels. Will keep trying though. We are also looking for a source for ridged nose tires.... 36SC. These are as scarce as hens teeth. Diamond treads were made on the last run from the manufacturer, but these would not be accurate for VN era. There are some other things coming up, but like I said, will make a list upon return to the Republic. Thanks for asking!! Merry Xmas!! JR

Good morning Santa:

If it is not too late, we would also like a VN era survival vest and PRC 90 survival radio (non working is just fine) so that we can show what sort of equipment the crews had on the K. Hope you are having a great time with the reindeer and elves. JR in Texas PS We left milk and cookies for you. All organic, of course.

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Merry Christmas to the whole Special K Crew !!!!!!

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And Merry Christmas as well to all the others-crews, pilots, owners and all those who help keep our aviation heritage alive and flying!!

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