Warbird Information Exchange

Well, a small update.

The right elevator is now ready for topcoat. However, we do not have the paint yet, so it's being put aside for the time being. Here it is after spraying the final coat of poly fiber over it and then after the first coat of grey UV protecting paint had been applied.




Prep work on the rudder has begun to recover it.


And finally, the cowls have been put back on the aircraft, though they have been taken back off and refitted as some of the cowl flaps were out of place, however I do not have photos from today.


Left side. You can see the flap is over the other flap, when it should be under it.



I don't have a picture, but the flaps are now ready to be etched and primed. However, they are being set aside as well until we receive the paint.

I am glad to announce that we have found a paint supplier who will be providing us with all of the paint needed to repaint our bird. However, I will not name the supplier yet as I am not exactly sure where we are in the paperwork side or if they even want to be named. This is one step accomplished in getting her back into the air.

We still have not made a decision on if we will be painting it ourselves or if a mobile painting company which we have contacted and received a bid from will paint the aircraft. We currently have a couple of funding raising opportunities in the works, so if they come through and we are able to, it will be professionally painted hopefully by the end of the year at the latest.

More to come soon

_________________
Tyler Pinkerton
Active Member of Air Heritage Inc. of Beaver Falls, PA.
Aircraft: C47B, C-123K, Fairchild F-24, Funk Model B, L-21B, T-28B, T-34B
Static: F-4C Phantom II, F-15A, T-3 Provost

Looking good, can't wait to see her done. If you need an extra volunteer, I'm down in the Washington DC area, I'd gladly come up.

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"According to the map, we've only gone 4 inches."

PBY, if you are ever in the area, let me know. There are always things that can be done, but some days are not really work days, so the people that know what needs to be done might not be there.



It is time for another update. I had typed this up last week, but I guess I forgot to actually post it... Work has continued along on Luck of the Irish and it is progressing smoothly. If all goes smoothly, we may be flying by the end of the fall, if not then the winter/spring.

I finally stripped the bottom of the right wing, so the aircraft is now 95% stripped. I for some reason forgot to spray the area above the flaps, so I still have to do that area along with some of the black paint that did not come up, but otherwise the plane is stripped. I will hit the Flaps/Black paint next and then will be applying the stripper over the entire aircraft once more to remove any residual paint (like on the rivet heads). After that I will be time to start prepping the metal for paint.




The next day


After Power Washing


** Our right prop is out of inspection on the AD Corrosion Inspection so it must be pulled off and sent out before we can fly it. We may just pull off both props at the same time and send them both out to have it done and have them repainted to the proper black painted props that our aircraft had during WWII. This will be happening sometime soon as we are nearing the end and this is one of the last two long lead time things we have to complete. Does anyone have any recommendations on a company in the Northeast/Midwest who can perform these inspections?

** We do have two new tires for the mains, but I do not know if we will be replacing them right away or not.

** The last thing currently keeping us on the ground are the flight controls. As I previously posted, the right elevator is ready to be top coat painted. The rudder has been started, but is still in the early stages. The left elevator still needs to be removed and the entire process started on it. We have another member who has shown some interest in doing this one, so hopefully I can convince them to get it off of the plane and get working on it.

After these are done, we could begin to the fly the plane and it would just be purely cosmetic things that needs to be done.

**Which brings me to my last (for this post) and biggest announcement I have had since we bought the plane. Some of you may have seen the thread I started asking about PPG and their paints. That was because we had contacted them earlier in the month asking about a possible paint donation. Well, two weeks ago, PPG came to the museum to talk about paints and to look at the plane. At that time, PPG informed us they will be donating the entire supply of paint and materials needed for us to repaint Luck of the Irish back into her wartime colors. In return for the paint donation, we will be installing a plaque inside the aircraft about PPG's donation. PPG will also have camera's supplied to us so when painting begins, a time lapse video can be made for their own PR/advertising.

Now that we have paint coming, we just have to straighten out how we are actually going to paint it. To throw a wrench into things more, we have actually been asked by an air show to not paint the aircraft until after their air show next year, which we are considering to some degree.

We are still searching for an ASTRODOME to purchase and install! We have to have it prior to being able to paint the aircraft! If you have one, or know where one is, please PM me.

At the end of the day

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Tyler Pinkerton
Active Member of Air Heritage Inc. of Beaver Falls, PA.
Aircraft: C47B, C-123K, Fairchild F-24, Funk Model B, L-21B, T-28B, T-34B
Static: F-4C Phantom II, F-15A, T-3 Provost

That is tremendous news about PPG donating the paint! Will it be a flat finish?


Chappie

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Brrring. Dispersal? TWO SECTIONS SCRAMBLE!!

Awesome news about the paint! And great update Any chance of getting a close-up of that Fouga that's peeking from under the wing?

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Magister Aviation
It's all in my book

We are going to go with a semi gloss/Satin. While they were painted flat, we went with the semigloss to prolong the paint finish (I do not want to have to ever paint this thing again) and to allow easy cleaning. However, I have been told it will not be overly glossy.

Sure fouga, there are two on our ramp (the other is parked in front of it). There is a total of six on field, two as part planes, and four that are fly able with two having been stored outside and two in hangars. The four fly able ones made up a four ship jet team that was based on the field, but none of them have flown in years.

_________________
Tyler Pinkerton
Active Member of Air Heritage Inc. of Beaver Falls, PA.
Aircraft: C47B, C-123K, Fairchild F-24, Funk Model B, L-21B, T-28B, T-34B
Static: F-4C Phantom II, F-15A, T-3 Provost

Tyler, are you guys getting the Medium Green 42 to do the "tufting" along the leading and trailing edges of the wings and stabilizers as well? There's a guy down in MD who restored a combat vet L-4 not long ago who did a TON of research into proper colors and he's really got some great info- I can try to dig up his contact info if you want to try and connect with him to get mixes, etc.

This is looking great, can't wait to see her in OD/NG!

Lynn

Yes, we will be doing the Medium green trim along the leading and trailing edges.

_________________
Tyler Pinkerton
Active Member of Air Heritage Inc. of Beaver Falls, PA.
Aircraft: C47B, C-123K, Fairchild F-24, Funk Model B, L-21B, T-28B, T-34B
Static: F-4C Phantom II, F-15A, T-3 Provost

From November of 2013

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May all your bent wings be F2G Corsairs!

Yup and there are four more on field, two in hangars and outside that are parts aircraft, along with an L-39 and maybe an L-29 still. Those two are N16FM and N908DM, which fouga told me he was searching for 908DM.

Here is a pic of the two by the F-86 which they sat under until last summer when their parking sports were acquired by the next door FBO who wanted the Tiedowns. So now they are on our ramp, for now...


Where they are sitting in those photos, there used to be two L-29's sitting. The one is now known as Raju Grace which races in the Reno Air Races.

_________________
Tyler Pinkerton
Active Member of Air Heritage Inc. of Beaver Falls, PA.
Aircraft: C47B, C-123K, Fairchild F-24, Funk Model B, L-21B, T-28B, T-34B
Static: F-4C Phantom II, F-15A, T-3 Provost

Yup, N908DM, ex Belgian AF Thx!

_________________
Magister Aviation
It's all in my book

Well, it's time to post another update.

A lot of things have been happening around the hangar that will make for a very interesting year at Air Heritage in 2015. Some have already been announced on Facebook such as Air Heritage acquiring a C-23B+ Sherpa but others will be announced once the details are a little more firm.

One major thing to announce is that "Luck of the Irish" is now owned 100% clear and free by Air Heritage. When we first acquired it, we had to take a small loan out against it, but that has been paid off as of this Month! This will now allow all future funds and resources that are raised for "Luck of the Irish" to go towards the overall restoration!

Work has steadily progressed on the "Luck of the Irish" though at the continued slower than ideal rate, but at least it is being worked on'and making progress.

We have finally received our NOS Astrodome, though it is only the plexiglass dome, so we are still in need of the mounting base. If anyone has one available for sale or has one that we could borrow to make a copy, we would greatly appreciate any leads!

Work has continued on the Rudder. We received the frabric sleeve for covering though it didn't quite fit right, so a little bit of work was needed to correct it. However that has been done and the fabric has been shrunk already. The first bit of polybrush has been applied and dried and then this weekend the holes were poked so that the stitching can be started. Bob Morelli, has been doing all of the fabric work so far on our C-47's controls and is pictured in the photos.

Here is the Rudder after the sleeve was shrunk.


Here is Bob working on gluing the fabric in and around the area where the rudder attaches to the hinges.




Here is Bob poking the holes so he can begin stiching the fabric sleeve to the ribs of the Rudder. He sets it up by laying out and snapping chalk lines across the rudder. Then he places a light underneath the rudder to backlight it and then he can perfectly place the holes on the lines.





Here are two members drilling out rivets and replacing them after cleaning the sheet metal as there was light corrosion in the area.



And finally, here is the L-21 sitting under the wing of the C-47 and a panorama of the hangar.

_________________
Tyler Pinkerton
Active Member of Air Heritage Inc. of Beaver Falls, PA.
Aircraft: C47B, C-123K, Fairchild F-24, Funk Model B, L-21B, T-28B, T-34B
Static: F-4C Phantom II, F-15A, T-3 Provost

Great news on the C-47. Bob is like family. What a great guy. The 123 getting ready for her trip to Florida?

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Yes, it will be there in November for a commercial shoot, though I do not know the exact dates and then it will down south again in December for some movie shoot. I'm hoping to get on the movie shoot crew, but we shall see.

_________________
Tyler Pinkerton
Active Member of Air Heritage Inc. of Beaver Falls, PA.
Aircraft: C47B, C-123K, Fairchild F-24, Funk Model B, L-21B, T-28B, T-34B
Static: F-4C Phantom II, F-15A, T-3 Provost

Work is continuing on the C-47, but will be coming to a stop come the beginning of January as we will have to bring the C-123 in for its annual, which means the C-47 will be going out.

Last month we pulled it out for the weekend as we were having our annual hangar dance. However, it slowed the day before which made for some good photos. Our Aircraft Tug also decided it was not going to pull any load without stalling so we broke out the Willys!




Right now, we are focusing on stripping off any remaining paint on the aircraft. The majority of it is still in the flap well, but it is slowly coming off. We are also going back over the entire plane to get anything that was missed before.



We have received the first shipment of etcher and primer for the plane, so once it is ready, that process can begin come spring time. We are still waiting for the topcoats, but that is not a real issue at the moment anyways.

We did get our astro dome in. However, I'm not sure if it is the right one. It has a Beechcraft part Number on it (209-3008), but the parts dealer assured us it was for a C-47.





Markings and details of it




The Rudder is currently being stitched. Not too much longer and it will be finished and ready for paint.



Here is the stitchings.


And what the final surface looks like after being taped and painted. This is from the the elevator.


This remaining prior to first flight:
* Controls finished up and rehung
* Main tires replaced (already have them, just have to be mounted)
* Both props taken off and sent out for inspected per AD. At this time, they will also be painted into the period current flat black and yellow tip.
* Right landing gear strut needs worked on as it is leaking air when it gets cool out.
* Aircraft Painted

_________________
Tyler Pinkerton
Active Member of Air Heritage Inc. of Beaver Falls, PA.
Aircraft: C47B, C-123K, Fairchild F-24, Funk Model B, L-21B, T-28B, T-34B
Static: F-4C Phantom II, F-15A, T-3 Provost