Well, It should be known that updates from me are coming fewer and fewer than from when I first started this thread. However, that is not because of a lack of work being completed.
Last year was somewhat of a tough year for me. I lost my job in June and struggled to find another as I was tired of job having a "job" and one that was outside of my profession. After finishing all of my pilot training last January, I began flying skydivers in the Summer as a way to build time and stay current. However, I was still too low timed to get any type of flying job that paid. Eventually, I was helped by a friend at the drop zone who put me to work helping him on roofing jobs. Because of all of this, I was not able to spend nearly the amount of time at the museum I had hoped to.
Eventually though, my luck changed in December and I accepted my first professional piloting job as an Aerial Survey Pilot. However, this job required me to move across the state to Philadelphia. So now, my time at the museum will be even more limited, to just the times I can get home on vacation. It has been a great start with the new job and I am already approaching the 5 month mark...
Since my last post Back in December not a lot of work has happened as we had to keep the plane outside over winter to work on our C-123. We then had our annual pig roast and then the first week of May, we had an event and hosted the CAF's Redtail Squadron at the museum. As soon as that was over, the plane was brought back into the hangar and work resumed.
A decent amount of work has happened though since my last update. I will however start off by posting a few pics from March as she sat outside.
I personally can not wait to retake these shots from the same angle and see the nose art on the plane once again!
On the historical front, we have on order with the people at the USAF the history of all of our USAF aircraft. We are hoping that within the documents they have on the C-47, will be a photo with a shot of the nose art as we are still looking for that side view.
Work on the controls continued over the winter. The Ailerons and the completed elevator kicked off the painting process for the plane. Here is a shot of them in the first coat of Olive Drab, however it was lightly sanded in preparation for the next coat.
Here are the controls as of this weekend. Both Ailerons are finished and have been wrapped up awaiting installation. The completed right elevator just needs one more coat of grey and then it will join the two ailerons in waiting to be re-installed. The paint looks really good. The Semi-Gloss finish is perfect, not too shiny but just shiny enough that it will look really sharp once finished.
just to give an appreciation on how long these controls are, our T-34 wings in the background
It is really hard to show the color of the olive drab as it changes a lot in different lighting. However, it very closely resemble's Kermit Week's C-47 if you look at pictures of it. Very green in direct sunlight, but in non-direct or overcast very dark. Same with the Grey...
Volunteers are continuing to work inside the cabin to clean it and remove the adhesive left behind from when it was converted into a VC-47. Its a slow process, but they are making ground. We still have not found anything that will easily take it off, but I still would like to try either Steam blasting or soda blasting on it.
FINALLY WE HAVE A DOME!
We could not find a complete unit and people who did have them were unwilling to help us. We had bought a dome back in the fall, however, it was not what I was expecting and I knew it was not right coming out of the box. However, the dome itself is the correct dome, it was just the mounting system was wrong. We were able to find a part supplier who had at least one NOS dome mount in stock and we were able to get it. Once we removed the metal ring off of the dome we previously bought, it fits perfectly into the new mount. Right now we are just waiting on the gasket that goes in between the mount and the dome to seal it and then we will begin drilling off the plate from the top of the fuselage and build up the dome assembly and then install it! This was one of the last hurdles we had that was going to keep us from painting the plane. Now, once the plane itself is finished being prepped, painting on the plane will begin.
We should be painting the plane sometime this summer. It is getting really close and the tail will be the first part that is done. Hopefully, it will be completed prior to August 15th, as that is our Aviation Appreciation Day. It does not look like we will be flying anytime before the fall however.
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