Warbird Information Exchange

Hawkeye, no reports of a poisoning this week. So you are past the statute of limitations looks like! But JR is the chief so he has first rights to JR. So when I comment on his work, I have to be the other JR. Just the way it is. Anyway, this coming Saturday, March 8, we will be holding our A-26 ground school from 8 am to 5 pm or so. It will cover the A-26B and the K differences. If anybody is interested in attending, please enroll by calling Dana at 817-659-9249 during regular business hours. Lunch will be served and you will get a chance to visit with the K restoration team. Come join us for a delightful day and find out about the A-26. The other JR

Larry and Stan have been putting in a lot of work to do this trial fitting of the instrument panel and arrange all of the wiring bundles. When completed, the panel will be repopulated again with all the instruments and radios, etc and installed so we can call that portion of the cockpit done. Well, er, sorta... subject to change as we have discovered that Murphy's Law still applies when it comes to this airplane. But everybody keep your fingers crossed when the guys flip the switch for the first time! JR

Our metalsmith Ray has been hard at it again. These pieces form part of the cockpit rear canopy frame. The original was badly corroded so Ray took flat metal sheet and formed it into the exact duplicate of the original shape. Here the pieces have just been heat treated and ready to start fitting to the airframe. These were not as easy as they might look to fabricate. Another attaboy for Ray! Great job! Thanks, JR

Hard to believe how time flies. T, our 3rd Asst Crew Chief, & JR's son, was only 11 months old or so when he was introduced to the B-25 and started getting the warbird bug. Dad was just getting involved in the restoration of K. Wow, both T and K have come a long way as a result since that time. Wouldn't that be awesome if T got to work or fly along with Dad on K one of these days? Can hardly wait. The other JR

Speaking of other "kids" who we hope can take over the job of telling the A26 story for us and keep K flying, we were very happy to see Ethan and Dave yesterday. Here Ethan is with Joe Maynard, our resident A-26 Nimrod pilot who also works on K. Joe will celebrate his 82nd birthday next week. Anyway, when Ethan started working on K, he could easily go under the gear doors without bending over. Now things are a little bit different with the latest growth spurt. We sure miss Ethan and granddad Dave after their move to Houston, but always welcome them back for a visit. BTW, Joe came in and shared some NKP stories with the A26 ground school yesterday and easily kept our attention. Like to give a shoutout to Sally, Zach, Trevor, Jim and Brad for joining the fun. We had a big room full of people for lunch so had to move from the mancave to the classroom. I have never seen eight large pizzas go away so fast!! JR

A funny thing happened on the way to the drag races up by Denton a few weekends ago for Stan. He just happened to notice this truck had two of the antennas we have been looking for on the back end. So he struck up a conversation with the owner and while the guy didn't want to take them off the truck, he allowed as how he had two more at his shop and would donate them to Stan. Wow! This is the shark fin antenna that was on top of the fuselage. They are in very good condition and they fit perfectly in the existing mounting holes so that will save some time. Attaboy Stan for the sharp eye!! Meanwhile, also on the avionics side, Larry reported two glitches with the wiring harness routing that may delay installing the panel for a few weeks. Two steps forward and one step back. Sounds like the "Texas Two Step" dance so that's ok. George Strait would be proud of us!! Maybe we need to play some George at the hangar so the guys can get in rhythm??? JR

And this is how the antenna looks all mounted up. Should work just fine and last a long time!! Meanwhile, down below, Ed worked on getting the left hand main gear door shimmed to counteract the bend of the nacelle wall. Ethan and Kevin cleaned out the corrosion and mess found in the battery jar area inside that nacelle wheel well. All did a mighty fine job of it. Had a good turnout of guys this weekend. Slowly but surely, the many small details are coming together. Some big projects remain such as the aileron gap seals, but Tim and David B finished up the templete for the inboard segments so we can send that out to be made. Then the ailerons can be hung and the cables all hooked up. David A all but finished out the control cables for the vent system in the cockpit. Overall, a good day for everybody. Many thanks to the team! JR

Ray has been prepping the nose wheel well for the boot we found that covers the access hole to all the control cables in the throttle quadrant. We were very happy to find the canvas boot as a NOS item. It was another one of those things made in the 60's that never left the box. BUBA needs one also, so we ordered one for it as well. Speaking of BUBA, rumor has it that it might come home from Brownsville by the end of the week. Everybody keep fingers crossed the weather cooperates. The next show will be at the JRB in Ft Worth on April 26-27 with the Blue Angels and many other notable performers. It is always a great show. Stop by for a visit and share your stories or interests in A-26's. JR

Here is the aforementioned boot that Ray has been working some late nights to finish. It is nearly ready to install, but we want to take it back off since a lot of work remains to be done in the quadrants and cables above it. This will save getting it full of dirt and crud. When the top is ready to close out, we will install the boot again. A big Attaboy for Ray ..AGAIN! Thanks for all of your hard work! JR

Tuesday morning trivia: who was the famous flyer who put this F-100 thru the hangar wall? The A-26 has two engine driven hydraulic pumps, a back up hand pump and when all else fails, an emergency air bottle to put the brakes on. K goes even farther with an electrically driven standby hydraulic pump. If one remembers quickly how to operate these, maybe we can keep from hitting something... like the hangar. Unlike many small airplanes where the brakes operate without hydraulic pumps, most larger aircraft require them to have any brakes at all. Our famous flyer evidently lost the brakes. Can anybody figure out why? JR

Tuesday morning trivia: who was the famous flyer who put this F-100 thru the hangar wall?

Scott Crossfield September, 1954

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

I love the beautiful job you are doing with the restoration of the B-26K/A-26A. It would be great to see it ready to fly in the big Vietnam War 50th Anniversary Wings Over Houston air show planned for November 1st and 2nd this year, but I know that it may not be close enough to completion for that.

In any case, keep up the great work and I look forward to seeing this historic airplane take to the air again someday.

Randy... golly, you know your history! Yup, Scott Crossfield in 1954 at Edwards, had the engine flame out but instead of ejecting, he brought it down to a landing, however, without much steering and no brakes, he needed something to stop it. The hangar provided the braking action. The airplane was pulled out, repaired and flew again. Always Mr. Cool, Scott claimed he was just an aeronautical engineer who just happened to fly to prove out the theories. I had the privilege of meeting him several times at the National Congress on Aerospace Education back in the 70's-80's. These conferences must have been among the best kept secrets from "warbirders" of all times. There were many notables who made presentations over the years: Gabreski, Yeager, Galland, George Gay, Crossfield, Doolittle, Paul Garber just to name a few. Throw in several astronauts along the way. You would have loved it. Crossfield had set up a scholarship fund for teachers and it continues although with a different organization now that NCAE has changed to every other year. Sadly, nearly all of the WWII flyers are now gone. What they accomplished will live on thru those of us who have taken up the cause of honoring and remembering vets. JR

Jim C. Thanks for your kind words. We appreciate it when someone lets us know what they think of our work. Would love to make Houston. All depends on how K starts cooperating. She must love all the attention or something. Keeps showing us new stuff that needs fixing. Hidden damage I think it is called. We wanted to have the engines pulled already, but it hasn't happened yet because we still need to have her up on jacks. The nacelle being bent has caused extra work to make the new gear door fit. Keep sending us good thoughts!! Thanks!
JR

Larry, one of our avionics guys, enjoyed all day yesterday up in the nose finishing up wiring and the install of our remote transponder and encoder. It was a tight fit up there and he was a little swayback when he finally came out for air. Stan and Larry put in a big day doing the final wraps of the bundles and getting things ready to start populating the panel again. It will be a great day when we can throw the switch on all these new radios etc and watch them light up perfectly!!! No pressure, guys!! But attaboys to all who worked so hard yesterday, Ray included! Thanks!

JR