Warbird Information Exchange

Hey Gang... Amazon has "'More Memories of Naked Fanny" on sale for $21.10. The book tells the story of NKP from the beginning to "The Bitter End". Randy's story of his "odyssey" there is the essence of one of the chapters. This is a hard bound book intended to preserve the history of "Naked Fanny" for posterity. Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Naked-Fa ... aked+fanny

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Bob
Memories of Naked Fanny
More Memories of Naked Fanny (Nov 2013)
609th Nimrod, Bomb loader, Gun Plumber, '68 - '69

Tim brought a special guest today. Regrettably, his Father in law, Tech Sgt. Don Morris, USAF, ret., passed away last week. Don was a big fan of Alaska so Tim brought penguins and Sarah P to his hospital room and he enjoyed the visitors. They had a grand time. As Sarah would say, "We'd like to give a big ol shoutout to Don's daughter, Christee." Yall come see us and be our guest for lunch some Saturday! We had a great BBQ meal today for everybody including the CAF A-26 guys. Great things are happening!!!
JR

Tim also mounted the new tail skid we found. The old one was scraped off during the crash landing at Macon looks like. Anyway, it looks good now. It would be interesting to see how many other A-26's that are still flying have a tail skid left. It is rubber surrounding a healthy chunk of aluminum. The rubber would probably weather over time. K's makeover continues!! JR

It took a whole passle of people to mount the doghouse canopy permanently to the airframe today. Ray installed new nut plates all around the frame to accept the quarter inch bolts. This was not an easy task as a lot of structure and oxygen tubes were in the way. Some had to be coaxed in place with safety wire because it was impossible to get fingers in there, but our magician did it again!!! JR, Clark, Rand and Ray did the final deed. Next Saturday, the two long glass inserts will be buffed out and installed with new sealant so that should just about finish up the doghouse. Yay!! Thanks guys, the other JR.

Of course, no job is complete without a final inspection by Kilroy!!! Ready to put "Kilroy was here" on the doghouse canopy! JR

Found this in "Playground Visitor" circa 1969-1970 and though you might enjoy it.

Found this in "Playground Visitor" circa 1969-1970 and though you might enjoy it.
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Nice picture. John, may I ask which book the pic came from? I don't seem to have it in any of my collection of A/B-26 stuff.
Thanks

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

John, that is a very interesting picture. The two A-26's still sport the green and white paint in which they were delivered by OnMark. The idea was to make them look possibly like civilian airplanes so they could carry out clandestine operations by removing the stars and bars, etc. Indeed, some were used in that fashion. Wish we could tell if the one by the pilot is 679. Most of the green and white was gone though by 68 so I suspect the picture was made earlier than 69-70. They were headed to the boneyard in early 1970. I am trying to get an ID on the pilot from the Nimrods so maybe we can pinpoint the date better. Thanks for posting it. Would love to look at others you might have. JR

Well, as you can see, the airplane is still up on jacks. Ichabod Crane let us down by deciding not to run again. The hangar floor was very slick from all the condensation with the storm passing thru. We couldn't pull the left engine as planned, so JR decided we would postpone coming off the jacks and let some other work take place. It really is more convenient to work under the airplane when it is elevated. Perhaps Arnold and David A can convince Ichabod to cooperate next weekend. We need to move K back about 4 feet to make some more room for the B-29 coming in early April as well as the B-24 in the hangar at the same time. This will also help us get the crane in to lift the engine when it comes time. The other JR!

As I stated the picture came from a local FWB publication that was printed for the Tourist Trade. Title was "Playground Visitor" and cost 50 cents. Most likely sold at local motels/hotels, etc. Sorry I don't have ID of Pilot and more information. The publication contained information on places to eat, stay, drink, etc. It also contained a little information on Eglin and Hurlburt. I found it going thru some of the junk I have collected over the years.

...........as I stated the picture came from a local FWB publication that was printed for the Tourist Trade. Title was "Playground Visitor"
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Ah, now I remember that publication. Thanks John. I looked through all my books and couldn't find that pic on any page 83. I think there was a similar picture published in "Tiger Talk", which was the base publication at England AFB.

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

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the avionics work continues. The circuit breaker panel is being checked out and new CB's installed as needed. A new master avionics switch and a back up for it are going in as well. I sure don't know how Larry and the gang keep up with all these little wires. Good thing we have this help cause all I know how to do is operate the radios and fly the airplane.... when the Crew Chief lets me borrow HIS airplane, of course!! And I better not bring it back broke! JR

Not so long ago, we had a lady look into the cockpit and she spied this funnel shaped device. She picked it up and started talking into it. Then she laughed and asked if it was a microphone. It was all we could do to keep a straight face. Then finally, after biting lip, said to her, "Yes, ma'am that is for outside communication with the enemy!" She thought it was just grand. Just didn't have the heart to tell her any different. She was having such a good time looking at the airplane. Kinda made our day! JR

While messing around in the cockpit, I noticed this little handle marked Hydraulic By-Pass. Wondered what it did. Since it appeared to be a pilot thing, thought I better find out. Turns out that the K's had this where the B's did not. It will bypass the hydraulic system so that fluid returns to the reservoir instead of circulating thru the whole system. This reduces operating temperature/pressure and may reduce risk of losing more fluid if a leak or damage from combat occurs. After the gear is up following take off, the handle can be pulled per the checklist. Before operating the hydraulic system again, the handle must be pushed back in to its present position. It's just one of those little differences that's nice to know. We just keep discovering new things. Now all I have to do is see if the Crew Chief thinks it is operational??? JR

JR got started last weekend on the LH carb air scoop as far as straightening up some of the dings around the edges and looking at which Dzus fasteners needed replacing. We found the grommets locally today so Ray started pulling the old ones so that the new fasteners can go in Saturday. This is just another attention to detail that will make this restoration something the A-26 vets can be very proud of and know we did it for them. Knowing our team and leader, nothing will go out the door unless it is right!! The other JR!