Warbird Information Exchange

Beyond that Lone Star is no longer a Texas-made beer (despite their attempts to convince the public that they're still the "National Beer of Texas"), Coors works well as an alternative, but it might be too offensive to those of us here. Maybe Old Milwaukee?

Sorry to hear that the Dak got grounded. Oh well, more time to plan the party.

FILL THIS SPACE!!
Saturday is coming and we have some really import milestone events in the planning stage. Filling this space is one of them. You can see the gap seal halves inside the slots. The other half is attached to the aileron and then zipped to the middle from each end. The left aileron is the last control surface we have to mount. Yay!! Now, the big agenda item is to hang the left engine. If we have enough troops and all goes well, we might just get that done this weekend. The prop then can go on the following weekend. There is a lot of work to be done hooking up all the gauges and control cables to the engine so keep your fingers crossed it goes without a hitch. Big Tim did a lot of the legwork on his own last Friday to get the aileron ready to hang so thanks Tim. You are appreciated, big guy!! Cheers... JR

Different angle, same story. Fill this space!! Also, the tip tank is showing where the jettison vent is on the end... the former mystery part of the week. Frank's story about jettisoning fuel during the break from an overhead approach started me thinking that if we can't make them hold fuel, wonder how hard it would be to put smoke generators in there??? Just daydreaming outloud!! JR

Jim, do the tip tanks have a bladder inside, or are they "wet"? Just curious. I like the smoke generator idea! (although, as you stated before, it would be nie to have that extra fuel capacity available for long flights).

_________________
Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

JR the instrument panel looks fantastic. Kudos to Larry, Stan, and Rand on getting this restored. When I visited in May 2013 the cockpit was a mess of wires and tubing. I remember thinking at the time I never really knew all that stuff was back there. You guys even managed to work in that Garmin thingy so it looks almost like it belongs there. Sure would have liked that on the flight across the Pacific Ocean. About those tip tanks, if the dump valves still work you could load one with red colored water and the other with blue water. I think the Blue Angeles did this many years ago. Add a little white smoke from an engine and you,ve got it.
Cheers,
Frank

Dean... Frank.. thanks!! After looking at the parts manual and conferring with JR, it doesn't appear that the tip tanks have bladders. I find that odd because all of other tanks do, but nevertheless, would be fun to have them working. Maybe in phase two of the restoration?? The left one was damaged in the last gear collapse many years ago and has been repaired by welding some plates in place. Don't know what is inside or whether they will hold fuel as they will have to be removed to check them out. Colored water would be interesting, but since water weighs more than fuel, we would have to be careful how much we put in. That would be a magnificent sight with smoke oil out of the engines and colored streamers off the wings tips in an airshow pass. Oops, there I go daydreaming again. Have to remember this isn't "Jelly Belly" and Kent Pietsch who does some marvelous things in an Interstate with the engine off. We hope to run across Kent again in the future. Meanwhile, I am traveling north to see if the Polar Vortex will really make it to Texas next week. Maybe it will follow me home. The other JR

If you are serious about smoke generators, Contact the Sanders in Ione, CA., They kind of perfected the things, and they put out loads of smoke.

You could make a set of smoke generators to mimic / replace the tip tanks until such a time that you feel the need to increase the cruise endurance by about 2 more hours past bladder limits....

_________________
Expert:
Ex: Former.
Spurt: A drip under pressure.

Mike: yep, good idea, Sanders would be the folks to call, but this would have to be down the road due to costs. Need to get her flying first. I'll have to keep them mind. Many moons ago, I was acquainted with the elder Sanders before he was lost in an accident at Roswell if I remember right in the late 80's. Thanks! As for the range problem, the relief tubes are installed & operational!! JR

Stop the presses!! JR tells me that the left engine is now mounted so this is big news. I'll post pics when I get back from the hinterlands!! Stay tuned!! Congrats to all the team for making this happen!! The Other JR

On my way home from N of the border & thought I would see if there were any new posts. I see where we are about to go over another milestone.... 200 K views! Cool! Thanks everybody for your interest in our project! Btw, meant to ask Bob D & Randy if they were ever involved in painting the ordnance carried on the wing pylons. We have six replica 1000 lb bombs. I'm supposing the real thing was delivered in OD. Were these painted all black, mounted as is or maybe only the bottom halves? What was done with flare dispensers or rocket pods?? Thanks, JR

..................meant to ask Bob D & Randy if they were ever involved in painting the ordnance carried on the wing pylons
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We didn't paint any ordnnace while I was there. I left the latter part of November 66 as Project Big Eagle was winding down and the replacements were arriving. All our iron bombs were OD in color with yellow bands on the nose depending on the explosive inside.
one band=TNT
two bands=Comp B
Three bands=Tritonal

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

So Randy, of those three different types of explosives, what were some of the differences? Was one any more "touchy" to handle? Do you remember anything about the flare dispensers that looked like three tubes stuck together in a triangular sort of affair? They popped flares out the back end that came down on a parachute I think. Might see if we can build some replicas if I can get a good reference to them or the mil nomenclature. Thanks, JR

So where did the engine hang start... well, with Ray's repair on the nacelle that had been damaged by the left gear collapse many moons ago. That curved newly primed area had some corrosion problems as well. He fabricated a section to replace this area. He can do magic with metal. I sometimes think that he could build a whole new airplane if he wanted to do so. Thanks Ray! JR

To fill this space, the team finished the prep and got everything ready for the lift. You probably won't see this space empty for a long time... we hope. This will be the last picture of the firewall until the next engine overhaul whenever that may be needed. Rand and Stan are making sure all of the hoses and wires are out of the way as Ed drives "Ichabod Crane" up in place with the engine ready to hang. JR

David A is on top looking at the alignment so the six bolts can be inserted without much trouble. Hmmm, well that is easier said than done as it turned out. JR