Hello everyone,
Here I sit, watching the History Channel World War Two documentary and looking at the computer. Especially at the pictures Steve Rider has posted on his facebook page.
Here's one of them:
That's a heck of a view, right there.
During our week's flying last week, we over-flew a school in Shelbyville, Indiana. The school must have had a grant or something, because they had both our old bird and an Air Force tanker flying over. But I already told that story above in the thread.
The Shelbyville newspaper did a story about it (front page, no less), and here's the picture that they ran with with it:
Those faces are just priceless. Yes, everyone loved it, all right. Our man Machine Shop Gaylon, who set it up, had a fine phone conversation with an enthusiastic teacher, who reported a bunch of ecstatic children. A short time afterwards, we got a packet of letters from kids and teachers. We enjoyed them a lot, and so I concocted a response.
I thought you all might like to see it too, so here it is. I bet you can gauge the tenor of the questions we received from the kids, by the answers we're giving ...
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Dear students and teachers of Coulston Elementary,
Thank you for your very nice letters to the crew of Hot Stuff. We enjoyed the flight, and are glad we could help you commemorate Veterans Day.
My name is Jennifer Thompson. I am a lead mechanic on the PV-2 Harpoon, as is Mr. Piercy. I was flying as flight engineer, or "crew chief," that day over your school. Mr. Piercy and I read your charming letters with great pleasure, but we noticed many questions within them, so we will try to answer them.
Many of you seem to have enjoyed the flight as much as we did! Clearly, you all are right-thinking fans of old historic airplanes, and I salute you for it. But let us move on to the questions:
Jessalyn, I wish we could do barrel rolls, too! Hot Stuff is not made for aerobatics, unfortunately. But she has a pair of enormous engines, and is fast and noisy, and blasts through the skies. It is still pretty exciting to fly in her, even when right side up.
Katie wishes to know why the plane is named Hot Stuff. The plane has been called "Hot Stuff" for many years, since long before my time with her. I understand that the name was first painted on the Harpoon on account of a restaurant promotion. Over the years, the restaurant has long been forgotten, but the "Hot Stuff" name has really become associated with our plane, and it's now how she's known all across the country.
Ethan mentions that he might like to become a pilot in the Marines some day. Harpoons were flown by the Marines as well as by the Navy back in World War Two, in fact. As it happens, I myself was a sergeant in the Marine Corps, once upon a time (in the 1970s), and served in the Second Marine Air Wing. And coincidentally, November 10--the day we flew over your school--was the 234th birthday of the Marine Corps. So Semper Fi, Ethan and everyone else!
Yuki mentions that she would like to ride on a plane like the Harpoon some day. I am with you there, Yuki! There's nothing else to compare with flying in the sky. You and your classmates might like to know of the Young Eagles Program of the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association). At their "young eagles days", which happen at many airports during the summer, kids can get a free hop in a small plane of some kind. Mr. Piercy and I have flown such flights; we both have airplanes at Shelbyville Airport, in fact.
Everyone, by the way, is welcome to come see the PV-2 up close and personal, on the ground, any time when we're working on her, which is most weekends. We are at Mount Comfort Airport, east of Indianapolis.
Jayda inquires how much fuel it takes to get Hot Stuff in the air. Well, I guess the answer depends on what we plan to do with her. I don't think we'd ordinarily take off for a trip with less than 250 to 300 gallons of fuel on board, but just to start engines, warm up, taxi out to the runway, and take off, we figure on using about 15 gallons of fuel. At cruise, we burn around 170 gallons per hour. When we push the throttles to takeoff power, our two engines burn fuel at a rate of 600 gallons per hour!
From the time we start rolling until we're off the ground and wheels retracting--which is where we reduce power--is about 30 seconds. So, if 600 gallons per hour equals 10 gallons per minute, it looks like it takes five gallons of gas to get the Harpoon into the air, if you don't count anything but the takeoff roll.
She burns a lot of gas, any way you look at it.
Many of you asked about poor Mike, who got queasy during the flight. We don't often have people getting sick in the plane. But you know, it was a little bouncy up there, and different people are affected differently . He didn't get terribly sick, and we had a barf bag available for him, so there wasn't any mess, and it didn't smell. Mike was still glad he got to go on the flight, and actually was only feeling sick for a little while.
His father, Mr. Lee Pense, flew many missions on Harpoons back during World War Two, and he was very happy to be able to fly aboard a Harpoon again, after so many years. He was a radioman and turret gunner on Harpoons.
In closing, thanks again for your many kind letters. It is gratifying to know that we have such appreciative supporters as you! I do encourage you to come out and see us, and see our good old bird up close and personal.
IndyJen
(Mr. Piercy, also known as Machine Shop Gaylon in these pages, adds:)
Thanks Jenny that was a great job. I think one of the students asked if ”Hot Stuff" had dropped bombs during the war. The answer is yes and no. She would have done practice to see that everything worked ok but she never actually made it into the war. She left the Lockheed factory in California and was on the way up to Alaska to be put in service. However she only made it as far as Whidbey Island, Washington when the war ended. She could carry a combination of the following. 8- 5inch HVAR rockets; 2-1000 lbs. bombs could be carried on the wings in place of drop tanks; 4000lbs in bombs and depth charges in the bombay. Now add in the 9- 50 caliber machine guns and she became a very mean machine. Most of the war birds you see flying today did not see action. Like "Hot Stuff" they just didn't get there. Then when they were retired from service and put up for sale organizations like ours could purchase one restore it and keep it as a living piece of history as is “Hot Stuff”
I too would like to thank you for having us participate in your Veterans program. Like Jenny I also am a veteran. I served in the U.S. Army from November of 1964 to November of 1966 part of that time being in Vietnam.
If you would like to follow what is happening with "Hot Stuff" you can visit our web site amhf.org and follow the link to the War Bird exchange. Jenny has a continuous article of the things we are doing and what is going on with "Hot Stuff".
Hope all of you can visit us at the plane some day.
Gaylon
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There you have it, WIXers. Till next time,
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