Warbird Information Exchange

Steve and his son Spencer got started on disassembling, cleaning, sorting all of our main landing gear parts so they can begin the process of rebuilding them. Although we do not need them yet, Steve had the time and a strong desire to take on that part of the project (which I warned him, will be no small, clean task!). Once finished the new legs can be packaged and stored for safe keeping until we are ready for them.

In the time between our last trip to the shop in early December, Tony was able to cipher through some of the original NAA electrical schematics and some of the documentation of the mods that were done during the last rebuild. All of this will give him a better picture of where we are now and where he needs to go. He took the time to document and record his work for his immediate use and for our use in the future as maintenance and repairs dictate. I took quick cursory look at what he had to go through to get the mess straightened out and immediately began getting a he11 of a headache! Don't get me wrong, I can do wiring but what he did was nothing short of the best detective work I've seen! What he had to work with was anything but intuitive and straight forward. Anyway, with his new drawings in hand, he kept moving forward on the wiring. The cockpit area is starting to look like a bowl of spaghetti, which is a good thing. I think we'll let him finish working up there before we continue working on the glare shield and canopy.

I brought the engine mount in from the storage hangar, stripped it down and began disassembling it. As I worked on it I could not help but think we were not going to find many useful parts on it. It seemed to me as though every time I took something off of it I uncovered more evidence that it had been hurt worse than we thought. Mark came over and quietly gave it the fish eye and when I asked him what he thought. He didn't think it was really in bad shape at all. Certainly it will have to come completely apart and each piece will have to be carefully inspected. Some of the pieces are obviously damaged and will have to be replaced but he was thinking a lot of the "Spring" in it would come out of it as the entire assembly came apart and was allowed to relax again. I hope he's right…time will tell!

...the radios have been inspected and IRAN'ed. I've asked him to pick them up and hold them for me at his hangar. I plan to bring them to Wahpeton with me the next time I go.