Gary ~ What's The Plan For Diamond Lil ? 2006 and Beyond!

Django · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2007 10:35 am

The national insigina looks great!! Can't wait to see the gun in the tail.

John Beyl · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:58 pm

Hi Gary,

I mostly just lurk on the WIX board but in this case I wanted to drop you a quick note to tell you how impressed I am by the work you and your volunteers are doing on ‘Ol 927. Top shelf dude! When Kurt Koukkari and Doug Rozendaal were in Midland last week to pick up Miss Mitchell, Kurt could not get over how great 927 looking. He told me last night over the phone that the pictures on the web do not do it justice…and Kurt knows the difference between a silk purse and a sow’s ear too!

Hang in there bud. May 12th and 13th will come and go and I got a buck that say’s the sun will continue to rise and fall even if the B-24 is not ready. I’m certainly not lazy but on that same token I’ve begun to realize that making my life into a living he11 is not going to solve high pressure the situations either! An airplane project is not worth sleepless nights and an ulcerated gut!

John
CC CAF P-51C

retroaviation · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:07 pm

Thanks John.

Gary

Jack Frost · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2007 2:47 pm

Just remember;"Illigitimus-non-carbonundrum", Gary. In case you're not up on Latin that's "Don't let the bastards wear you down". I think!

Jack

retroaviation · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:22 pm

Short, short update here......

Didn't get much of anything done today. Spent most of the day running around town, running errands, getting supplies, etc. Worked a little on an idea I have in order to speed up the fabrication of the mounting base for the tail gun. I'll have photo updates for y'all later with that.

Gary

davegnz · **Joined:** Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:36 am **Posts:** 36

While you had the red paint out should have painted the fire extingusher doogs - right side aft of the bomb bay doors and left side under the cockpit.

Question - anyone know the name of the TWA pilot that crashed AM927?

Interesting point - the Liberator I when delivered to England had polished prop's (while the B-24A had the standard flat black blades)

interesting link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberator_I

Dave Gansz
A&E/IA/FE

bomberflight · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 9:43 am

Gary ~ I know that at times you've been a tad short on help.

Well I thought, how whould I get from London, England to Midland, TX. ?

I checked on Google Map~ Get Directions and this is what came up

Line 43 of the instructions is the one thats kinda putting me off ...... :lol:

retroaviation · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:17 am

Geez, what's a little swim gonna hurt you? We'll even provide some inflatable floaties to put on your arms if you wish. :lol:

Gary

retroaviation · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:34 am

davegnz wrote:

While you had the red paint out should have painted the fire extingusher doogs - right side aft of the bomb bay doors and left side under the cockpit.

Well, I didn't...probably for the same reason you haven't come down here to help, I reckon. No time or interest (that, and we only had enough money to buy enough red paint for the meatballs. I'll be lucky if I even have enough for that). :roll:

davegnz wrote:

Question - anyone know the name of the TWA pilot that crashed AM927?

Dave Gansz
A&E/IA/FE

The pilots were Frank Burcham and Ned MacKrille. Mark Outwaite was the Flight Engineer and Al Brick was standing on the flight deck supervising Mark's work. More details to follow.....if interested (all documented, of course).

phil65 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:44 pm

bomberflight wrote:

Gary ~ I know that at times you've been a tad short on help.

Well I thought, how whould I get from London, England to Midland, TX. ?

I checked on Google Map~ Get Directions and this is what came up

Line 43 of the instructions is the one thats kinda putting me off ...... :lol:

I'd be more worried about driving on the Mass Pike :shock:

You could pick me up after you get by Brainard Airport :wink:

Airlift48 · **Joined:** Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:01 pm **Posts:** 741

I thought you made that up about the "Swim across the ocean bit", but I played with Google Maps a bit and It said the same thing.

Boy those Google folks are funny..... :!:

retroaviation · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:23 pm

Well, even though I still have quite a bit of work left to do with mounting the tailgunner's floor and other attaching hardware, Ol' 927 now has a tail gun.........

And with this being the most detailed drawing of the inside of the tailgunner's section I have, finding the casting that the yoke goes into was quite a chore......

But amazingly, I found one that'll work........

I'll give y'all the "rest of the story" perhaps in the morning. I'm kinda dragging right now, so I'm going to head to the house for the day.

Gary

Ztex · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:41 pm

Outstanding! Woot! Fantastic!

Looks real good from here!

Keep up the up the great work...and thanks for the update.
Z

peter · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:50 pm

Still sends shivers up my spine though as to the Valiant crews that maned these positions in the early B24s

APG85 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:28 pm

Looks awesome! I didn't even realize there was a skylight window in there.. :oops:

Warbird Information Exchange

Gary ~ What's The Plan For Diamond Lil ? 2006 and Beyond!

Who is online