Warbird Information Exchange

Sweet info Dave, thanks as always.

How how's the play in the strut and the drag link now with everything installed? Did everything tighten up?

Better have some pics of Paul when he lifts off after this OH.

Are you going to do the taxi tests etc. or someone else? I told Keppeler I was building him a new Sabre, one piece at a time. So far I have two wingtips and a nose cone. About that extra engine....oh yeah, and crate "C"?

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Hi Scott,
I'd say you have a pretty good start to Paul K's Sabre! I guess it will be a race to get crate C.
The strut is definitely tighter and the last of the play is in the drag brace. I will shim it to the tight side as the manual says .0015-.005. I should then be inside the 5/16" play allowed. It will be nice to not have to worry about the nose gear. Next year the mains will get some TLC.
Most likely Paul or Herwig will do the taxi tests. I'm not engine run trained yet in this beauty, but will be some day.
Take Care
David

A little late getting in on this, but what another great thread !

Gary I can tell you that the F-4 and A-4 both call for MIL5606 or MIL83299. They're compatible up to a point. Big difference between the two is flammability. Never seen a military jet call for Skydrol, thank God ! I too have had my share of 5606 baths.

I got drenched so bad one night working the A-26 that my socks turned pink !

Managed to make some good progress today and yesterday. I almost finished all of the nose gear. I need to do one more check to make sure the nose wheel is straight in relation to the mains. The manual has me setting up the gear rotating link at 3- 27/32" from center of bolt on one end of the link and center of the bolt on the other end. It looks really good, but we'll take some more measurements to be sure. I also shimmed the drag brace to tighten the nose gear up some more. I managed to get it to .002" with the limits .0015-.005. The nose fore and aft movement is well within limits now. Here's a picture of the nose gear in work.



In this photo we manually lifted the gear into the uplock and took the required measurements.



We also put hydraulics on the normal system and did a few leak checks and then checked the throw on the aileron that we changed the actuator on. The aileron has a travel of 15 degrees up 15 degrees down. Tom's checking the protractor as I'm holding the stick in place. We're well on our way to ops checks and hope for engine runs later next week.



David
WHF Maint

Tonight I hooked up the hydraulic mule to the utility system and started leak and ops checks. I first leak checked the filters and lines that I removed during the inspection and then cycled the speed brakes a number of times. They are opening and closing together which is what we need.




I then moved on to cycling the gear. I started at a low pressure of around 1000 psi and watched the gear especially the nose since I knew I would need to make some adjustments.



The nose gear uplock needed to be adjusted as the wheel was hitting a stiffener in the wheel well when it was up and locked. Here are the scrape marks from the nose wheel.



One more shim under the roller and we no longer have the wheel interference problem.



I put the pressure up to 2000 psi and checked everything once again. Here's a main wheel in the well.



Everything was looking OK, so I closed the doors to check the rigging and fit. There is a problem with the nose gear main door as it is being pulled really hard in one corner causing the door leading edge to deflect. This also causes some deflection of the doors on the nose strut when everything is up and closed.



I'll need to rig that door and make it fit better. I'll start on that tomorrow night as we'll be doing the full gear functional checks and flight control checks. Looking to do engine run and taxi Thursday or Friday. Here's one final photo of the gear up and locked, doors closed.



David
WHF Maint

David,

Great info and photos as always. How did you check the clearance on the wheel vs. the stiffener? It looks like it really was hitting hard to deform that stiffener like it did. Would that have an effect on the bent front strut issue you had? The leverage of the gear under that hydraulic pressure could do some interesting damage.

Hope all goes well from here on out. That last image of the gear up just screams "I'm flying!" Really cool shot.

Stay in touch and I'm really looking forward to "three shipping" to Thunder with you guys.

Later my Friend!

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Hi Scott,
I was able to put the gear up and I had the door actuator disconnected. Little did I know that I could have left everything connected and just pull the landing gear horn circuit breaker. That will keep the doors from closing. With the door open I could spin the wheel in the well and check for binding. First time I put it in the well I could feel the wheel scraping. I don't think this caused the scissors to get bent. We believe it was a towing issue with the steering link in and the airplane getting moved at an airshow. One possibilty.

You haven't beaten us to pick up crate "C" I hope?

David

The Sabre is mostly back together. We have a couple of issues to sort out yet
1 Nose wheel steering, overhauled unit leaked and would only cycle left.
2 Nose gear door needs rigging
3 Right brake is not adjusting out.
Those are probably the big ones so far. We'll work on trying to wrap up the flight control ops checks tomorrow night and motor the engine. If time permits we'll attempt an engine start and do some leak checks at idle power. Keeping our fingers crossed.



David
WHF Maint

Sabremech: Awesome work! I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to own a hot fighter like that! Sure seems like a lot of work to keep her flying though. And this is only maintenance!

Call me crazy, but there's a passion to keep this plane going. I've learned a great amount during this inspection and have gone farther than I imagined into some of the systems. You're right about the amount of work to keep her going and this is only the scheduled maintenance. We've got 6 other Warbirds crying for attention at times and they let me know it.
Thanks for the comments and we're happy to share this side of airplane care that normally isn't seen.
David
WHF Maint
www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org

David

I know your post is F86 Annual Inspection, but I was wondering if you have to open up the plane that much every year or is the plane or engine on a progressive flight time inspection? I.E. are some parts life or time limited, or on an hourly inspections like a hot section? Is this the first annual you have done since it was purchased (It just seems like you found a lot wrong this year) or are some inspections deeper than others like a “D” check for the Airlines?

Thanks and keep up the Great work!!
Steve

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"Any excuse is good enough if you're willing to use it!"

Hi Steve,
This is our normal inspection that we'll do every year. It is our FAA approved inspection program. I will be modifying the program somewhat and submitting a revision. There are components that are time or calendar limited, but usually we don't make it to hourly items as the component will have a failure and be replaced early. I don't want to say that I look at this airplane any different than the others we have, but the truth is I do. Single engine jet high performance 50+ year old airplane flying some of the best people I know.
I'd feel comfortable with a progressive inspection on the T2 because of the ease of access, and have even talked with the FAA about it, but because you can't get to most things easily on the Sabre I'll leave it as is. I will have to pull the engine every year to change filters and inspect the compressor etc. As to finding a lot wrong with the plane this year, this is our second annual on the airplane and I'd characterize it as being about the same as last year. We found other items last year than what we've found this year. I guess it may look like a lot to the WIX members as this being the first time I posted an inspection like this on the web. If WIX members like this kind of thread, I'd love to share more on other planes of ours.
My part of the mission of the Warbird Heritage Foundation of course is safety first and secondly to share with the community these airplanes. Our pilots will fly them and show them off and I'll show them scattered in a bunch of pieces around the hangar with them asking me if it will ever make it back into one piece.

Thanks for the great questions!
David

Today was the day. We did our first engine run-up and it was successful. No real problems noted. The new hydraulic pumps sure made a difference. All 3 hydraulic systems have good pressure and recover quickly when moving the controls etc. Tomorrow we work off the list of items needing attention before the test flight. Here's a couple shots of the Sabre in the sun for the first time in a while.









David WHF Maint

C'mon...you're killin' me here! Wow! Amazing and on behalf of all the WIX'ers, thanks David for sharing such an amazing insight into the life of one sexy beast!

This has been one amazing travel for those of us who are "wrenches" as well as "bird lovers".

I think this should be the beginning of a documentary series "ala David" on the real world of the warbird.

Thanks to Paul for letting you share this adventure and there are a couple "spirits" due you at Thunder courtesy of "moi".

Thanks again!

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Hi there david,

Wow.. great stuff you've been doing there. I sure enjoy your thread
here. Very impressed. Love the commentary and the dedication
sure shows. Gotta love that nice weather we've had here to get some
of those great pics lately as well. You guys will have an awesome time
flying over for thunder. Hope to see you there on the sunday.

henning

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"The best way to control the future is to create it".