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

Wolverine · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:14 pm

It looks absolutely fantastic, Gary. Excellent job.

muddyboots · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:00 pm

Gary, quit whacking yourself. It looks fantastic. The only reason you feel that way is because you made it, which lets you see all the imperfections. The artist is always his own harshest critic, right? Trust us, it looks terrific!

Nathan · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:54 pm

Quote:

The CAF shoud certainly give you an honorary award for what you have personally accomplished.

Or they should at lest give you a cheap $5.00 gold watch as a gift for finishing the old B-24! :lol:

NathanT24 · **Joined:** Sun Jul 25, 2004 11:27 pm **Posts:** 252

Gary I see Ol 927 is tentavly set for Wings Over Houston, you plan on coming with her? I want to buy you a beer for all the work you have done.

retroaviation · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 7:53 am

Marc (stratofortressflyer)...I've never seen the Collings airplanes up close and personal. Someday I will though (would love to take a tour of them) and will look at the seating arrangement you're talking about. I do have pictures of it, but my brain would certainly register it all better if I saw it in person. However, right now, we're just going to have to live with what we've got...good or bad. I'll have to get some rest before I think about the details of future modifications to the seating (such as in the forward bomb bay). Oh, and I know your Dad is going to be upset, but we aren't going to install those oxygen bottles he cleaned up for us this year. We didn't have the bottle mounts to do the installation, but have found some and will try to get that done next year.

NathanT24...I currently don't know if I'm going to be with the airplane at any other places besides Selfridge, Oshkosh (thru Saturday), and Midland. If they want/need me to go to the Houston show, I will. It's up to our Tour Director really.

Gary

Django · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:42 am

Door looks good! Is she going to make Ground School?

retroaviation · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 10:12 am

Django wrote:

Door looks good! Is she going to make Ground School?

Well, it looks like it WILL fly this weekend. However, that's IF I can keep this piece of crap entry door together. We've only been walking on it for a few hours now and I've already found a weak point that has started to crack out.

I've got it repaired, but I'm really nervous about how it's going to hold up this year. UGH!!!

Gary

retroaviation · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 3:01 pm

Okay here's a very quick update reporting on today's work...

Shroty DeWitt and Jim Rowe have been here the past few days helping get things ready for the groundschool & training flights this weekend. Shorty's been installing more storage bins and Jim's been installing things such as the crash axes, fire extinguishers, etc.

I spent the day mulling over the entry door, trying to discover weak spots and fixing them with various brackets, angles, and so on. I think I've finally gotten it to where I'm more comfortable with it's security. I'm sure that this door will continue to be problematic for me, but perhaps I've taken care of all of the serious items. This is the first time I'm even moderately happy with the results on it.

We're scheduled to weigh the airplane tomorrow morning, so that'll be another major hurdle out of the way. Some officers of the local Texas Department of Public Safety (Highway Patrol), Commercial Division, are going to bring their scales out that they weigh semi-trucks with. These scales are calibrated regularly and work quite well for these airplanes, as they have a very low profile and are easy to tow the airplane up on. We used their services when weighing FIFI a while back and it is a huge help to us.

So that's it for now. I still have lots of little things I'd like to get accomplished before this thing flies and goes on tour, but even if I don't get them done, the airplane is pretty much ready to fly right now. I'm going to try to go get some sleep now. I slept a total of 2 hours last night (1 a.m. to 3 a.m.

). But we're getting lots of work accomplished, so it's worth it I reckon. However, with that being said, I know my limits and don't want to start making stupid mistakes, so I'm outta here!

Gary

herkman · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 4:15 pm

The crew door on a C130, does not weigh much, but does take a hell of a lot of punishment.

In actual service it is used to load pax as well as crew. Your door size does appear to be wider but not so long.

Whilst I am not suggesting that you use one of those, the concept coould be of interest, and as the door is normally closed from the inside, it also is so well balanced that it swings easely.

I am not suggesting that you use a C130 door, just that after the season is over, if you find the door is still cracking up, you might like to consider building a door using those concepts.

All the best

Col

Ztex · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:02 pm

herkman wrote:

The crew door on a C130, does not weigh much, but does take a heck of a lot of punishment.

Hmmm...Like this...

APG85 · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:45 pm

Very nice

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

That looks alot like a C-97 entry door, although those are very heavy.

herkman · **Posted:** Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:55 pm

No Sir! That is definately C130.

Can be lifted by one person when off the airplane.

If you look closely you can see that the inner frame and the steps are produced as a single unit.

Like to have a dollar for every time I have walked up one.

Regards

Col Tigwell

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

No, clearly it is not a C-97 door, my point is that is similar in appearance and design.

retroaviation · **Posted:** Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:07 pm

Just a very quick update here, as we're scrambling to get the airplane ready for it's first flights tomorrow. Everything was looking pretty good. I'd finished the entry door (with newly installed second snubber and chain guards), we'd weighed the airplane, and it was down to just the smaller items, which were getting knocked out pretty quick.

Just when things were starting to look like we were actually going to beat this deadline, a big setback occurred. We were charging up the newly installed batteries for the interior lights and one of the volunteers mistakenly knocked off the positive cable from the charger, and naturally, it came to rest between the flooring and one of the aileron cables. As you can imagine, the resulting arc left several strands of the cable melted and unairworthy. I was not a happy camper at this point. I tried very hard to remain calm and not say anything foul or derogatory, but the stress from the entire project, along with this nice new surprise, got the better of me. I was not happy.

So, after unsuccessful attempts to find the appropriate parts here in Midland to splice the cable with, I finally found the parts I need in Dallas. One of the Squadron members was flying out here anyway for the groundschool tomorrow, so he's picking the parts up for me and I'll hopefully have this major hurdle resolved in the morning. I'm essentially just going to cut out the bad area of cable and swedge on a couple of new cable ends and place a turnbuckle inbetween. This is a perfectly safe repair and the damage luckily occurred in a location where I have plenty of room for it.

So, like always, I'm sure everything will work out, but this dang airplane is fighting me the whole way. I'm gonna get back out there now and try to remain calm. I'll hopefully be giving y'all a successful post flight update tomorrow.

Gary

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

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