Warbird Information Exchange

I feel stupid asking but could you post a picci of your Spad? I can't seem to find one here...besides the one at the airport with your harem sitting under the wing.

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

Gonna threadjack for a sec. Eric...you make it home OK......you were taking off as I was taxiing out and I heard you later changing freqs with Center....hope it was uneventful trip and the plane is better !!!!!!!

LadyO2pilot wrote:



Thanks for asking. As you know we had a mixture control problem of some sort. The big question is exactly why. We were able to adjust the mixture control linkage so that everything was within limits and the flight home was uneventful. As you probably saw it took us the better part of both days to get it adjusted out and it was a HUGE adjustment, had to take the linkage off and move it a vast amount to get enough adjustment, who knows why. It is running fine adjusted like this but I am pulling the carb off and having it flowed again (only has 80 hours since I had it yellow tagged????), as a side note we had planned to pull the engine after one more show and have the blower overhauled and we are just going to go ahead and do that now. I have never been happy with the oil consumption since I got the airplane (3.5gal per hour) which is well within limits, but higher than I would like. If we rebuild the blower section we should be at 1 or less. Only 20k, so it's well worth the effort.

Next year should be much better, I was really disappointed that we didn't fly. How often do you see three Spads at a show? It was tough to sit and watch, but you all looked great.

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Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

Ummm, Eric, what did you say the serial number of that carb was ?

Thanks Eric! Wanted to see those polka dots mo' bettah! Seeing your head sticing out of that big bird is kind of funny- it swallows you right up!

*goes back to ignore mode*

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

I wanted to know why the Moonlighters chose "polka dots" -- This is what Wiki has to say about it:

Marine Attack Squadron 332 (VMA-332) was re-commissioned on April 23, 1952 as part of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at MCAS Opa Locka, Florida flying the F6F Hellcat and later F4U Corsairs. During the Korean War, 332 was assigned a combat role operating from the USS Bairoko. It was at this time the famous polka-dots, hat, and cane originated. Replacing the VMF-312 "Checkerboards", who had a black and white checkerboard painted around the engine cowlings, VMA-332, somewhat mockingly, adopted the red polka-dots on white background. The design was reminiscent of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker's hat in the Ring Squadron of World War I. The addition of the hat and cane was derived from the squadron tail letters of "MR". Being the abbreviation of mister, and feeling they were gentlemen in every regard, the hat and cane was adopted as accouterments every gentleman has. It was then that the squadron picked up the nickname VMA-332 "Polka-dots".

You may have covered this before, Eric, and if so, please excuse me asking, but was this the scheme when you purchased her?

Beachgirl asked:



I bought the airplane with the VMA-332 paint scheme. When I first did the pre-buy I liked everything about the aircraft except the paint. I have since changed my mind and wouldn't consider changing it. Every now and some woman at an airshow will come up and say "Oh look at the pretty airplane, it has polka dots", it used to tee me off, until I started thinking of it like this...A bengal tiger could be considered pretty as well, until it starts to maul you, then not so pretty. My Spad is much the same.

At the Indy air show a woman came up to the airplane and asked my wife what it was used for, she said it was used in an air to ground mission, the women asked again in another way what it was used for and Tina again explained all the various roles that a Skyraider was used in, the women nodded and walked on, only to come back by a few minutes later and ask what "the exact purpose" the plane was, to which Tina said "Lady, they used it to tear sh$t up." Initially, this seemed to be a satisfactory answer, but the lady began to look puzzled again and said "Seems odd they would decorate something like that".

I had read quite a bit about VMA-332, including the Wikipedia info you posted. Thanks for the interest. BTW my avatar is the VMA-332 unit patch, as seen below.

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Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

Here's a few of E.D's Spad that I took at Midland including the cannon installation

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The more I learn about aircraft, the more I realize I still have to learn.

Nice meeting you Eric, here's a picture of you arriving. Good to hear you got home safely.

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Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.

Thanks Roger,

It was a pleasure to meet you, hope to see you again soon. Stay in touch.

Eric

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Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

Maybe we'll catch you again at Thunder Over MI

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Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.

Muddy Boots wrote:



You know, I've gotten used to how big the airplane is, but you can get a better perspective with me standing beside it. I'm 5'10".



BTW Roger, your 1000th post is of the Skyraider. Thanks and congrats.

I always thought this picture of the skyraider taken at night in one of my hangars was kind of cool. It's a couple of years old, before I made the missles and got the 150 drop tanks working. Looks like the car lights are on, just the flash though. You can also see the most important tool you can have with the AD, the ever present yellow solvent mop bucket.

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Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

Eric,

I'm glad to hear you folks made it home OK. If I were you, I'd be checking the starter as well, given the quantity of starts you made over 2 days. You are right about having 3 Spads at one show. It was very cool to see. The only comparable thing I've seen at Airsho was the year we had 5 TBM's in Harlingen. I hope we'll see ya'll again next year.

RICK

Thanks, Eric.........I for one am glad you left the paint scheme alone!!! It's sharp looking! I wonder if that lady finally DID get it...........

Hey Eric: Izzat an MG? Boy, you MUST be a masochist, a Brit car AND a big round engine in the same hangar!!! (Just funnin ya, I have a 71 BGT and a couple BSA's and Trumpets, so you can tell I must enjoy mental anguish and spending of cubic dollars)

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Regards,

Jase
www.b26marauder.com
"I'm having a BLAST!!" 2007 CAF Wing Staff Conference

RIP Gary Austin..always in our hearts