First a little story, then some photos.
Ever since I can remember, one airplane has always been my favorite. That airplane is the B-17. I built the Monogram and Revell kits when they were issued in '75 (built a lot of them, actually) and have been collecting books and magazines pertaining to the '17 for as long as I've had money. I've finally completed the circle---I worked on a B-17 for the first time last weekend.
I can't remember the year, but the first B-17 I saw fly at an airshow was Texas Raiders, and, thanks to the hospitality of Spanner and the Gulf Coast Wing, the first Fort I've been privileged to wrench on is TR.
Enough of the personal stuff, here's an update on what we did last weekend.
As part of the ongoing inspection program, some areas of corrosion have to be addressed. If one thinks about how many years this airplane has had to sit outside in the Gulf Coast region, it's amazing that there isn't widespread corrosion. The little skin repair that I'm working on is one of the localized areas we'll have to take care of.
The first thing I had to do was to get the life raft doors opened up for internal inspection. That took a little headscratching because the release cables had been disconnected in the past.
These are the interior release handles in the radio room:
These are the release handles located on the upper fuselage decking just behind the raft doors:
And here are a few photos of the life raft wells for the curious and modelers among us:
The little round plates with the spring clips pop into the access holes in the upper close-out panels on each side.
I've got to get off the computer for a little bit, so I'll start in on the repair when I get back online.
Scott
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