Warbird Information Exchange

Hey Dave, we'll look forward to those prints--we've accumulated a bunch of stuff and we're to start building up some crew position installations. I just got the last piece of the ARC-5 set a couple weeks ago, and you know that rack is the keystone to the whole left side of the interior. How's your own engine change coming?

I'll sure get more pics of the plane, inside and outside, as we proceed. One thing about being down while waiting for the engine, we've had a chance to make headway in a lot of areas.

I don't know why, but I always end up working the fork truck. Except when our man Sideshow Ted is there--he's a heavy equipment man, and when he brings the giant forklift, he's in charge. There'll be pics of that when we hang the engine. It's a sight to see.

We didn't get the engine on the mount yesterday as planned. One thing after another. First off, there was a bunch of stuff left un-safetied by the overhauler, and rear cylinder row stuff is a lot easier to get to with the engine off the mount. Here's WIXer PJ and our man Steve taking care of that stuff (pushrod tube and induction manifold gland nuts, mainly, along with Lord mount installations is what they're working on).



Isn't that engine just pretty and shiny?

Those Lord mount pads are supposed to have a tab to attach the bonding strap. Didn't have 'em, although they were there when we shipped it. So I spent a good part of the morning scrounging through the supplies, and finally cannibalized some off a scrap engine case. But then we had to give the forklift back, and so the engine still sits just as you see her above. We'll put it on the mount next workday, most likely; it's ready now.

So instead, the rest of our crew spent the day working on airframe/annual issues. Bomb bay and flap rigging was the main focus.

Bomb bay rigging:



That's Glen, one of our lead mechanics. He's measuring the full-open gap of the bomb bay doors. There's a one-inch tolerance in the max open distance. You adjust the hydraulic rams to get the doors within tolerance.

Flap rigging:



That's PJ again, safetying one of the clusters that distribute the flap cables. to the various flap tracks. Thet must be one of the outboard clusters--the inboards split three ways, rather than two. Our man Glen, pictured previously, has been leading the flap rigging effort. He likely knows as much about the Harpoon flap system as anyone you're likely to meet. We like to froze to death yesterday, safetying those turnbuckles.

Note also the nice clean flap bay. PJ has been cleaning up those areas, and the bomb bay, for a good long while. This is what she started with, back in the summer:



Corrosion control is a never-ending thing when your plane lives outside. Maybe one day we'll be able to have a hangar. Hard to find donated hangars for a 75-foot wingspan, though. Sigh. One can dream, anyhow ...

So that's the report from this weekend's mx. We'll be back at it next Saturday, if we're not all still beached like whales from the holiday feasting. You all have a good holiday yourselves, and thanks for the kind comments.

IndyJen
PV-2 "Hot Stuff"

Hi Jen/and crew
Would love to have a crew like yours...great pics. My engine is on and test runs made...all ok. Also installed some preoilers for both engines and have continued inside work...Nav seat ,radar seat, radio operator seat and additional items like locker in rear, aft of flare tube, and drift sight. Astro dome is installed but the lower gun pod and tunnell guns still need to be put in....not enough hours in the day! Bomb bay will have to be done this winter. Still need to get some pilots typed but that will happen when it happens.....
Will send some pics with prints as they are hard to read in printed format..I got dimensions direct from reader in some cases
Dave

Hello!
Stopped by a few weeks ago to see how your Poon was doing...Still doing the Harpoon tilt...Hope things go well for all of your crew and Hot Stuff.....Do you happen to have any extra Lord mounts? I have one 2800-31 ready to attach to an engine mount, but lack the mounting pads...and if you would happen to have an extra set of bomb-bay doors!!!! Gary

Sorry,
No extra bomb bay doors.
It is extremely difficult to work outdoors when the temp. is only in the thirties and the wind is blowing, Even the smallest task such as putting a washer and nut on a bolt takes 5 times as long as usual. It takes dedication and determination.

Hey Gary,

I wasn't there the day you dropped by, but so it goes.

We have a few Lord mounts in a box in the storage area, but they don't appear to be R-2800 mounts. I'm not sure what the best source for those things would be. Maybe someone like Aero Accessories in San Antonio?

http://aeroaccessoriesinc.com/

Worth a try, mebbe.

IndyJen
PV-2 "Hot Stuff"
American Military Heritage Foundation
www.amhf.org

WIX people,

It appears to me, admittedly as a rank newbie to this forum, that this thread is in the wrong place. It's been all about maintenance so far, and it's going to continue to be all about maintenance, and restoration, and such topics.

So I'm going to start a new thread, in the Maintenance Hangar area, when we resume. That likely won't be until Saturday's maintenance out at the plane, but who know, I may drum up some pictures or some such before then, 'cause you know I don't do much else but think about this plane and plan for what's coming next. Look for "Hot Stuff" in the title, Harpoon fans.

See you over in the Hangar,

IndyJen
PV-2 "Hot Stuff"
American Military Heritage Foundation
www.amhf.org

Please do keep it here.... this isn't the first major restoration title to stay in the main Hangar. It will definitely get more viewing here. Can't wait to see what you've been up to. Looks like it's going to be a beautiful restoration. Did this aircraft appear at the Geneseo shows back in the late 1980's? I seem to remember seeing an aircraft painted like this one back then.

All the best,
Richard

_________________
Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com

Richard,

Late '80's is before my time with this plane, but there just aren't that many twins in Navy three-color scheme out there. It wouldn't surprise me if it was Hot Stuff (although I don't think the "Hot Stuff" nose art was around in those days).

We'll see about thread location, I guess. I don't want to mess up the program here, and I saw where the Diamond Lil thread had moved over to the maintenance hangar, and that's what inspired my previous post. Whatever works best is fine with me.

The upcoming holiday is shutting down our usual Wednesday maintenance, but it looks like we have enough willing people to make a crew for Saturday. I expect that we'll get that engine on the mount and start installing accessories. Pictures and description, probably, come Sunday morning ...

IndyJen
PV-2 "Hot Stuff"
American Military Heritage Foundation
www.amhf.com

I say keep the thread here. I was kind of disappointed to see the Diamond Lil thread moved (but I'm a little partial to it, you know). Just yesterday, I received an e-mail from a fella who said he was reading "every page on the Diamond Lil thread and got to the first part of the tailgunner's fabrication, but can't find the thread anymore." I would guess that most folks, especially lurkers, merely look at the main page on WIX and rarely look any further.

Great thread you've got going here. Keep the updates coming, no matter where it is placed.

My $.02 worth.

Gary

Thanks to everyone for the Harpoon Support! Like Jenny said we are very sympathetic with those who maintained them in Alaska. Our respect only increases as the days get colder.

Have a great Thanksgiving! And see you Saturday!
-Fedex John

_________________
No one ever said, "You volunteer too much."

Good work guys, Hot Stuff is a great looking airplane. Keep up the awesome work.

_________________
Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

One step closer, that's where we are with this engine change.

This week's regular Saturday maintenance day out at the PV-2 ramp was a fairly sparsely-attended event, thanks to the holiday, but that was expected. We still had enough hands to get done what we'd planned: IndyJen (yours truly), Rich, the Official Dad of IndyJen, Steve the Rigger, and our fellow WIXer PJ.

The main event: getting the new shiny engine hung on the mount. We'd planned to have that done a week ago, but inspection revealed a number of un-safetied items and other discrepancies that were a lot easier to address while everything was exposed--the exhaust heat shield ("dishpan") crowds a lot of rear-row stuff, and makes for some tight corners. So we let it go, and worked on tidying up loose ends instead.

As usual, we did this business outdoors. You need plenty of elbow room when it's time to hoist the engine.

Here's what we started with, then (I just don't get tired of looking at the shiny engine):



The big critical thing is to have the hoist all hooked up before disconnecting the prop-shaft clamp. The engine wants to fall over backwards when it's balanced on the cylinders like that.

So, first thing is to carry the engine outside, and bring the engine-mount and its associated stand out there, too. Then we hook up our handy-dandy homemade "H"-shaped hoisting beam. We only use this when picking up the engine alone, sans mount. The arrangment of the suspension eyes keeps the chains clear of pipes, baffles and cylinder heads.



Take up the slack, and then we can undo the prop-shaft clamp and lift her clear. At that point, we can drag the shipping cradle out of there, and push the engine-mount cradle over to the engine. We generally keep the engine stationary, and bring the other things to the engine.

We've done this evolution enough that it's familiar territory, but there's always something that needs to be re-learned. Yesterday's lesson was, "don't torque the Lord mount-to-engine case bracket nut all the way down until the engine's on the mount." Thos Lord mounts need to "float" a little bit, to let them line up with the spools in the mount. It was a frustrating battle for a while there, until the light came on.

Eventually, you get a couple of the Lord mount threaded rods thru the mount sufficiently to start the cone nuts on them. Tightening those couple cone nuts draws the rest of the business in, and aligns them, so all six cone nuts can be installed and tightened. At this stage, just tighten them until they bottom. Do the book torque later. Now it's safe to put in the prop shaft support and remove the hoist.



That engine-mount stand, btw, was designed and fabricated by our man Gaylon, who is top-notch.

And then into the shop with the thing, and off to storage with the shipping cradle. Now we've got room to work in there again. The rest of the day, we're just safetying things that were inaccessible while the engine was on the shipping cradle, and beginning to install accessories and such.



That's Rich, installing the prop governor, and PJ, wedged in underneath, safetying the underneath items.

And aren't we happy to see the engine back on the mount again? Why yes; yes we are.



That's our president, Penny, giving the ol' Pratt $ Whitney muchas smoochas. We would have gone out of business nearly two years ago without Penny; she is a miracle worker when it comes to fundraising and squeezing in-kind donations out of shipping companies and the like. It's important to have people who can turn wrenches, sure, but it takes other skills--like Penny's--to keep these birds in the air, too.

So that's the story of this weekend's mx. Expect to see some rear-case photos next time, as accessories get installed and things get hooked up. Expect, also, to see photographic evidence of more airframe work occurring--we have a cockpit to put back together, especially, and soon we'll likely start pulling access panels on the empennage to check/lube the control cables.

There's always more to do. But there's light at the end of the tunnel, and we will see this bird back in the air soon enough.



Till next time,

_________________
IndyJen

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Support "Hot Stuff"
Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon of the
American Military Heritage Foundation
http://www.amhf.org

Great update Jen. Thanks.

I think I saw Hot Stuff at McGuire AFB back in 1995. I hope to see it again.

Coming home from work today, what do I see in my mailbox but a big white envelope from Dave Hansen, with some plans printed off microfilm in it.

Thanks Dave! I believe I am going to start making that Nav table at home, and I'm gonna see if Johnny Gearpin, who is a metal-bending man, will start making up the ARC-5 rack.

I haven't even begun to go through that envelope, so I am going to go do that right now.

Thanks loads, again, Dave--you're the man!

And now, here's a completely gratuitous Harpoon photo:



Our Harpoon, in the snow at Mt Comfort during filming of The Last Flight of Bomber 31. I believe that it was just as cold that day as it looks in the picture.

_________________
IndyJen

------------------------------

Support "Hot Stuff"
Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon of the
American Military Heritage Foundation
http://www.amhf.org

Please keep posting these pictures and updates...very informative. Also glad you include people in your pix to remind us that it takes many people to make our warbirds fly.
I am pretty sure I first saw Hot Stuff back in the early 90's prior to Hot Stuff being painted on the nose. Later, when I first saw the nose art, I had to check my "files" to make sure it was the same a/c.