Warbird Information Exchange

Wow, where is it you live that has white dirt?

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

Funny you should ask about the white dirt.

This weekend was blustery and crappy with ice and snow in the air. Drifts of snow on the ramp. Drafty and cold in the plane, in the shop, and even in the car, as the truck belonging to IndyJen needs a new thermostat, apparently.

PJ and I spent about an hour in the cockpit and nose of the plane, trying to work out how to remove an instrument panel lord mount.

In the somewhat warmer shop, the engine got a good day's attention. Engine wiring all installed, as well as the two plugs that are buried when the wiring harness is installed. Accessories are mostly installed now, although the generator's been left off. The starter is being repaired, and we need to leave space for getting that heavy item installed.

We'll be installing the carb next time, most likely. I'll get pictures of that for sure.

PJ took a few pix of these things going on, and also a closeup of one of our restoration items: a MK-32 torpedo director. In use, this thing hung from a rail above the windscreen--as did the MK9 gunsight. It was installed and used upside-down to the orientation its markings would lead you to assume, but the geometry apparently worked that way. Hopefully she will put that one up there soon ... although, maybe I have a pic of my own on the hard drive, here ...


That's the torpedo sight, with its plastic dust cover installed, on the right. And next to it is the MK9 gunsight, for good measure.

That's this week's edition of Life in the AMHF, in which otherwise reasonable people go out and fling themselves upon icy cold airplanes. In the meantime, to make up for not really having any maintenance pics this time to share, here's a series of the last engine we installed and tested. We'll probably be doing pretty much exactly the same thing at the same time of year with this new engine.

Saturday morning MQJ, and we're pumping warm oil into the engine.



You can see that this is the initial test run of this engine, because the prop blades are feathered. The installation procedure leaves them that way. They'll un-feather as oil pressure comes up on the first start. We're pumping in the oil to pre-oil the bearings. Pump for a little while, then pull her through one turn. Repeat over and over and over. We have a better setup than that hand pump now.

Over there on the far right is pilot Steve Rider. If you have seen the YouTube of Dave Hansen's PV-2 Attu Warrior losing an engine right after takeoff, coming around and landing safely despite the smoke pouring out: that was Steve bringing her in.



It takes a while for preparations, so why not take the flight-deck tug out for a spin? That's PJ driving it, deservedly: she and Steve the Rigger spent a good portion of last winter overhauling it. Sold it off to raise money. I still miss that tug.

With her is crew chief Craig and his son Tyler.

Eventually, we're done with preparations, so it's button her up and clear the area of equipment.



Just out of sight is our heavy stand, which I'll roll in behind the prop after we've started and warmed up. Idle mixture and speed have to be set up with the engine warm. Here's the view from my perch:



All the little screws and adjusters are right in there for carb-related adjustments, some of them right up by the exhaust heat shield. It becomes plenty warm during this process. Wear gloves and long sleeves! Or, be like me and find out the hard way, and thereby improve your vocabulary.

And, looking in the window: how many pilots does it take to start a harpoon engine? Just one, but all of the others feel free to offer advice.

Finally, an R-2800 starts just like a radial, with plenty of blue smoke when she hasn't run for a while.



Yes, we were working on No. 1 before, and this is no. 2 starting. No. 1 did ultimately start up all right, but this picture of no. 2 is a more pleasing to my eye. I believe MQJ went IFR for about fifteen minutes, there.

There's still a lot of work in front of us before we get to hear the noise and see the smoke again ...

_________________
IndyJen

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

Here is a close up of the Mk 32 Torpedo Director as it would be oriented in the PV cockpit:




and a top view:



and Saturday's work of accessory re-installation with Jenny and Rich:

See, you set your drop altitude and the target speed with the two big knobs. Then you twiddle the knob on the mount (since it's mounted upside down, it's at the top, by PJ's thumb) to orient the little "ship" so that it looks like the ship you're aiming at.

Now you just have to release your fish at the altitude you've set, at the range and airspeed charted in the book (you brought your book, right?). The movable post on the sight shows how much to lead the target.

Inside the plastic cover, there's a little calibration tool to set up the sight before taking off. You'll be dropping a MK-13 fish, but there are two different mods available, and they don't run the same. The calibration procedure is in our Harpoon's plane captain's (crew chief's) manual. It is damnably incomprehensible.

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IndyJen

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

Fascinating stuff, thanks. It's summer here, but I feel cold looking at those pics. Maybe hide them when soliciting for volunteers...
Were the torpedoes ever used in action? My impression was by the stage of the war these Harpoons were in action the torpedo had essentially been replaced by easier to use armament - like ~ah~ rockets for instance...

TIA

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

JDK,

It wouldn't have been a question of torpedoes-or-rockets; rockets could be carried no matter what the ordnance loadout. It's torpedoes-or-bombs/depth charges. If a torpedo was carried, nothing else could be in the bomb bay with it.

PV-2 crewman I've talked to all trained for torpedo drops, but none of them ever dropped one in anger. I vaguely remember reading a report of at least one torpedo attack, I'll see if I can find it.

I have studied up some on torpedoes since we acquired this sight--we actually got two, and made one good one out of two bad ones. The MK13 torpedo was quite a capable device--you could launch at max airspeed in a Harpoon, from several thousand feet. But you only got one shot, where with bombs, you could have as many as six.

_________________
IndyJen

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

Thanks. Looks like I expressed myself badly, as what you say was kind of what I thought.

By the later war period the torpedo was regarded by most air forces as the poorest attack option - rockets (and bombs, skip or otherwise etc, etc) were all better.

Trained for but not used - that's what I expected - thanks! But I didn't know the Mk.13's capability, if you do find that attack detail that would be great.

_________________
James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Here's a picture of the rocket intervalometer:

As always, rockets can be fired individually or in salvo-as Jenny points out, all at once is like receiving a broadsides from a cruiser.
The Mk 32 Torpedo Director was not installed in PV-2's bearing BuAer serial number 37185 and subsequent. The Mk13 torpedowas fitted with box-like plywood auxillary tail fins. These caused the torpedo to enter the water at a good angle, then broke wawy upon impact.

Hey, PJ - what's that "safety plug" look like on the upper RH corner of the rocket box? I have one of these things here, too, but the "plug" is missing and I always wondered what the darn thing really did, and what it looks like.

Ya'll have the attach bracket for this little monster? If you don't, I have one here and I know of feller in Utah who is supposed to be pretty good at tin bending and I hear he likes the Harpoon somewhat, too...

Your ears must've been ringing about the torpedo director, as I told Gary Hilton today it'd sure be neat to see one installed in the cockpit, although pilot Steve may find it gets in the way of visibility up front there.

While you were sharing with us the shots of your new stock torpedo director, I was busy this week installing my version of the "aft topedo director" in 57C. (That'd be the original toilet paper holder and toilet lid cover I found for our beast. I guess I like oddball stuff - don't know of too many restorations that have emphasized the installation of the on-board "head." I figure you and Dave can show off the armament packages in your respective birds and until I get our turret finished and installed I'll just be able to show "Tojo's Bombsight" there to the RH side of the entry door.... )

Yeah, but it's cooler from a biplane.



IIRC the Swordfish was the first type to use rockets as an anti-shipping weapon, specifically designed to pierce the pressure hull of a U Boat; so they were different to the large headed H/E or SAP rockets as seen on Typhoons etc. Very effective, and much better than depth charges against a surfaced U-Boat. I presume the Harpoons rockets are derivatives?

And before anyone points and laughs at the Stringbag, it had a better anti-submarine record than just about anything else; even with a stupid top speed and open cockpits in the Arctic and N Atlantic.

Back to the normal programming, the Harpoon...

_________________
James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Have spare rocket controller for you, Dave. You're covered. Part of my "metal bender bait" held back here in private reserve. I'd like to think there's maybe a bauble or two back here you haven't seen yet...

So you tin knocked a toilet seat lid, too eh? You are one sick man. And I say that with great respect....

Pooner, if you click on the small picture of the intervalometer it will come up larger in a sepertae window. I really don't know what function the safety plug has. I would guess it is just a safety against firing the torpedos on the ground.
We will be making a bracket for it in the next couple of weeks, but if you are wanting to part with a spare bracket, let me know.
We will just install the torpedo director on the ground for airshows and walk throughs. You're right...Steve doesn't need a bump to the noggin. If you find any more of those toilet seats let us know. People always get a laugh out of the harpoon toilet!

PJ
PV-2 Harpoon "Hot Stuff"
www.amhf.org

Whadya mean!....I don't do just guns and stuff....Had to fab T/P holder, but already have the cover AND the toilet seat!.....We gots your top notch accomodations here.
I do have the radio control bracket as well as radio control that goes above the pilot and have the print for radar indicator for right seat....would love to see rocket control up close though...thats neat!
Dave
PV-2"AW"

Well, it seems everybody has a toilet seat but me! Where are you guys getting these toilet seats? Put up a picture, why don't you?

_________________
IndyJen

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

PJ, I'll take a picture of the rocket intervalometer bracket and post for you, and Dave, if willing, may be able to pound out a couple of replicas. Even for a metal amateur like me the bracket itself is not by any means complicated or unusual. The one bracket I have was "signed" on the back by someone back on the production floor in pencil - he or she was obviously very proud of their war work efforts and wanted to leave a little message for whomever would stumble upon it.

I think that's one of the coolest things about the PV-2, as with our ship 57C we had to pull the wings and tail feathers off of it to move it from its last airfield. Anyway, when we pulled the thing apart the "human element" became so obvious - nasty little notes from line inspectors to the sheet metal crews admonishing them for "shoddy" work, and the wise guys (or gals) back on the line giving it back to them in little penciled notes. And the notes from the Navy mod crews in the late 40s and 50s. I need to photo document all of this before it goes back together and won't be seen for another 60 years...

Toilet seat... I'll share a secret - the "lid" is identical manufacture well into the 1970s for other a/c. The PV-2 manual says the original manufacturer of the crapper proper was "Sierra Manufacturing" and I compared an original scrounged from a tanker PV against a "contemporary" pooper lid taken from something of my era - a Boeing B-52. Same thing! Next time I am down in Tucson in the bomber graveyards I'll see if I can't "procure" a lid for ya'll. It may be 20 years or so junior to the original PV-2 line item, but I'm guessing nobody but us - and WIX crew - will be the wiser.

I'm guessing if you pull that lil' old plug on the rocket intervalometer it's a hollow formed piece of metal. Probably just interrupted the electrical circuit and may originally have had a paper pull tag on it, too. Interesting...

OK, if we're talking PV oddities here, anybody - anybody? - have an idea of the original stenciled decals on the back of the life compartment bucket lid on the entry door? I have the door and the outer lid - but the decals are wasted and I can't read 'em. Just curious...