Warbird Information Exchange

It was just Jeff, Scott and I yesterday and since it is not a normal workday and the museum is closed on Mondays we had the hangar to ourselves.

Scott removed an upper skin and cleaned and inspected the structure underneath and found things to be corrosion free. He found several broken stringer clips that probably comes from years of people walking on upper wings.

Jeff and I worked on stringer replacement on the lower inboard wing. In this particular area we remove the old corroded area and splice in new stringer material. Fortunately we only found three that we need to replace.

Dan

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Yesterday was a busy day at CMA. First thing was an engine check on China Doll. Hopefully she will fly in a few weeks after more than a year. Next we performed the sad duty of a memorial flight for one of our own.

Gill Brice was our fabric man extraordinaire. He had a massive stroke in the hangar last Saturday and died. He was doing what he loved when it happened. Gill was a perfect example of a guy who wasn’t a pilot but found a place for himself in our wing. Gill was a retired high school wood shop teacher who volunteered to learn aircraft fabric restoration. Virtually all of our planes have benefited from his skill. Gill loved to teach and did us the great service of passing his knowledge on so that we may continue on with our mission.

In the afternoon we gathered ourselves and pressed on with work on the PBJ.

Dan

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Sorry to hear about Gill. I'm sure he will be missed by all of you guys out there. I'm glad you could give him such a fitting tribute in your flyover.

She'll look something like this?

Yep!

But with a radar pod on right wing tip and rockets under the wings.

Dan

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Can't see the right wing-tip from the Port side, unless someone lands her REALLY hard!
Rockets, Check.
Scribbles on Rudder?? unit, make, serial??
Pilot name on side, Col. D Newcomb??
Antennae bottom under nose?

Is this the type rocket you will replicate?
http://www.vmb613.com/images/navarre44c.jpg

Afirm on the rockets. You have everthing else right. No other markings. The Marines refrained from nose art in the field.

Our paint by the way will be a satin finish. None of us liked gloss. Flat is what we wanted but it is a nightmare to keep clean.

Dan

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Great work beuing done by you guys. That is awesome.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Well yesterday started out as so many of my trips down south start with a peek at the clock and noting that it was five something AM. Time to get up and drag my creaking bones out to the Jeep. Time to start that lonely dark two-hour drive. As I cruised through the cotton fields on my way to the interstate I dialed up ATIS at CMA as I usually do to check the weather. I never know what to expect weather wise on the other side of the mountain. I was informed that the conditions were clear and warm enough to suit my purposes. Next I checked in with Daddy who was on his way to the big airport to catch a flight to SFO. From there he would fly his big bird to London to pay for shoes for Katie Bee. Bucker Boy couldn’t join us either as he is flying his bigger bird (size does matter b74vb77) somewhere in the Middle East. The other guys will be in on Tuesday. I knew Jeff would beat me to the hangar and have everything ready to go by the time I pulled into the lot. I also knew that because it was Monday with the museum closed we would pretty much have the place to ourselves. It would be a good day to bang rivets!



As things turned out we did have the place to ourselves. We couldn’t find the key to the museum to make coffee so we went to the Way Point and had breakfast after which Jeff and I opened up the hangar doors and then moved the right wing out into the sunlight. Jeff found a boom box and soon had it pumping out classic rock and roll. I suddenly felt like I was back in a garage rebuilding the engine of my ’57 Chevy. It was a good feeling.



Jeff amazed me with his ability to reach some of the seemingly impossible areas to buck rivets. We shot all of the rivets he was able to buck on the lower skin panel. We still have a few holes to fill. We ran out of rivets in one area. The other holes will be filled with Cherry Max. Jeff put an order together for these and other rivets after we inventoried our rivet supply. Iran will place the order today. Jeff also has put together a library of all the informational sources he can find that pertain to our project. You all know Jeff’s motto. “Show me where it is in the book.”



Yesterday I had something happen to me for the first time. In fact I have never seen it happen before. I had a rivet set break. Over the years I have shot thousands of rivets. I have shot all kinds and all sizes. As we were shooting flush rivets something just didn’t feel right with the gun but the rivets were going down just fine. I didn’t notice the break until I switched sets. The spring on the gun was the only thing keeping the set together!



Thanks Jeffie for a great day but can you bring beer the next time?



Dan

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she is on her way to being one of the most beautiful B-25-ish aircraft on the circuit!!!!!!!!!

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S.

Hi guys,

Jeff and I all but finished the lower inboard skin. We lack just 4 cherries as we ran out of the proper length.

Scott surprised us by showing up later in the morning after getting in from a long trip. In the afternoon we tackled the ticklish task (you like that?) of locating our brand new $3,500.00 blank, lower aft, wing attach angle.

This critical and expensive piece of aluminum must be located precisely. If we are just a fraction of an inch off in our measurements the wing won’t fit. The old saying, “measure twice and cut once” took on new meaning for us. We measured about 10 times before we cut. I think we did our job but we won’t know for sure until we try to hang the wing. If we didn’t get it right it will cost us a lot of time and money. The long bright piece of aluminum that Jeff is working on in the pictures is the attach angle.

Looks like next Monday for Jeff and me.



Dan

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Dan, would ambient temperature affect the wing's size? I mean, could it expand on a hot day and then not fit?

more stupid questions fro Muddy.

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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."

Only if you soaked the rest of the plane in dry ice... The wing and center section will be at roughly the same temperature when you attach them together.

Roger that

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Check out our new website.
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