B-17G "Chuckie" Update

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Wed Jun 03, 2009 8:54 pm

Bill,

I'm still searching AFHRA for pics of Chuckie during her AAF and USAF service. So far, no luck.

However, here is the flight and hangar line at Clinton County, taken in 1946, long before she was assigned there.

I've found a good bit of H2X information and a few pictures and drawings of that equipment.

Three of the four Base Units she was assigned to after the war have no historical records that we can find, so the search continues for two more days.

Scott

CrewDawg · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2009 6:48 pm

Nice pic! Wish I was there to help you and Ellen look! They would have to call security to get me to leave that place. I love digging in old records!!
I'm scanning some of my old pictures from various museum's I've been to and worked for over the years. Wanna see Cavanaugh's Spitfire being put together?

cozmo · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2009 7:23 pm

Ding, ding, ding...and the winner for silly question of the day, goes to...

CrewDawg wrote:

Wanna see Cavanaugh's Spitfire being put together?

please?

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2009 8:24 pm

CrewDawg wrote:

Nice pic! Wish I was there to help you and Ellen look! They would have to call security to get me to leave that place. I love digging in old records!!

Would a fire alarm get you out? We had a fire drill at the Archives today. Turned out to be no big deal, but it got me out of the Research Room for twenty minutes or so.

Speaking of digging in old records, this is what one of our two tables looked like during a quiet time today:

Those are two of the eight-or-so carts of records we've gone through so far this week. :rolleyes:

Here are a couple of photos that should inspire the VFM maintenance team:

We gotta get this done:

So the airplane is ready for this in October:

Scott

CrewDawg · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2009 11:41 pm

Great picture of the gear swing Scott! Yup that's on our list of things to do.

Cozmo,
I'm working on it, I've got to finish scanning all the pictures as I took them back in '93 before I could afford a digital camera (did they have digital back then - I feel old). I'll get them posted as soon as possible, hopefully tomorrow.

the330thbg · **Joined:** Wed Nov 14, 2007 3:06 pm **Posts:** 2713

So how many jacks in all will allow you to float this plane?

cozmo · **Posted:** Fri Jun 05, 2009 2:40 pm

CrewDawg wrote:

...(did they have digital back then - I feel old)...

That was about the beginning of the digital cameras available to the general public.

Had an HP around 1995 that I paid a bundle for. I doubt if I could get anything for it today...if I could find it. 640x480 size pictures, okay resolution 2meg or 4meg storage and not really worth printing. But hey, it was digital, no need for processing.

No hurry on the posting, I would just like to see them.

K5DH · **Posted:** Fri Jun 05, 2009 2:56 pm

the330thbg wrote:

So how many jacks in all will allow you to float this plane?

When we do our gear swing tests, we place one HUGE jack under each wing (fully compressed, they stand about seven feet tall, and I believe they're rated for 30 tons) and one smaller jack under the fuselage forward of the tail wheel. We run the gear up-down-up-down-up electrically, and then hand-crank them back down the last time (to ensure that the manual cranking mechanisms are working right). The hand-cranking is lots of fun inside the non-A/C'd bomb bay of the B-17, inside the non-A/C'd VFM hangar, in the oppressive heat of a Texas summer! :shock:

I think this year I'll allow a couple of our younger guys to have the opportunity to sweat off a few (dozen) pounds. . . too much exertion for this ol' fart. . . :wink:

I forgot to mention. . . it takes 250 and 1/4 turns to crank each main gear leg down, and whoever's doing it has to count the turns and report the number to the record-keeper. If their count is much more or less than the prescribed number, troubleshooting must commence because there's something amiss.

Cheers,

JBrawner · **Posted:** Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:17 pm

well dean, id have to agree with you on letting some others do it as well. it was always a tradition to let the "new" guy do it....... so uhm crewdawg... have fun :twisted:

i know ive done my part in that before.

Ztex · **Posted:** Fri Jun 05, 2009 11:37 pm

Yep...I was the new guy ONCE....250-1/4 turns. At least it was a cool day when I did my turns.

Holedigger · **Posted:** Sat Jun 06, 2009 2:18 pm

Great fund raising idea, auction off the "hand cranking" the gear! So much a turn, discount if they buy more than ten!!! Print up a little certificate and snap a pic to go along with it!! How many people can say they have hand cranked the gear of a B-17! Don't have to say it was on the ground! :wink:

It's the Tom Sawyer method of "get 'er done"!

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Mon Jun 08, 2009 11:48 am

Spooky posted some great photos of Aluminum Overcast on this thread: http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.o ... ht=#294721 and the subject of the ventral camera doors came up. Here is a little info on the camera bay on Chuckie.

I was searching the parts room for another item yesterday and saw these two little aluminum panels on a shelf. I pulled them out and realized that they were the strike camera doors that we need.

After discovering these jewels, one of which is NOS, (I think the other one is also, but the protective covering is no longer on it) I went out to the airplane to examine the belly. It turns out that someone removed the original set-up on '543 and installed this very simple single door. The opening is still the same size, and, fortunately, they didn't do any cutting of the internal structure.

Here is the Parts Catalog drawing of the assembly. We'll have to find or build all the actuating linkage and locks, but it doesn't look like it will be too hard.

This little "D" shaped patch had me stumped for a few moments. After looking at the exploded view in the IPC I realized it is the viewfinder port.

It turns out that the belly skin that the camera doors are attached to needs some work, so we're going to drill the entire skin off for replacement. We will be able to install the doors all at the same time.

Oh, here is a placard from the left side bulkhead in the camera bay:

Scott

Django · **Posted:** Mon Jun 08, 2009 4:21 pm

Wow, that had to feel good to find those doors! NOS to boot!

Ztex · **Posted:** Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:53 pm

Well that clears things up a bit...Years ago I asked about that panel and I was told that it was the camera panel but no one at the time really seemed to know how it worked. Teh double doors make much more sense.

Cool!

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:07 pm

k5dh wrote:

I forgot to mention. . . it takes 250 and 1/4 turns to crank each main gear leg down, and whoever's doing it has to count the turns and report the number to the record-keeper. If their count is much more or less than the prescribed number, troubleshooting must commence because there's something amiss.

Cheers,

So does that mean that there is a really good excuse for there to be 4-5 people on board (required crewmembers) for an airshow? :!:

Ryan

Warbird Information Exchange

B-17G "Chuckie" Update

Who is online