Warbird Information Exchange

there's more!
Dave

With all the stuff thats been going on here, last week brought a diversion from the norm. Monday, a flight of 3 Army helicopters, were grounded here due to a rotor bearing failure on one of the OH 58's. "KIOWA"
CAFHQ let them bring the "KIOWA" to our hangar for the repairs. The other "KIOWA" and a "BLACKHAWK" were left out on the FBO ramp.
There were ten Army Airmen here for 4 days. They were from Ft. Campbell, KY. and were part of the 101st Airborne Aviation regiment.
Most notable, were three Airmen who came and helped my crew, work on the B-29, while the "Kiowa" was being worked on. They were from the "Blackhawk" crew.
They were; CW-4 Phil Anderson, PIC for the "Blackhawk" 17 years, 2 tours in Iraq, 1 in Afganistan. Also serves as a test pilot for the "Blackhawk"
CW-2 Scott Kimmle, Co-pilot for the "Blackhawk" 5 years, 1 tour in Afganistan.
Sgt. Sam Jones, avionics/electronics tech. 18 years, 2 tours in Iraq, 1 tour in Afganistan.
These three have my greatest appreciation for there help on the 29 and for there service to our country.

All 10 these airmen are being deployed back to Afganistan in March. Our prayers are with you men!!
I also have to mention Mark Baxter for taking care of their lunches. Mark cooked lunch for all of us for three days out on the "Skinbarger Grill" Wow, what a treat that was. Thanks Mark!!

The following pics are Crew Chief Doug and his TI Tubbs working on the "Kiowa"


This photo clearly shows who the pilots are!!



Phil and Scott, working on taking panels off of #4.





This is Phil and Sam, working on the wiring problem we had for the right wing landing light and the strobes.



Scott and John Flynn were working on getting the #4 cowling off.



I gave Sam "Sparky" the honor of installing the newly overhauled gun sight in the bombardiers station.



Of course Jim and Tom were here helping get the turbos exhaust ducts out.


All this, really made for a fun week at the Hangar! The repairs to the "Kiowa were completed on Wed. and the runups and test flights were done on Thurs. They all departed Friday morning on there way to some training ops in the Tucson area.

Again, Many thanks to them and all the brave men and women of our armed forces, here and around the world.

Dave

looking GOOD, thanks for the pics

Great stuff!! I can't even imagine trying to line up that wing with a forklift!

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Cool thing about putting the wing back on with the forklift "Big Red" was that Gary and Mark Baxter had made a cradle, with just the right angle to bring it into alignment with the inner wing section. They made it a few years ago, when the left wing was done. It helped alot and made it a piece of cake!

I've had a few things get done over the last few weeks and will post some pics tommorrow or in the next few days. Had John Flynn here helping out the past week and what a great help he is!! We got the exhaust finally done on #3 and does that feel good! He finished getting the right aileron and trim tab rigged, cables are tensioned and saftied. Leading edge on the right wing, just outboard of the #4 engine back on. Right Flap got its annual done today with him and Mark Russell working on that. I've been working on finishing the #3 engine breather exits because what I had for the engine run was just temporary. More details on that with pics.

I'm planning to have a few helping out at the hangar on Friday...Chris, Brad and Mark to mention the ones I know of. Should be a good day as I am going to have Mark and Chris do the rest of the flap work on the left flap and Brad and I will pull the #1 engine. If you are interested and want to come and help, just let me know!!

Dave

Dave,

Great work on the outboard wing install. Your team has been accomplishing many milestones lately. Thanks a bunch for keeping us updated. We really treasure the work in process pictures. If they happened to take pics of any of the corroded outboard wing parts they encountered could you post them? I wish I lived closer, I would be there helping you guys out.

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Searching for B-29A-55-BN 44-61966 photo and history!

Very cool all around!

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Sure, Charles Lindbergh flew the plane... but Tom Rutledge built the engine!

Visit Django Studios online or Facebook!

My thoughts are to have you contact Carl Schoal and see if he has any pics of the stuff you are looking for.

I'll be there Friday morning!

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Brad

I'll see ya then!

I'm always amazed at how wings and wing sections are held together. I always thought that
a couple of beams should run through, not just a few brackets and a flange. Gosh then the wings have to support the engines too, lots of weight hanging out there when its sitting on the ground, or better yet when one engine is not running and your pulling some "G"s. Wow.

So, when can the world expect FIFI to take to the air again? I know it's all dependent on a multitude of things, but there must be a projected date.

The offical target date is June 1, 2010. Thats just 6 months. OMG!!! Its going to be a busy winter. Next engine is due in January. I had great help this weekend and got two weeks of work done in 2 days. I will post pics later today, left the camera at the hangar?

Dave

Question for you, Dave. What did you guys learn about your new engine that was used on Rare Bear for this year's Reno? Were you guys happy with it's performance? As a result of that performance, are you guys going to change or modify anything on the version that goes on FiFi? Also, what are you guys going to do with the old stock -3350's?

The "Rare Bear" engine performance showed that this engine will take more punishment than we we ever give and held up without failure. We will change nothing and we have our old -57's up for sale. If your know someone that wants them, have them give me a call.
Dave