Warbird Information Exchange

It's the name of Vic Agather's wife. Vic is the guy who led the effort to recover the aircraft from China Lake and then restore her to flying status. The "A" on the tail stands for "Agather" (and for most of us, also "Austin").

I would highly reccomend visiting the Squadron's website for FiFi here - http://www.cafb29b24.org/a/B-29.htm and read up on her history.

It was immediately after doing that very thing that I posted my question, if I missed it, sorry 'bout that. In any case, thank you kindly for the answer, and I second your recommendation that those who haven't already go check it out.

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Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas

PIC, Ford 6600 pulling Rhino batwing up and down the runway

I just checked the link and noticed they've put the recovery and recollections sections back under construction. Those pages had the information on FiFi's name and such.

Here’s another Fifi update. This past Friday the 19th, I was fortunate to be able to spend another day with Fifi.

My mission for the day was to put together the #2 engine exhaust stacks for starters. This involved bolting up the front (12 bolts) and aft sections (6 bolts) to the main housings. Sounds easy enough right?

Here are a couple of shots of the stacks (inboard and outboard) and ready to be bolted together (the fore pieces are just being held on with some temp bolts):








Here’s the fore end bolted up:





Here’s Dave making sure the aft piece won’t interfere with the top section. We had to do some careful adjustments to the bushings and number of washers to make sure everything fit just right:





And here it is installed:





Once those were done, Max and Dave started to install the stack into the inboard side of the nacelle:








Despite their best attempts, they couldn’t get the stack to line up to the ball sections… Something just wasn’t right.





As it turned out, the fore end pieces that I assembled were wrong. To make a long story short, they should have angled inward, not outward, CRAP!!! !!! It was getting late, but in an effort to redeem myself I took both front ends apart and re-bolted them in the correct position before I left for the day. Here I am trying to get them apart:





Hopefully by now the stacks on the #2 engine are installed and ready to go…

To quote Dave, the exhausts were exhausting – and this was only the #2 engine!! Thank you Max and of course Dave for once again putting up with me (thanks for lunch too). Putting Fifi back together is really a work of art as I’m finding out.

I really had a great time and I hope I can make it out there again next month…

-Derek

Derek
Thanks for the update, Dave told me you were up for the day lending him a hand. "FIFI" will let you know when she doesn't like what you are doing to her won't she! As you said, it never seems like anything ever goes together easy on the old girl, but Dave with the help of people like you will win! We will return to the air this year.

Chris
29/24 Sqd. PIO

Derek, thanks for your help and the recent post. We did get the exhaust installed and it fit very well with the changes you made. I will hope that the rest of the exhaust is not sooo exhausting!! I'll post some of my pics in the days to come.

Dave

Brad is hard at work removing rivets from a sheet metal angle on the cowling. All of the cowlings had these angle brackets that go completely around. It takes quite a while to drill all the rivets out. Thanks Brad!



Mark works to install stainless steel sheet metal cover panels to each cowling part to cover the old exhaust openings. This is the last cowling in the process.



Mark and Dave work with hammer and torch to flatten a tempered stainless steel bracket. The bracket along the bottom third of each cowling has to be altered in this way to make room for the spark plug wires.



Hammer and torch in action. Here you can see the white hot metal that is about to be pounded into submission. What a workout!




Here is a shot of the finished modification. The bracket stood upright before it was bent 90 degrees and flattened. The modifications to cover the old exhaust can also be seen in this photo.



That's all for now. Mark

I tell you there is a relief of epic proportion that we have finally finished the cowlings!!!
The beat down with the torch that Mark showed you was the last thing needed to be able to hang these things. Prior to that there was some more stuff that needed done.
This is some of Marks work patching up the exhaust pass throughs. All 3 other cowlings needed done and Mark did them all!! WOW!!!!!!!!!


In addition to that, all the other 3 cowling, cowl flaps were being given an extra look at. I had the pleasure of having Steve Swift here from the Dallas area to help for an afternoon and put him on the cowl flap repairs. He did a great job and I look forward to the next time he's free to come down and help out!!


There were other things that we discovered along the way, such as a 2" hole drilled in the front of the cowling?? Well that was not cool so I made a patch and closed it up.




Other things that were done were closing up the front exhaust pass thru to the rear exhaust. I know this sounds crazy but this is what we did. We had to make covers for these areas and rivet them in to make sure we will get the maximum airflow to the cylinders.



Then comes one of the final stages of finishing these things. The mag. distributers sit up in front of the engine and as would luck would have it, they are interfering with the very panels we just closed up. We knew this from the first engine we did, so it comes as know surprise. Still we must make the modifications so they fit! Obviously, they are not completely where we already closed up.


Any of you ever cut stainless steel before?? Max found out, how hard it is!

He was cutting them on the bandsaw and I found it easier to cut them with the cutoff wheel.

Anyway, we got that all done on a day we have 4 " of snow here in Midland.





I post those pictures of the snowfall as no one would believe that it has ever snowed that much here. Well by 5:00 when we left the hangar, it was pretty much gone.

One last thing, It is the help and didication of my volunteers, Jim Moore, Tom Kingon, Mark Russell and Rudy Silas that have allowed me to get the work done on these cowlings that has been lacking for many years! I can safely say that they are in the best shape they have been in for decades, and I give them a big Hoorah for the work they did!! We have probably put close to 2000 hours into these with all we have done.

Dave

It won't be too long before we get to see video of two engines running at once will it Dave?

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Grat photos Dave, thanks for the update!! I too can't wait for the 2 engine video.

Love the snow too, who would have thunk it in Midland, TX huh?

-Derek

Nice! Did you figure out why the 2" hole was in that cowling? Is that the only one that had a hole there?

Bet the Rattlers are hating life about now...

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

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Ya know Chad, that's a great unknown at this point, why there is only one cowl with a hole like that?? It is adjacent to where the split, bolts together but come on! No one would drill a 2" hole in the front of the cowling, just to make it easier to take out a bolt, would they??? I really hadn't seen it before until it came back from Ezells. It's been in there hands since last year. No way they would have done that, so I just don't have a clue.

Dave

Two turnin' will be comin' soon!!!

I hear that #3 isn't too far behind?

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John Cotter

Hey John! #3 is coming to Midland next week. Anderson had a successful test run at there shop yesterday and it will be in the can by tomorrow! Get yer butt out here and give me a hand! Don't be like the rest of those pilots, come and help out a bit. You will love it and appreciate what we do to keep em' flying!

Dave