What's Up with Hot Stuff

[Pat Carry]

Good evening (morning?) all-

Just a quick note here to let our supporters know Hot Stuff moved under her own power today. The engines start beautifully and sound awesome. We collected some good data and checked off a bunch of items, and did a gear swing that was entirely satisfactory. Once I recall how to post a pic, I'll try to get one of the old girl on the jacks for your viewing pleasure. Unless, of course, PJ beats me to it (hint, hint...). Just in case anyone is wondering, it's 110 bidirectional strokes per retraction, with three required. look out, Popeye...

Good news indeed!

[TAdan]

Good work Hot Stuff crew. I am really looking forward to seeing her in Reading PA next week! (No pressure at all )

[Flyin Illini]

hey jen!, you guys going to be flying during the Indy show?

[PJ]

We are indeed supposed to fly DURING the airshow this year, unlike last . I will post pictures of this weeks gear swing tomorrow. All of that stress panel removal has me ready for some sleep at this point.


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

[GARY HILTON]

Hey! All of you have been doing a lot of appreciated work on the Ole Girl....Great to see your accomplishments.....I am so sorry that I couldn't be home to get to some needed parts...I got home this afternoon and started on the stress panel screws from Annie's right wing...In the hour of light that was left, I managed to get about 90% of the screws extracted from the outter stress panel.....I need a portable generater and compressor to be able to drill out the remaining 10% of the screws...If I am home tomorrow, I'll see what I can figure out.
Keep on smiling, and git r' done!
Gary

[PJ]

Thanks, Gary and all who keep showing interest and support for "Hot Stuff". As previously noted, we have some nice cosmetic updates, not the least of which are Machine Shop Gaylon's updated HVAR rockets. They previously had nylon nose pieces and just didn't look very authentic. Now, they look like all business mounted under the wings:




Our nose art was getting faded and war weary, starting to look more like someone's grandma instead of something for the boys. HotRod Steve found Naomi Long who does custom hot rod painting and she was excited to come out and refreshthe art. Here's the outstanding result:




As Bubba pointed out, last Saturday found us in the shade of the Indy Aero hangar to perform the gear swing. Quite a thing to see a bomber supported by jacks as the gear leaves the floor and disappears into the wheel wells. Following pictures show just that:









Until at last, she's just like a B-26...."no visible means of support"




Stay tuned for furthr adventures of the PV-2 and crew.


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

[Flyin Illini]

sounds great pj! Ill make sure to get a lot of good pictures for you guys. I, as everyone, greatly appreciates all that you do and the entire hot stuff crew for keeping this beautiful bird alive! Ive still got the button on the front of my camera bag and i will see you guys on that friday if your out at the airplane. Ill come say hi at some point during the weekend. Hot Stuff was the first warbird i ever saw fly and I am really excited to see here kick her heels again! thanks again!



Aaron Haase
Airshowstuff.com

[PJ]

Thanks, Aaron, We'll be there Friday. Those were some great pictures that you took last year...looking forward to more of the same!



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

[Cvairwerks]

Gary: You would be miles ahead going down to the hock shop and buying a used gas powered compressor. Using a genset to run a compressor is not the best way to do things. Even easier, if you are at home, is to get you a spare glad hand and make up an adapter to hook on to the air system on your big rig....you only need 90 psi to run a drill. Your rig will do the pressure and pretty close to all the volume you need while at idle. Even if you are burning diesel at 3 gph, it's cheaper than buying the compressor for now. Besides, air hose is pretty cheap and you always need a different length around the shop. I usually buy a spool of hose and a box of connectors and make my own hoses up at whatever length I need. I'm down to my last two hoses that I made from a 250' reel of hose that I bought in 1986. It's time to buy another spool and some connectors.....

[IndyJen]

Heck Gary, for that matter, we've got a big army surplus gas-powered compressor out in the storage hangar at MQJ.

It's one of the many odd items that we're actually wanting to get rid of to make room. If you can use it, stop out and talk about it, why don't you?

I don't think it has ever been used.

[Bubba]

Hi All-

Yesterday Hot Stuff took to the air again. The engines and systems functioned beautifully and she practically sprang into the air, insomuch as a bomber can. There were grins all around, and the IA feels she's in the best condition she's been in the last 20 years. The usual gremlins associated with 65 year old airplanes notwithstanding, we are looking forward to some good flying this season. Now, to get some training done!

[mustangdriver]

Congrats to all involved. That is just awesome!

[PJ]

So there I was this evening, getting my 1948 Willys ready for the trip to MQJ for the airshow ( it's our squadron hack for running around the airshow), when I heard a strange, yet very familiar sound. I whacked my head on the steering wheel and ran out of the garage just in time to see old Hot Stuff herself flying past into the setting sun. She looked and sounded great!

Here, courtesy of Indy Jen, are photos from Monday's first flight of the season.

In this one we see Bubba, Scotty, and Machineshop Gaylon happy to be returning to the skies after a long winter of maintenance:



Hot Stuff roars down the runway:



And off she goes, as happy to be back in the sky as we are to see her there.



We're excited about this weekend's Indy Airshow. All of you WIXers who are attending be sure and stop and introduce yourselves.

Blue skies to all,

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

[Flyin Illini]

Thats great to hear PJ, if you guys would like to get some air photos, let me know, id me more than happy to help you guys out this weekend!

[kalamazookid]

Great to see her back in the air! Wish I could make it to the Indy show this weekend, but it didn't work out.

Do you guys have an airshow schedule you could post? I'd love to try to make it out to a show to see "Hot Stuff" this year.