PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

[peter]

Awsome job saving this rare Bird Taigh and crew well done! The vdeos are fantastic! I have toadmit, this has been os uch more interesting than seeing her apart in bits being trucked out.. When you tried starting the engine for the first time it was as if she was ready to go right there and then!
Please keep us updated on her progress and hopefully this could be stickied?

[Joe Scheil]

Way to go Taigh...

The thing looks awful good in Tanker colors though...

All the best,

JOE

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.o ... hp?t=19003

[Fouga23]

What a great rescue It makes me happy to see there are still people willing to save the old abandoned jewels!
A few questions though:

Was take-off done without flaps?
Why raise the gear for a ferry flight and take the risk of it not coming down again?
What's the hole taped up on the nose?

I'm really looking forward to seeing the restoration of this one

[hercrat]

Congratulations Taigh and crew!!
We looked through our extra's here and don't have a spare set of pylon mounts. Our last ones went to the Ventura effort in Sanford-DeLand, Florida (formerly of Stockton!).
Let us know if we can help in any way. We're just glad to see another Lockheed Twin Tail airborne! Kudos!!

[Ollie]

Congratulations to you guys, way to go!

[PJ]

The one on Pacific Wrecks looks more like a Hudson to me.



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

[tex-fan]

GREAT work Mr. Ramey, she looks really beautiful to me too. and YES, please make this thread a sticky.

[JBoyle]

Well done...thanks for saving her.

[JDK]

So Taigh, when are you going to find time to do 'normal stuff'?

(I'll add that Taigh also recently found time - with Roger, and others - to work on an article for us at Flightpath magazine on the Bomber Camp. I reckon there's actually two Taighs, going by the workload - and if there isn't I'll bet he wishes there were!)

It'd be great, convenient and cheaper to campaign it in the current rough colours for a season or two. After all, it earned them, and the fire bomber role is often overlooked by the public and sadly sometimes warbird enthusiasts as well.

BZ to you and the crew Taigh. maybe you can rescue this PV-1 Ventura, found on PacificWrecks.org
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/7350086

The one on Pacific Wrecks looks more like a Hudson to me.

Be still my beating heart. I don't think PV's are common by any means but compared to Hudsons - they are. It's pretty certainly NOT a Hudson - because that'd be very exciting - but probably a Lodestar. There's another pic here: http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?p=1548028 - also enlargeable on the original link there. Apart from anything else, it's clearly got a bent wing, therefore damaged spar; currently it's not financially or practically salvageable I'd estimate. (Before anyone attacks me for the estimate, that's just saying it'd cost a bomb to recover what is a non-valued obsolete transport of minor (to other people, of course) interest. If you disagree, feel free to sink your million on it. ) As a project, really it's about as far from Taigh's guys coup as you can get, and I reckon they're busy, now.

Regards,

[Jerry O'Neill]

Congratulations Taigh and team! Well done bringing another one back from the brink!
It was very exciting reading this thread and the energy everyone has about you project!
Keep 'em flying!
Jerry

[Sabremech]

Congrats Taigh and crew,
Having brought an A4 back to life after almost 18 years of sitting, I think I know a little bit of the accomplisment and the emmense feeling of satisfaction. Congratulations and it's good to see another bird where it belongs.
PS, say hello to Doug C for me at Aeroturbine.
David
WHF Maint

[Rick65]

Taigh,

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my question and for the detail of your response.
I bet there was a great feeling of relief and satisfaction when the flight was completed.

The topic prompted me to do some research and I found out that the RAAF used the B34/PV1 briefly in both hemispheres, something that I wasn't aware of.

[Roger Cain]

What a great rescue It makes me happy to see there are still people willing to save the old abandoned jewels!
A few questions though:

Was take-off done without flaps?
Why raise the gear for a ferry flight and take the risk of it not coming down again?
What's the hole taped up on the nose?

I'm really looking forward to seeing the restoration of this one

On a previous trip they had brought huge jacks with them and cycled the gear a number of times, and they operated smooth as silk, according to Taigh.
The hole in the nose is a speaker. We commented before the flight that we needed Flight of the Valkrie playing through it.

Here's a top view

Last edited by Roger Cain on Fri Oct 08, 2010 1:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Taigh Ramey]

What a great rescue It makes me happy to see there are still people willing to save the old abandoned jewels!
A few questions though:

Was take-off done without flaps?
Why raise the gear for a ferry flight and take the risk of it not coming down again?
What's the hole taped up on the nose?

I'm really looking forward to seeing the restoration of this one

Yes, the takeoff was done without flaps for the same reason the gear was raised. Just like the Twin Beech and many other twins if you lose an engine your single engine performance, with either gear or flaps extended, is dramatically reduced. The less drag the better to give you a fighting chance to keep flying. Many people mentioned that the gear should be left down for a ferry flight including the FAA. I wanted to make the effort needed to fully check out the landing gear to be sure it was functional so I could raise it and lower it successfully. We brought up jacks, graciously loaned to us by Fred Lewis, and performed full gear checks on both the normal and emergency systems. We ran the gear up and down about 6 times and it worked great. It was also a good experience to actually use the emergency system while the Harpoon was up on jacks so we were all familiar with the actual procedures. We initially pumped the gear up and down with the hand pump and then we used a mule or external electrically driven hydraulic pump connected to the quick disconnect fittings on the firewall. This acts like one of the engine driven pumps is powering the system. With all of this cycling and checking the landing gear system I was quite confident that the gear would work and I could concentrate on other unknowns like will the engines keep on running after sitting for 16 years.

We essentially did an annual inspection up there in the dirt to try and eliminate as many concerns as possible. There was always a chance that we would find something in the airframe or engines that would be big enough to possibly be a deal killer. Massive corrosion bad enough to compromise safety of flight or metal in the oil screens letting us know that an engine was coming apart. I really didn't want to think of having to take her apart and truck her out because she might not get back together again.

As for your question about the object in the nose: There was a loudspeaker mounted in the nose for some reason. I am sure someone who flew tankers might be able to shed light on how the speaker was used. Was it to talk to the boots on the ground at the fire or on the ramp back at the tanker base?I think the lonestar PV-2D also has/had the speaker. They cut a hole in the radome to mount the speaker and the fiberglass was delaminating around the hole. I didn't want 170 knots of wind to tear up the rare nose so I taped it up for the flight home. I will have to remove the speaker and glass over the hole or possibly make a whole new nose. Anyone know where I might be able to find a new D model Harpoon nose?

Roger is correct; we thought that we should hook up an amplifier to the speaker and play Wagner's Ride of the Valkyrie on our way out of the dust bowl. We didn't get around to it. It sure would have been a hoot though...oh well, maybe next time.

[Taigh Ramey]

I thought I would share some of the photos of Tanker 101 that have surfaced.

These shots are from Milo Peltzer via Rick Turner.

I think this must have been real early in her career as she still has bomb bay doors, the astrodome, original antennas etc:



This one is dated 1976 and was at Missoula. Quite the sporty paint scheme.



Thanks for the awesome photos Milo!

These shots are from Pete Bowers also via Rick Turner. They are dated 1962 and were taken at Wenatchee, Washington. She was obviously tanker 37 then. She was also about 9 1/2 months pregnant in these shots. There is evidence of this tank and the screws used for the fairings on the airframe. This tank made it impossible to lower the 8 gun nose package as seen in later tanker pictures.





Wonderful shots Pete. Thank you for taking them back in the day and making the photos available today.