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

[Sigurjon]

Mr. Ramey,
I would like to thank you for taking the time to share this story with us. This is what we (or I, at least) dream of achieving, but somehow, live seems to get in the way! Huge thanks from me!

Regards,
Sigurjon

PS. In another thread you shared a story about the Beech you flew over to Switzerland. Well, I ran out of my house because I didn´t recognize the engine note of the aircraft, and saw you turn finals for RWY 31 in Reykjavik right over my house! A nice touch, even if unintentional!

[GARY HILTON]

Taigh, Got your HOG decal in the mail....Was talking to Soko121 on the phone last night, when he asked me about removing the borate tanks from a Harpoon....Looks like your the man on this topic, as I believe that you'll be removing the one on tanker 101 soon. Could you please post pictures, as there are a couple of Poons out there with this style tank on them, it would be quite interesting to see what you run into on T101...
Thanks!!
Gary

[Taigh Ramey]

Hello Sigurjon,

It was my leg to fly into Reykjavik from Greenland and also to fly out to Scotland. You sure have a beautiful country. We flew around the South and East side of your wonderful island. After flying over the Eyjafjallajokull volcano we stopped at Vestmannaey and were given a great tour by a kind Gentleman who works at the airport. Everyone we met was kind and generous.I am glad that we flew over your home.

Gary,

I am honored to be a member of the HOG. I eagerly await the decal! Shouldn't we get tatoos or something?

I will certainly post photos of the tank removal. The tank will stay in place for now as I have some more flying to do. Yesterday the guys removed the oil coolers so we can clean them out properly. Man they were jammed up by the leaf roller bugs. I actually found another fresh set (fresh = overhauled in 1959 still crated) for a good price and they are on the way. We need an additional set for the Super Ventura too as the aluminum coolers that came with the PV-1 leak like crazy. I prefer brass. I would still like to find a new set of temperature regulators for the coolers. No luck so far.

Once we get the coolers on and work our way through the squawk list I want to put some more time on her and get some training in for the check ride for the type rating. One cool thing about this type ride is that it will cover both the Harpoon and the Super Ventura in one ride. Not that I'll be needing it for the PV-1 any time soon as it is a ways off from flying.

My one giddy moment today happened when I dug out a radio rack with a shock mount I got from the radio pile at Pima 30 some years ago. I picked it up because it had the shock mount for the IFF set. I didn't care about the rack just the mount. I had a nagging suspicion about that radio rack so I dug it out and took it in the Harpoon and I'll be damned if the four mounting holes lined up with the holes in the right side aft bulkheads in the fuselage.



Robert Kropp said that a lot of the radios out of that pile came from the guy who reworked the PV-2's as they came out of Litchfield Park and then he donated them to Pima. This IFF rack was out of one of those Harpoons, maybe 84062. I was all giggly this afternoon over a stupid IFF mount hanging in the rear of the Harpoon. Yes...I need professional help...

I think I have the panel for the flux gate compass and caging switch too...somewhere...There are oil coolers to fix, hoses to change, pre oil pumps to install and only about 6000 other airworthiness things to worry about and there I am hanging an IFF rack...but it looked so cool!!!

[Roger Cain]

Going through some pictures tonight, kinda liked this one from the first flight, just prior to takeoff.

[bugazon]

Great shot Roger! Beautiful image. Good job by all to save her

[Taigh Ramey]

Here is an message that I sent out to our e-mail list in a shameless request for Harpoon paint help. We are having a fund raiser in the form of a dinner/movie night at our little museum. If anyone is near by come on out for a good dinner, watch some cool old films and have some popcorn.


Hello Everyone,

I wanted to let you know about an upcoming event at the Stockton Field Aviation Museum.

Come out and join us for dinner and WWII movies on Saturday December 18th starting at 5pm. You can come and meet the latest addition to the museum; our ‘new’ 1945 Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon.

After WWII this old Navy patrol bomber was used as an air tanker and fought forest fires and also did agricultural work. We recently brought this great old veteran back to life and are fixing her up in time for the centennial celebration of Naval Aviation starting in February.

We need your assistance with this project and one way you can help is by coming to our fund raising dinner on December 18th. As a small but growing aviation museum our funding is very limited, as you can imagine. We rely on the support of donations to keep things going and this project is a big one. Thankfully several groups, companies and individuals have started to help us to save this Warbird from being cut up for scrap. Now we need to get her back into her fighting colors. To start we need to strip off the old paint, prepare the surfaces, prime and paint her back into her original “Non Specular Sea Blue” paint scheme that she wore as she came from the Lockheed factory. The paint alone is going to cost over $5000 which is why we are having our fund raiser/Dinner/WWII movie night.

On Saturday the 18th we will have the Harpoon out and opened up for your inspection. We are going to have a spaghetti dinner put together by our very own Ricky, or Cookie as he is affectionately known. After dinner we will be running several original WWII era 16mm films (actual films) that promise to be entertaining. Of course we will have Popcorn too!

Here is a link to a web page about Lockheed PV-2D 84062 or just ‘062’.

http://www.twinbeech.com/PV2D84062.htm

Our most recent flight of the Harpoon was for Veterans Day where we did a flyby of a parade in Escalon. Here is a video shot by one of our board members, Ken Terpstra:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQlJwvY0WgQ

According to Ken she sure sounded good when flying by and there were many veterans there who also loved the sight and sound of two Pratt & Whitney 2000 horsepower radial engines at work!

So come on out for a good dinner and help us raise some money to fix up this great old WWII veteran. If you happen to know anyone who might be interested in coming please forward this e-mail to them; the more the better.

Thanks and I hope to see you on the 18th,

Taigh

Taigh Ramey
Stockton Field Aviation Museum
7432 C.E. Dixon Street
Stockton, California 95206
(209) 982-0273 Shop
(209) 982 4832 Fax
http://www.twinbeech.com
'KEEP 'EM FLYING...FOR HISTORY'



The dinner/movie night will be held at the Stockton Field Aviation Museum hangar on Saturday December 18th. 2010 starting at 5pm located at 7432 C.E. Dixon street Stockton, California USA.

FROM HIGHWAY 99 NORTH- take the French camp exit and head west. Turn right or North on Airport way. Turn right on Stimson (at the National Guard) and follow it to the end where you will see the blue museum hangar on your left. The entry door is on the back of that hangar.

FROM HIGHWAY 99 SOUTH- Take the arch road exit and head west to airport way (watch out for and follow the detour signs possible detour). Turn left or south on airport way and then turn left into the main airport entrance on C.E. Dixon. Follow C.E. Dixon south until you see the blue museum hangar on the left. The address is 7432 C.E. Dixon Street. The door is on the parking lot side of the hangar

FROM HIGHWAY 5 NORTH OR SOUTH- take the French camp exit and head east for a few miles. Turn left or north on Airport way. Turn right on Stimson (at the National Guard) and follow it to the end. On the left you will see the blue museum hangar on the left. The entry door is on the back side of the hangar near the parking lot.

To fly in just head to Stockton metropolitan airport (KSCK) and ask ground to direct you to vintage aircraft which is just behind the tower. Please watch out for pedestrians

[the330thbg]

http://books.google.com/books?id=xtFAms ... &q&f=false

Have any of you read this book?

[the330thbg]

OK Taigh.., time for a serious update.., you have been up flying!

Fess up and post some updates!!


please.., please.., please!!!!

oh and one more thing....

[Eric Presten]

Stainless steel muzzle flash panels for the turret installation.

[GARY HILTON]

Are the panels stainless or just thicker aluminum? The PV-2 has them for the top turret as well as for the two .50 guns on the top of the nose section...
Is there a reason that nobody has mentioned your Harpoon's magazine write up????

Congrats!

G

[JohnH]

Enjoyed seeing the bird for the first time at the Naval Air Centennial. Thumbs up to your hard work!

[cwmc]

Taigh,
Saw the strip job on the Centennial thread, reminds me of the Lumbard Bomber days. Lookin' good.
Chris...

[Taigh Ramey]

OK Taigh.., time for a serious update.., you have been up flying!

You got me, we did get her up and running and off to her first air show. I'm sorry for the lack of updates as we have been crazy busy lately but better late than never, right?

After our last flight back on Veterans day we dropped the retardant tank out of the bomb bay and made the commitment to finding the bomb bay doors before we could fly again. Thanks to several very kind folks (especially you Fred!) we were able to acquire the set of doors that actually came with our Harpoon when she flew to California. I do not think that these doors are the very doors that actually came from our specific aircraft but they were sold with her and were trucked from Pennsylvania along with a bunch of engines. Even though they were likely from another Harpoon the doors fit great. They are beat up a bit inside and have some of the channels cut and reinforced and they still need some work to be all beautiful again but beggars cannot be choosers where Harpoon doors are concerned. We are all giddy just to have a set

Aren't they beautiful? Sorry for the poor picture, it must have been the drool fowling the lens!



The next step was to hang the doors and get them operational. Finding the doors is one thing but to track down all of the parts needed to hang them and make them work is quite another thing. Once again we were fortunate in that most of the hard to find parts were stored in the back of the Harpoon when we first looked inside. The cylinders, hinges, plumbing and links were all present except for one cylinder mount and a rod bracket which we fabricated until we can find the originals.

There is a learning curve with the doors, as with any new project, and even though you have two of the fittings that look correct you can find out that you might just have two rights and no lefts. This was the case with several of our parts like the center hinge castings. They look identical and also have the same casting number but the differences are subtle. Here is a shot to show what I mean. The angle of the main hinge bolt is machined several degrees off on two axes for the right and the left.



Thankfully, we had some spares that came with the doors and were able to come up with a right and a left. Once again the Harpoon Gods are smiling down upon us.

Here is the first door, the left hand upper, being fitted. Check out the mud or fire retardant that was splattered under the tank fairing. This stuff is corrosive I am told but it didn't eat up our Harpoon at all. Amazing

Man is this a fun project. Gotta love bomb bay doors and these are big!



And then all four doors are in place, but will they fit when closed?





After rigging the cylinders and door rods we pumped the doors closed with the hydraulic hand pump and amazingly enough the doors fit beautifully!



Now we can fly again!

More to follow to try and get this thread all caught up to date.

(Gary-Stop your whining, its raining now so I can't dig your radios out yet. Hopefully later today or tomorrow. Okay ol buddy?)

[Taigh Ramey]

The next project was to strip the paint. We have been exploring all the different methods and decided to gear up for sodium bicarbonate or soda blasting. There are many benefits to using baking soda as a blast media and the number one is that it is non toxic and earth friendly. I like the fact that it is not supposed to alter the substrate or skin of the aircraft. I find that it does slightly roughen up the finish which would make polishing the aircraft more difficult but is perfect for a painted finish. They even say that if you blast an anodized finish it will not hurt the anodize which I find to be true.

The major draw back to soda blasting is the residue is pretty much like leaving salt on your aircraft so it is imperative to remove the dust by air and washing with plenty of water. You can also neutralise the baking soda with vinegar if necessary. I believe that this method is better in the long run as the amount of toxic waist is dramatically reduced and the possibility of leaving chemical stripper in the lap joints and other hidden places in the aircraft is also dramatically reduced since the baking soda is so water soluble. We even chemically tested the paint for lead and chromate to be sure that wasn't going to be an issue as well and thankfully none were found.

The blasting begins:



We built up our own soda blast rig as it was cheaper for us by a long shot. Its a great rig and I am very happy with the results. We did turn the Harpoon ramp into a winter wonderland though. The soda does vacuum up nicely. We provided positive air inside the airframe to keep the dust out and that worked beautifully.



Here is Cade working on the aft fuselage. So long tanker 101 paint. We even found some of the original factory blue paint under the retardant tank fairing and in other nooks and crannies.



Ken and Mike supervise to be sure Cade is doing it right!



Then Ken and Mike take on the tail cone problem. Our tail cone was punched in and had a pretty crude patch put on sometime when she was in tanker service so I bought another tail cone from Carl Scholl at Aerotrader to swap ours out. The one from Carl had some heavy corrosion in the areas typically found in Harpoons caused by the mud collecting. Ricky ground out the bad spots and made a patch to repair the damaged areas. We hope to fully repair our tail cone as it has no corrosion at all and replace it some day. The tail cone is spot welded together with large stampings inside so it will be a long term project. In the mean time we have a serviceable one that will do for now.



Ken sure gets into his work. Here he is inside the tail cone as seen through the elevator gap flap.


Here is Ricky and Mike reworking the two tail cone assemblies. They look so serious!



A lot better than what we had which is pretty much our motto on this project: You should have seen her before we started!




She may not be the prettiest Bell at the Ball but were making progress!

[JohnB]

I love the updates...you guys are going great work.