Warbird Information Exchange

It's that time of year again, and we've just done the gear swing on Hot Stuff. The main and emergency systems performed just fine- and a little systems training was accomplished along the way.



Here's a different view of the operation:

When I got home tonight (This morning?) from my latest reserve string, I found an email that said in part: "I am pleased to inform you that we have selected the American Military Heritage Foundation to receive an Indiana Historic Preservation Award for the Outstanding Grant Funded Restoration of the PV-2 Harpoon, Hot Stuff.



The annual award recognizes organizations that demonstrate superior stewardship, dedication, and commitment on behalf of the historic resource in their charge. This year, we had a very easy decision to select your organization for the amazing work you and the rest of the Foundation volunteers did to restore the right engine of the Harpoon and get her back in the air. "



What an honor, and what an awesome team. Na zdraví !

Congrats!!!! You all deserve it!!! Way to go!!
G.

Attaboy Hot Stuff! Well done.

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To donate to the PV-2D project via PayPal click here http://www.twinbeech.com/84062restoration.htm

We brought her from: to this in 3 months: Help us get her all the way back

All donations are tax deductible as the Stockton Field Aviation Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Tell a friend as the Harpoon needs all the help she can get.

Thank you!

Taigh Ramey
Vintage Aircraft, Stockton, California
http://www.twinbeech.com
'KEEP ‘EM FLYING…FOR HISTORY!'

Hello WIXers...it's been a while. Yesterday found Hot Stuff back at her usual place onb the Mount Comfort ramp. It was Media Day at the Indianapolis Air Show. The folks started to stop by as soon as the gates opened .


This is the plaque that was awarded to the AMHF from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources for our work on the Harpoon. We are very proud and greatful for the grant and award from them.


One of this winters projects was a refurb of the control yokes by Machine Shop Gaylon and they came out looking great.


As always, PX Sandy manned the goods table, assisted by Pilot Steve and Spenser:


While not as big as in past years, the Indy show has a variety of aircraft. Here are a few of them:

Mike Gillian's Wildcat"


Corsair belonging to Dave Folk of Kalamazoo:


This Grumman C-1A Trader belongs to Dan Serrato and I believe it is now the only Trader flying on the air show circuit:


The art on the side of the Trader:


The Missouri Wing of the CAF brought their B-25 "Show Me":




Also from the Missouri CAF is the TBM Avenger:


The Wright Flyer :


Our neighbors to the north brought this DeHavilland CT-142 Dash 8 belonging to 402 Squadron Navigation School:



This years jet team is the Blue Angels. Caught them going over the wing of the Harpoon:


Saw quite a few friends yesterday including WIXer Flying Illini. The rain held off and hopefully it will do the same today.
Until next time,

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

PJ, and crew..nice turn-out....hope you have good weather for today..Ole Girl is looking.....well....."Hot"!

Are the caps on the yokes original? That is a nice job, Gaylon...I believe I might be sending mine your way to restore...

Keep it up!!!

G.

Hi Gary! Nope, Gaylon made those center caps, too. There used to be nothing for our center caps....just a big void with two screw holes where someone had removed them. I believe if we gave Gaylon a solid piece of aluminum, he could machine a full scale Harpoon out of it.
Sometimes it is the small attention to details that pop right out on a restoration project.



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

Thanks PJ! That Gaylon, He's a piece of work himself! OK, Gaylon...I know you are old school, you know the rule about bringing candy into the classroom....you'd better have enough for everybody!!!!! Will be sending my chunk of aluminium directly.
G.

PJ and Indyjen- I missed seeing you two out there today! There was another gentleman at the door demanding to see Indyjen and PJ at the same time I was but I didn't catch who he was.

She looked great in the air as always! (sorry about the quality but this is the absolute limit of my camera's range)

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Sorry i havent been around much guys, real world issues have taken a strangle hold. Got to see PJ on friday! sorry i missed you jen, i went by saturday, but they said you guys were playing ice skating or hockey or something like that lol. It was great to see the old girl get up and do some passes again! I will try to catch you guys down the road! Here is one from yesterday!

You were the one standing next to me asking for Indyjen and PJ!

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Great photos! Glad that the rain held off for the shows on Friday and Saturday. Aaron, it was stick and puck practice....time to put the burned buiscuit into the net!

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

Saw you folks on Saturday. She sure looked good in the air!

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P-51, The Cadillac of the Sky!

Hi All-

This past weekend Hot Stuff made the trip to Yipsilanti, MI for the Thunder Over Michigan show. It was a great show, the old girl performed wonderfully, and we had a large amount of foot traffic. There were complexities with the weather both directions, but we were able to hit the timing right to make it work. I can't say enough about how fine a job everyone does at that show. The organization, expertise, and professionalism of everyone from the airboss to the trash haullers was something to see.

Time is at a premium, so this is all I can post at the moment. I'll write more as I can in the near future-

Hi All-
Well, things have been hopping. As I mentioned earlier, we made it up to YIP for Thunder over Michigan. Scott did all the flying this weekend, and it all went very well, but for a delay taken due to weather. We arrived too late to participate in the show, at least in the conventional sense. We had ben advised that as long as we made it there prior to the Blues taking over the airspace we would be all right. So, as soon as the weather permitted, we headed north. The way things turned out the airshow was in progress when we arrived, but they were expecting us. We had to make one 360 and were cleared to land as the show went on around us. They even had the announcer prepped, and he did a spiel on os as we were landing and taxiing in. The ground crew was waiting and towed us to our spot amongst the spectators with zero delay. We had a very pleasant show that included a new record: five people asking about the differences between Hudsons or Lexingtons and the Harpoon, and zero folks trying to convince me it was a B-25.
That evening at the performers' social we were able to connect with old friends from a couple past endeavors, as well as do a lot of laughing with a whole raft of new friends from YIP. A good time was had by all-
We did fly the second day, and it was an interesting choreography. We had varying altitudes and orbits, with us chasing the SB2C. The whole gaggle landed on parallel runways, which made for a quick recovery. We were towed back to our parking spot for more aircraft tours before heading for home.
I was pretty well occupied the whole time and neglected to take many photos, but here are a couple:

That's Scott and Rich on the way home.


That's me and Scott, also on the way home.


Here Scott is showing one of our more recent members, Spencer, the fine art of using a dip stick.

So, that's about it for YIP. The enroute weather was an issue, but the weather at the show itself was fine. The crowd was great, and the airshow management could not have been better.