Warbird Information Exchange

Do you have an exact date on the May Nimrod gathering at the hanger?? We're planning on being there the weekend of the 19th & 20th on our way through. Wouldn't happen to be that weekend would it?
As far as the two standing next to the prop, definitely know the guy in the flight suit, and am 90% sure of the blue shirt.
OK, below is my mystery part for tonight!

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Rick,
I never would have guessed it was an A26 rudder when I bought it. I was told it was off of DC6 when I bought it and I never gave it a second thought. If it makes things a little better, the rudder still had much of the tattered covering on it and about 80 lbs of raccoon mess in it. Some of the ribs are badly corroded about midway up. Naturally I had to destroy the one part that could have helped someone out. There is no magic garage full of A26 parts by the way. If there was I would load it up and bring it to y'all just to say that I helped out.
This rudder was one of the pieces that I hauled home from Tradewinds after it closed down. This is probably the only A26 part that I am lucky enough to have. Here is a glimpse of the pile in the back yard that is all scheduled for art work use. Almost all of it has some form of massive corrosion damage or it wouldn't be in my possession.

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The nose art/aviation artist and general lunatic from Houston, Texas http://www.jasonbarnettartist.com

I bet it is some form of road spike for blowing out tires. I can see you dumping a load of those out on a road and slowing enemy transports down. That is my guess.

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The nose art/aviation artist and general lunatic from Houston, Texas http://www.jasonbarnettartist.com

Hi Randy... your mystery part is obviously a Xmas tree stand. That was Easy! But no, a definite date for the reunion has not been set yet. Waiting to hear back from Tim B. about it as he is coordinating on the Nimrod side. Sent him a msg with a suggestion for 19-20 May. Will see what Tim and the rest of the crew come up with and let everybody know then. Thanks, JR

You are correct, That is a "Road Star". (that's what I heard them called) Pretty nifty. No matter how it lands, one spike is pointing up. As I recollect, some of them were found at NKP, and naturally they got toted across the river and dropped. Things that could inflict damage but couldn't be carried otherwise were put in a box behind the nav seat, and tossed out through the bomb bay. At least one pilot would also collect the steel nose plugs out of the bombs and haul them along to drop when there was nothing else left. The most unusual thing taken I guess was the empty cases of beer bottles that were stacked in the bomb bay between the bombs, and scattered along the trail. That earned Joe Kittinger the title of "The beer bottle bomber".
Credit for the road star pic goes to Walt Land. That one is his. Somehow one of those escaped my collection.

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

New Mystery Part for the week.. and I mean new... just delivered. Ain't she grand?? So what is it and what does it do? I like it better when I get to ask the questions!! Note to Randy... Tim is working on the reunion date and it may take awhile for him to get back to us. Also, Randy, the two Nimrods in the picture awhile back. You said you had one for sure and a probable on the other. Can you give us some initials?? If it helps, you can refer to the http://www.a-26legacy.org website and look at Nimrod pics. Don Vogler has a bunch of them there. Don and his organization continues to help us BTW. He has redesigned his Tshirts so that the logo on the back shows 679 instead of his dad's airplane, MM. Note to Jason... thanks for the help with the rudder trim mechanism. Solves a problem for us looks like. It amazes me how we run into a need and out of the clear blue, a solution pops up to help solve it. The Mystery Part above is one of those examples. Our good buddy, Jerry D., pulled this rabbit out of the magic hat. Of course, we wouldn't have met Jerry D. had it not been for the real JR. Thanks guys!! The other JR

This shot is from AF 666 at Eglin in the Memorial Air Park. Want to show another difference between our K and stock A-26's in that she uses anti-skid, multidisc brakes that came off the early KC-135's. These were needed for the higher gross weights. So now, we have taken the brake assembly off the left side of 679 and found that it is in dire need of life support so we sent it to the clinic for rebuild. Keeping fingers crossed that Dr. JR can save this one with the right surgical team. Failing this, if anybody knows where Uncle Sam parks old KC-135's parts where nobody is really looking too hard, please let us know and we will send over a requisition one of these nights. We have one already filled out and in the tool box.... uh, I meant mail box. Everybody come see us Saturday. The weather should be perfect and we will have a fine time. Meacham Field is really getting active... kinda like a Montana Griz wakin up from the winter snooze. All of the team will be anxious to get to work and then chow down at lunch. I am beginning to wonder if that is their favorite part?? Nah... they love working on old airplanes and having this opportunity to be in on the ground floor of restoring a very unique warbird. This is an example of the last piston twin engined bomber delivered to the AF. The last On Mark rebuilt B-26K delivered and the last one flying... how's that for a lot of lasts? Cheers, Jim R

......... the two Nimrods in the picture awhile back. You said you had one for sure and a probable on the other.
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The guy in the flight suit is Lindsey Jackson, and I believe the guy with him is Paul Hanley, a Nimrod Nav. They were both on the initial deployment to NKP. As you can see in the pic, unlike me,Lindsey had the good sense to hang on to his Big Eagle patch.
Randy

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Randy, you mean this L. Jackson from back in the day??? He just thought we would never find a pic of him!! Noticed the prop was not painted black yet so it had to be early in the program when this was made. The other paint looks purdy recent as well. He came up to visit awhile back and we heard some good stories over lunch. Still wears his Air Commando hat. That reminds me, were yall considered a detachment of the 603rd Special Ops Squadron at NKP during Project Big Eagle? The 609th was formed subsequently if I have my story straight and they got the call sign "Nimrod". Jim R.

Yessir, it was Detachment 1, 603rd Air Commando Squadron, or Det. 1 603ACS. Was at least that way past the end of November when I left. I think once the Big Eagle operation was over, it changed to 609th. This was out first shingle we hung out. Col. Curto was our first commander, then Lt. Col. Albert Howarth replaced him. Got a pic of that sign here somewhere too. Some of my pics were B & W. Being almost an Airman Last Class, I couldn't afford color film at first!!!!!! I still remember when I left England AFB on that C-130 for NKP, I had a grand total of 8 dollars in my pocket!

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Well, gee Randy, how come you had so much left over?? $8 went a long ways back then. Heck, I wasn't making much more than $400 per month myself. It paid the rent, car payment, utilities and groceries. And if I made a little extra at the airport, I could afford to take my kids out for pizza. That won't even pay the hangar rent nowadays. It is a good thing we have so many good and talented volunteers because we would never be able to get 679 flying again otherwise. Can't forget those who have donated to the cause as well. When a couple of bolts cost $50, it doesn't take long for the parts bills to add up. We appreciate those who have helped us and/or will in the future as this is what it will take to see her in the air again. We didn't set out to be a non profit organization, but it sure turned out that way!! Many thanks... JR http://www.gga1.org

At least you don't have this facing you to rebuild. This is how 671 looked the last time I saw her. Enough to bring tears to your eyes. I think Joe Maynard flew 671 over to NKP. At least parts of it went to other good causes. I think the gear is now on 666 and the engines and props are on 676 at the AF Museum. It got pretty well picked over before the salvager finished her off.

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Just out of curiosity, even though you're wanting to remain as "authentic" as possible, have you considered changing over to the DC-6 brakes that On Mark used for their Marksman conversions? There are more of those available out there than early KC-135 packs. Alternately, have you looked into maybe seeing about getting 707 packs?

BTW, just for FYI, the KC-135 packs, while maybe suitable for the A-26, are kinda funny to see offered an increase in gross weight since the KC-135's brakes were actually pretty puny. They were designed to stop the plane when coming home with no fuel, not fully loaded, which is why the aircraft required such enormous runways, not because they were underpowered.

CAPFlyer... good questions about the KC-135 brake being adapted to the K. The difference in effectiveness on the K might be a matter of the tremendous disparity between the landing weights of the two aircraft. The KC-135 had a whole lot more momentum. It's brakes might not have been very good against something over 100,000 lbs, but held up rather nicely against 35,000. In fact, our experience with them on the ferry flight down from Montana was very pleasant because we have been wrestling against the B-25 brakes for all these many years. Nice to have anti skid as well since the main tires costs over $3500 each now. We figure that every landing costs about $80 per tire just in replacement costs. Now that brings me to the next point. We will not use the brakes until absolutely necessary on each landing. We plan to roll out long just like we have practiced in the B25 operations. If there is a 6000 ft runway, we want to use 5900 ft of it. Other than a brief test of the brakes after touchdown and rolling out to a slower speed, we hope to save some brake overhaul costs as well. Can't figure a cost per landing until we see what it will cost to do the first overhaul. About your question of going to a DC-6 system.. well, if left with no other choice, it would be next best. Anything is better than the old WWII expander tubes, right?? The thing about DC6 brakes is that they ususally refuse to really get with the program until they sense the airplane is in the overrun of the runway. If this is so, then I suppose we could engineer a box of rocks to drop out of each wheel well to fool the airplane into thinking NOW. After all , isn't that how they use to fool the F-105 into rotating at take off? It would not rotate until it sensed the roughness of the overrun and then flew off just fine. A quick thinkin crew chief devised a bag of rocks to hang in front of the nose wheel and when the pilot thought it was time, he pulled the lanyard and the rocks spilled out to simulate the overrun. That man was a genius and should have been given a medal and a promotion. Does anybody remember the name?? Why of course, it was Sgt Rock. And now you know the rest of the story!! Goodnight, JR

Actually, there is a connection between this airplane and 679. The State of GA picked out 3 of the best airframes in the boneyard to take home for their Forestry Service. We talked to the retired head of the aviation section who put the deal together and maintained the airplanes. 671 and 679 were two of them with 671 being the best overall. It had the newest engines and props for one thing. The planned air tanker use fell through shortly after the acquisition so the airplanes were never converted. After some time, the state sold the airplanes to various tanker outfits except 671 was selected to go to the museum in Florence. The best of the best was turned into the junk pile in your picture. When the ferry pilot came to pick up 679 for Airspray I think it was, he took it around the patch to get the hang of it. Seems he hadn't flown an A-26 before. Yeah, I know, we couldn't believe it either, but that is what the man said. Anyway, on his approach, he chopped power too high and it landed short of the runway. There was a runway end that had been exposed by erosion that caught the left wheel and tore it off. The airplane went down on the left wing. It was picked up and taken to storage for quite awhile since the deal was now off. Gee, I wonder why? Another guy bought it finally and might have had some grand plan to salvage it or something anyway, he ended up selling it and the airplane appeared in Montana after some repairs. Randy, it is sure a sad looking picture you have of 671, but I would give.....uh.. Walt's right arm to have just what is left there. Every piece is now more precious than ever. We can fabricate some things, but there are some it would be too expensive to do. Thanks for posting that. And you know that Joe Maynard is now working with us nearly every weekend on 679?? He really gets to smiling when we get him talking about flying the machine back in the day. Can't wait to take him around the patch and let him show me a thang or two about flying a K. Smilin in TX, JR