Bald Eagle Aviation

b29flteng · **Posted:** Sat Mar 03, 2012 10:47 pm

Right side fairing panels look good!

51fixer · **Posted:** Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:04 pm

b29flteng wrote:

Right side fairing panels look good!

On this one the 2 pieces that make the rear wing fairing are welded. All others I have worked on are riveted or spotwelded together. I guess these are changes made to enable production using manpower more effectively.

b29flteng · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:01 am

51fixer wrote:

b29flteng wrote:

Right side fairing panels look good!

On this one the 2 pieces that make the rear wing fairing are welded. All others I have worked on are riveted or spotwelded together. I guess these are changes made to enable production using manpower more effectively.

I've seen it both ways too. We're looking into producing some aft right fairing panels since they are "unobtainium" in good condition.

51fixer · **Posted:** Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:01 pm

Busy Morning-
Les made it here and we got the SNJ-3 unloaded.
Then Jim, knowing we got the work done, landed in BE after 17 hrs of flying involving the Heritage Flight Conference.
Now I just gotta figure out where to put everything.

51fixer · **Posted:** Mon Mar 05, 2012 9:14 pm

Les pulling up about 10:30 this morning-

Loaded and unloaded the wings by hand-

Les backing into position to lift the airframe-

A Frame positioned-

Forklift positioned, we lifted the fus up and Les pulled the truck out-

Removing the rigging-

Where I put the little parts-

BE when it returned from the HF Conference at DM-

After 17+ hrs-

Jim Beasley · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:22 am

Really excited about this SNJ3, hopefully it will be flying in the sort of near future. Gotta fix the colors, though as the grey and chrome don't fit with the day it should look given its history. I'm pretty certain we're going to paint it as it was when the Navy used it for its "intro to the SNJ3" books and videos.

The HF conference was great, and Bald Eagle used only one gallon of oil for 17.1 hrs flying. The Roush engine is just fantastic. Here's a shot over Arizona, it's like flying over the moon.

Django · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 11:30 am

Very cool Rich and Jim. Look forward to the restoration progress!

Rich, how long will it take you to clean up the exhaust staining on BE?

Jim Beasley · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 11:32 am

please don't provoke him to ground it because it's dirty!

Django wrote:

Very cool Rich and Jim. Look forward to the restoration progress!

Rich, how long will it take you to clean up the exhaust staining on BE?

Django · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 11:34 am

Haha, sorry Jim! :lol:

I'm not familiar with the training videos. Would it be this scheme?

dtpitcairn · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:09 pm

Django,
Look at the last couple pictures of this photo set for the scheme Jim may to be referring to. https://picasaweb.google.com/1013437002 ... ureau01896

51fixer · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:02 pm

Django wrote:

Haha, sorry Jim! :lol:

I'm not familiar with the training videos. Would it be this scheme?

The silver one in the rear would be close to what this was.
This photo is from the Intro to the SNJ-3 filmstrip/book and is our SNJ-3-

One of the Navy logs has #22 penciled inside the cover.
The vertical has 0 etched in the leading edge skin on one side and 6 on the other where the 01796 is shown in the photo above.
Probably had yellow from the leading edge over the top of the wing including all of the tip. The red band in the yellow. Early star with the red dot top and bottom of both wings.

maxum96 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:49 pm

Love the patina! I think it looks cool. Did Jim had stains around the gun ports too? lol

51fixer · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 10:41 pm

To get the fragile big parts home safely the previous owner made a few coffins with 2x sides that we stacked on each other.
Several 2x4s screwed on the edges kept it together and made it easy to strap it all down.
After we got it on the ground we started opening it up-

2nd level-

Bottom-

Ailerons were a couple inches longer than 8'-

Tonight my son removed the fabric from the rudder-

One handed cleanup-

Interior looks very clean with everything well primered. Fabric covering was early polyester but with cotton tapes which disintegrated as you touched it. Someone had removed all the dope chemicals in the past and had started to reapply the dope. Gotta love warbird rebuilding in the 80s.

dtpitcairn · **Posted:** Wed Mar 07, 2012 10:34 am

Rich,

Would the plane have had a red band on the wings if not on the fuselage? The two in the color picture with the red bands on the wings also had the red fuselage band. Also, it really does not look like there is a dark color (red) on the wings in the 1941 picture. My best guess based purely on the 1941 picture and extensive looking at the color yellow in black and white pictures is that the wings are yellow, very possibly the cowling is yellow, and the tail feathers are yellow like the closest plane in the color picture.

dtpitcairn · **Posted:** Wed Mar 07, 2012 10:39 am

If you look at photo 116 at the link I posted above (hydraulic gear picture in training manual), the cowling definitely looks yellow. Compare it to the yellow between the blue and red on the propeller tips. It matches the cowling while the silver part of the blade does not. At least that is my interpretation. Either way it will look amazing.

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