We have a new plane!The Centex Wing has adopted a BT-13A, formerly flown by the Big Thicket Wing out of Cleveland, Texas. The plane was being flown from Cleveland to Midland in 1999 when it experienced and engine failure. By an odd coincidence, it went down fairly close to its new home in San Marcos. It was dismantled and trucked back to Cleveland where they started a restoration. The project overwhelmed the unit and they put it up for re-assignment. At the Cobra Den, we have lots of volunteers with T-6 experience and had just completed the P-63 project, so we got our ducks in a row and requested the plane from Midland. What is that old saying? Be careful what you ask for...
Billy Parker and I visited the BTW in March to get a look at the project. They had done a lot of very good work, but there was still lots to do. On top of that, their hangar had been damaged by a hurricane and it took three years to get the insurance worked out and get a new roof on the place, so everything was pretty dirty. Here is a shot of the fuselage:
And the forward instrument panel:
After we were granted possession of the aircraft, I put together an 11 man team with a small fleet of trucks and trailers to move the plane to San Marcos. The BTW folks had it ready for us and were a huge help loading everything. We needed several men to load the wing center box safely:
The engine went as a QEC and was a good load for one of the pickups:
And the fuselage was a perfect fit for our largest trailer:
We got everything back safely and set about cleaning all of it and storing it so we didn't have the hangar cluttered or obstructed. That took a couple of days.
Many of the parts we could see needed to be removed, cleaned up, repainted, and put back on... we thought.
The work turned into a frenzy as we removed layers of parts and the project has turned into a serious restoration. We are now going down to the frame and rebuilding a plane around it. Volunteer interest has been greater than I expected and work is progressing faster than I could have imagined. After three good workdays, the firewall is off and only a few pieces remain to be removed from the frame. Here is how it looked at quittin' time yesterday:
Sure hope we can remember how all that stuff goes back on... Anyway, we will remove the tail section and strip and paint the frame, after it is inspected closely. The tail was repainted externally by the BTW, but we will clean and prime the inside and the tailwheel bulkhead. The BTW tried to seal fuel tanks. We are going to have the wing center box and the wings stripped of paint, then we will open the tanks and clean them out and remove all of the old sealer. We will reseal the tanks and close them up.
The BTW had acquired another engine, a 985-AN-3 military version. We will have it IRANed, though we're still discussing other options. All seals and rubber hoses on the aircraft will be replaced. All instruments and accessories will have to be checked out and repaired or replaced. There is LOTS and LOTS to do. But we're pretty excited about it and are looking forward to the work. So far, the only unserviceable part we've found is the pilot's seat. We plan to have new instrument panels made, the front one for sure, and update some of the instruments. Many of them were definitely original.
I know there are a few of these around, so any of you WIXers that have experience or advice to share, or know where parts might be found, I'd really appreciate hearing from you. The Tora Vals are all BT's, but they're all modified. This plane started its life as a Navy BT-15. In 1988, it was converted to a BT-13A, a Pratt 985 powered plane with a 12 volt electrical system. We plane to keep it exactly that way. It has a two position prop control - fine and coarse. We'd like to know about installing a prop governor on the pad on back of the engine. The TCDS says we can.
We'll keep posting updates, as this is moving quickly right now.
Thanks!
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