Warbird Information Exchange

Umm... I don't know about you, but we've got some good reloaders around this part of the country. Some of them even famous. I'll bet we can load and link ammo for those Ma Duce's for much less than that.

JR - I'll be there Saturday barring any major malfunction in getting my truck fixed on Friday. We can talk then about that and other stuff...

From the Peanut Gallery... a view of huntin' hogs. (Does anyone even remember where the term "Peanut Gallery" comes from?)

Fiirst of all, the A-26 did it's best huntin' at night. So it seems only fitting that any hog huntin' should be done at night. A-26 pilots all had great big round ones. (Now I know what you're thinking... don't go there. The big round ones were their eyes. Flying at night over the Ho Chi Minh trail anyone's eyes would be open as big as saucers. Ok... maybe they had those big round ones too.)

Second, might I suggest that instead of using the 50 cal's, just use BLU-10 napalm. We loaded zillions of napalm bombs, so it would be fitting. The tin cans are pretty cheap, and only use 33 gallons of gasoline. Even with the current price of gasoline, that's a lot cheaper than a short burst of 50 cals... though the 50 cals would probably be a lot more fun.

Third, the napalm will cook down the hogs saving a few bucks on charcoal.

Fourth, napalm will make an excellent signal fire so finding the pre-cooked hog will be easy. Just call in a Jolly Green... or maybe a Pedro (HH-43) to make the pick-up.

OK... let's go huntin'

Bob
Memories of Naked Fanny

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Bob
Memories of Naked Fanny
More Memories of Naked Fanny (Nov 2013)
609th Nimrod, Bomb loader, Gun Plumber, '68 - '69

OK I am an old fart...........................comes from Howdy Dowdy Time, and I won't go hunting hogs with you, but I will go chasing women!

OK, looking forward to it. I will be teaching part of the B-25 ground school on Saturday, but should be in and out. I'll watch out for you. JR

Hey Bob... all good stuff... We need to brainstorm some more as to how to get all of this stuff to make it work. I sure don't want Dean to get out of providing that keg he promised if we got this thing going and bring in a pig or two. JR

Ober, there is just one potential problem in your plan. How are you going to remember what to do if you manage to catch one?? JR

Catch what?

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

Ober... it's me and you. And we'll figure out what to do if we do catch any.

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Bob
Memories of Naked Fanny
More Memories of Naked Fanny (Nov 2013)
609th Nimrod, Bomb loader, Gun Plumber, '68 - '69

As a more sensable suggestion... Empty napalm "cans" are often converted to "baggage pods" by cutting the side open and adding a hinged door so the aircrew can put stuff in there for cross country flights. So, it would be "neat" to see one or two "napalm bombs" on each the wing of Special K. The bottoms would have to be hand painted O.D. or black of course.

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Bob
Memories of Naked Fanny
More Memories of Naked Fanny (Nov 2013)
609th Nimrod, Bomb loader, Gun Plumber, '68 - '69

By all means, we would like to locate at least 6 of those nape canisters to put on the wing racks.... painted appropriately, of course. If anybody has a lead where to find some, please let me know. I think it would be cool to not only paint them up but maybe add some artwork directed at the wild hogs... Hmmm, just had a thought.. if we are naping them in the dark, how can we tell the difference between wild hogs and politicians? Very similar behavior patterns... double hmmmmm... JR

When NVGs were announced as "on the way" for the Reserves around 2001, you had better not be caught standing near the door for fear of being trampled by all the guys who said they were either quitting or retiring "rather than fly with those darn things". I don't know how many actually left, probably very few, but that was the sentiment.

I, on the other hand, was in year 11 and having new cool toys piqued my interest. I was among the first in the unit to attend the AFRL's Initial Cadre Instructor course and then, in turn, helped check out the rest of the unit as we converted. I retired with over 500 hours of NVG time, including a OIF/OEF tour flown exclusively at night. I mention all that to set the stage for my comment ... The K gang would have absolutely loved having NVGs in 1969. They don't turn night into day, but they come darn close, especially when weather/moon conditions are right. As far as blossoming goes, the current models do a nice job of gaining down momentarily when exposed to bright flashes and blossoming, while sometimes annoying, is not bad enough as to make the rest of the image unusable. Actually, I can remember getting sick of having those darn things hanging in front of my face and weighing my head down and flipping them up and out of the way ... until I realized it was pitch black out and I couldn't see ... and flipped 'em right back down! NVGs are the cat's a$$.

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

There is no doubt the K gang would have loved to have had those. They did experiment with early versions of them. One was to put a guy in the aft compartment with a starscope and lean out into an open bomb bay over the HCM trail and try to see things on the ground. It was not very successful due to the range and amount of humidity which tended to obscure things in the viewer. Then when it came time to attack, there was nothing the observer could see until over the target so while he might try to give a verbal description of it, he couldn't direct the airplane back to the drop point. It was very cumbersome to say the least. There were some better systems on C-123's and C-130's that cruised overhead to spot trucks and then direct the 26's & others to the target via a FAC who would drop a "log" or mark with a rocket. They developed quite a teamwork effort, but it all could have been greatly simplified if the 26's had had their own NVG's. Here is a link to the A-26 Legacy Foundation's story of one of these encounters that was first published in AF magazine. http://www.a-26legacy.org/home/press/in ... o-chi-minh. What a wild ride that must have been. JR

Lookee here at what the guys accomplished yesterday while I was busy instructing in our first B-25 class for the year. K nearly has a leg to stand on!! We came up a few bolts short so will have to get some more this week. The rest of the gear should go on next weekend. So this is big progress as we near the time when K will be ambulatory again!! The next big project is to pull the engines and get them ready for overhaul. BTW, we were pleased that our neighbors in the hangar got their A-26 "Texas Special" out and put in some training hours for the first time in quite awhile. They are getting ready for the Temple airshow next weekend. That was a magnificent sound when they powered up for take off. Had to give a short recess to the B-25 class to go watch the engine start and it was like herding cats to get them back to the classroom! All of the students seemed to have that warbird itch that needs scratching periodically... and that is a good thing!! JR

Here are the proud graduates of the B-25 course. Our next class is May 11. I found out that 36 students, 12 restoration guys, 4 instructors and maybe a stowaway or two can eat 18 pizzas, two big boxes of donuts, and a big tray of cookies and have 20 minutes left over during a 45 minute lunch break! There just must be something about pilots and free food??? JR