Warbird Information Exchange

We could have titled this article " The Italian Job", with a negative meaning to it.

Italy might have the greatest culture in the world but when it comes down to aviation we are absolutely ignorant and stupid.

Sad.

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbird-new ... italy.html

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Moreno Aguiari
mo@vintageaviationnews.com
http://www.vintageaviationnews.com

This really makes me angry, as I'm a fan of an albatross. They should've at least tried to sell it for the scrap value to another organization.

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"According to the map, we've only gone 4 inches."

The sad part is that those people were offered help and a bail out by selling the plane to another, more serious, organization.

Just wrong!

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Moreno Aguiari
mo@vintageaviationnews.com
http://www.vintageaviationnews.com

That is a hugely sweeping statement - both on Italy having the "greatest culture in the world" and that all of Italy is "ignorant and stupid" because of the actions of a handful of people. I am sure that many thousands of Italian aviators and aviation fans probably will disagree with you about the latter point, and with the actions of that museum.

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It seems reminiscent of what happened to the Cabot, or the John Rodgers: Groups with the best of intentions get in "over their heads" and then end up panicking, selling out to the scrapper to save their own backsides. If you're not willing see things all the way through, then you really shouldn't be getting involved.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?! You would think by this time in the warbird movement people would have more of an effin clue than they did in the 40s and 50s. You just don't cut these airplanes up anymore!

Chappie

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Brrring. Dispersal? TWO SECTIONS SCRAMBLE!!

Not Exactly.

Italy has 70% of the world's arts. A far greatest culture than many other countries.

And being Italian i can tell you that the many thousands of Italian aviators and aviation fans will agree with me.Trust me.

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Moreno Aguiari
mo@vintageaviationnews.com
http://www.vintageaviationnews.com

Bet they could have raised a fair amount of cash selling parts & pieces if scrapping of the airframe was to be the eventual result. All we can do now is to do better next time.

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

Not exactly!!



Granted. They make a good cup of coffee there, and some nice cars although they break a lot.



And being married to a Chinese I can tell you that hundreds of millions of people from that country (you know, the country that first taught Italians to make pasta) consider Italy (even counting the Roman empire) to be a promising young upstart, culture-wise.

More on-topic, Italians have displayed a pretty enlightened approach to aircraft preservation in recent years and although I don't think Albatross populations are at the point where we need to wring our hands too much about this, it is disappointing to hear of.

August

speaking of albatrosses, I emailed the airport manager at Opa Locka near Miami about the Albatross (and DC-10s) that I saw last time I was there, his response: "Unfortunately the aircraft you mentioned, aside from the DC10 have either been flown out or destroyed." I hope this wasn't the case, anyone know what happened to it?

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"According to the map, we've only gone 4 inches."

This airplane had several things working against it.
1) It has been on outside display since 1965. Have you looked at an airplane parked outside for 50 years, they're really rotten and stink.
2) It spent some of it's life in saltwater
3) It doesn't appear to have had any subsequent maintenance in the 45 plus years it sat outside.
4) Are those the short wing version?, if so then less of demand than the later models.
5) It had never been civilianized, and received certification, an expensive process.
6) The market is depressed for super exotic toys right now.
7) Last the most exotic, remote places you wold want to fly an Albatross, no longer carry avgas.

I received a call 2 years ago about an Albatross for sale here in Tennessee. The prospective buyer wanted to operate it out of the Seychelle Islands and some African countries. They loved the plane but the avgas problem killed the deal. They bought a King AIr 200 instead.

The other problem with a lot of these older amphibs is that the FAA requires you do a full inspection on the airplane every time it touches salt water (to include the Albatross).

The situation and how it went sucks and there is definitely plenty of blame to go around in its handling, but it's unfortunately not unique and probably won't be the last time either.

I don't know the FAA definition for a saltwater landing "full inspection". A Goat maybe a little different. When I was doing HH-52's and saltwater landings, the inspection wasn't too bad. Freshwater rinse/wash of the engine and A/F, Interior and exterior, pull the hull drain plugs, "purge the wicks" in the L/G struts, unroll and wash the float bags on the sponsons, visual inspection of the hull. It wasn't too bad and a couple of guys can do it over lunch and have the aircraft ready to go for the afternoon flight.

I don't know the FAA definition for a saltwater landing "full inspection". A Goat maybe a little different. When I was doing HH-52's and saltwater landings, the inspection wasn't too bad. Freshwater rinse/wash of the engine and A/F, Interior and exterior, pull the hull drain plugs, "purge the wicks" in the L/G struts, unroll and wash the float bags on the sponsons, visual inspection of the hull. It wasn't too bad and a couple of guys can do it over lunch and have the aircraft ready to go for the afternoon flight.

Funny you said that; the last C-74 Globemaster was scrapped in Italy after being used in the movie The Italian Job.

Seriously the whole deal looks like a true clusterf**k. Even if the plane had been outside for ages, the inside was totally intact down to the instruments. This was no hulk!

And why did they bother to save the engines and wings?

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)