Warbird Information Exchange

Mint! What a good idea. I'm going to do that. Heck, in the open hangar where the RV6a is we could even grow some. That way the mice would invade other people's airplanes first!

It came down to the wire, but I was unable to take the P-40 to Hamilton for the Air Show with the Mosquito. We were waiting for a gear actuator to come back from a shop in the States, and it didn't make it in time. Disappointment! But, then we got an offer to bring the Fairchild to a Fly-In at Lindsay, Ontario, with a small appearance fee (!). No hard decision there...



We also lent a hand with the ECAF Tiger Moth, which was taking new members flying all day. (We were signing people up, wing-walking as it taxied in tight quarters, and so on). It did brilliantly, running smooth and strong from start to finish.



And personally in this photo I thought the colours clashed, but he seemed unwilling to paint his car orange just for the shot.



Lovely day. Perfect winds and sun and never too hot. Robin and I were joined by Michaela, a friend, and finished up having dinner at Edenvale's fine restaurant before heading back home. (And lovely to have 3 sets of hands to clean off all the oil and squashed bugs, too.)

I ferried a new PT-26 Cornell to Gatineau the other day, but first I had to get to Fort Erie to pick it up. A friend, Mike K, picked me up in this newly-engined high-speed cross-country machine, at Alliston.



It has a new C-85 in it, tweaked to produce more like an O-200, and the difference in it was remarkable. It climbed well at GTOW, and the oil stayed cool.

Then in Fort Erie I picked up the Cornell, which VWoC is leasing from Alf B., and flew to Hamilton to pick up a new pilot Liam P., and check him out along the route.



All good fun and a very nice-running Cornell. It actually climbs at GTOW. Remarkable! We had a very long day with odd winds ( a headwind going east), and long legs. I shouldn't have drunk coffee, I can tell you that. But, all safe and sound in YND.

After we sorted out the ignition timing problem in the RV6A, and thus solved the CHT issues, I was concerned about the oil, and wanted to take the filter apart cleanly. Dedicated tools for cutting open a filter without causing particles to constaminate it are rare and expensive. But I rigged this, total cost $3.00.



It uses a replacement cutter-wheel from a pipe/tube cutter, simply screwed into a piece of 3/4" plywood, which is screwed to my bench-top. And the wood-vise has parallel-jaws. So as you squeeze the jaws closed it stays upright. You simply turn the filter by hand as you apply pressure with the vise, and eventually you've cut it open like a can-opener.

Anyway, when I sliced free the accordion-paper of the filter and had a good look under strong light, there were no particles of metal, and nothing stuck to a magnet either. Big sigh of relief!



Then went flying, and completed an air-to-air photo session. Got a few good ones.

Trying to catch up on this thread -- it's been a busy summer, as always.

We had a great tasking in July: a Change of Command parade at nearby CFB Borden, for 16 Wing. A friend of ours, LtCol Peter Earle, was handing over to the next person. There is a tradition there of exiting the outgoing CO from the Parade in an innovative manner, so we were asked to do it in the Fairchild.

This meant flying into a CanadianForcesBase that is normally closed to flying, end-running all the Rules of Engagement, picking a bit of grass that was suitable, and then taxying up like we owned the place. All good fun.

It was a very grey day, with low ceiling. We were glad to be located only a few miles away. Barely legal.



Once on the ground there was a long, long delay while too many people made too many speeches for too long a time. And the Warner pushed oil out the exhaust pipe, thoroughly coating the gear leg and turning it into a bug-collector.



Robin escorted Peter into the aircraft.

And off we went.



Peter is an experienced glider tow-pilot, so I passed control to him and coached him through the take-off.



He buzzed the flightline, wing-wagging furiously. (Great fun to be on a military base with a CO on board!) Then we toured the Base at low level -- all except the rifles ranges, which would have been imprudent.



Happy guy. A little bit bittersweet to hand over Command, but a successful term all the same.



He did the landing (where the gentle taildragger habits of a F-24 made him look good in front of the watchers). Then home, where we spent a solid hour cleaning the airplane....

Dave

Hangar damage to the Fairchild!!! Drat!

I was finished with the airplane, closed my storage cupboard, turned away to leave, and heard a loud BANG. (I cringed, instantly knowing that was not a good sound...)

When I looked, I saw that a board I had stored by leaning it upagainst the hangar wall beside the cupboard, a 1" x 8" x 8ft, had toppled, and hit the elevator. The sharp corner cut the fabric, and debonded a circle of dope.

I threw my hands up in the air and said bad words. Very loudly.

Anyway, when I calmed down I did two things: vowed never again to lean anything against a hangar wall which could reach an airplane, and called Stan the AME/Old Fabric Guy.

He came over and inspected it. Said there was no damage to the elevator frame or ribs. Just a patch required. He got that done pretty quickly, in silver...



.... and later I flew over to his place at Grand Valley so he could apply some matching coats of white dope.



While waiting for the coats of white to dry, we picked rocks from his new hangar site. (Never waste a source of labour...)

And I toured his shop to see what was going on.

This intrigued me, a proper Gipsy Major Test Stand, with a matching test-club prop. It's the only one in North America, he said.

Always something Eclectic at Grand Valley Aircraft...





And in the Other Stuff category, I parked at the Sim building at YYZ to do my Recurrent, and who wheeled in and parked beside me but my son Austin, who now has 6 months on the Embraer. Total coincidence. (Gee, I wonder how he identified my truck so fast?)



And Robin and I spent a day in the RV6a, dropping off Posters for the Gathering of the Classics, and letting her experience the joys of dealing with a Control Tower for the first time.

Robin and I went to the funeral for Bob Middlemiss, Spitfire pilot who flew in Malta with George Beurling. He was a great guy, and much respected. At least 500 people crowded into one of the hangars at CFB Borden to honour him.
http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/ ... -Male.aspx

We sat with him last April at the RCAF Mess Dinner.



I was stunned to see this momento on display.



Because on the lid of the box was this engraved plaque...



Talk about a tangible sense of history! There was a tremendous feeling of connection that struck me when I saw that. (Bob never called him "Screwball", that's for sure.) I was very moved by it.

And also by this!





What a man!

Dave

Busy, busy summer.... but finally a chance to catch-up this thread.

In late July Robin surprised me with words I'd never heard from her before: "Let's go camping!" And when I picked myself up off the floor I heard the rest of her plan -- fly the RV6a to Oshkosh, and sleep in amongst the airplanes.

So that's what we did; we got the eApis initiallized (we thought), applied for a Customs sticker, and headed out. Nothing was easy about that. The e-form does not recognize many Points of Entry or Departure. And at the same time they say, "Don't lie!" And when you hit the Submit button and it doesn't work, it doesn't say why (you have to change the point of departure to something it recognizes) and one's frustration level skyrockets. But anyway, eventually, after throwing ourselvesd upon the mercy of the CBP, we Entered the United States.

We flew across the state of Michigan, then across the Lake. Our little machine pushed valiantly and we made it up to 10,000 ft for the crossing. But, you know, there wasn't a single boat in the open part of that lake. No ships, no yachts, no nothing. We only had about a 12-minute window where we'd have been feet-wet, but still, I was surprised. And a bit squirmy.



Speaking of squirmy, we landed at Fond Du Lac for a short stop before entering the Ripon Arrival for OSH. Robin cleared the active runway, then contacted Ground. They asked, "What's your destination on the field?" She replied, "That blue port-a-potti on my left!" Whereupon there was dead silence on the radio for a full minute as everyone, including me, had a good laugh.

Anyway, I won't post a lot of photos because mine are the same as everyone else's -- long rows of beautiful airplanes, and tiny indecipherable dots in the sky. This is a typical example -- I was impressed by the sheer numbers of Howards all lined up. (And it was a big year for Cabin Wacos, too.)



We had 2 very memorable events. The first was a panel discussion one night featuring 4 astronauts, including my brother Chris. This was wonderfully done.

And the second was a dinner as a guest of HondaJet, where we afterwards got to sit at a campfire with Bob Hoover for 2 hours. They gave him a mic, kept his glass full, and encouraged him to tell stories. He's a wonderful raconteur, full of dry, self-deprecating wit. He told us the story of breaking out of prison camp, stealing an FW-190, flying west until force-landing in a dutch hayfield, and then getting nearly pitchforked by angry farmers who thought he was a German. Unforgettable. (And there may not be too many more evenings like that, with that generation...)

After getting home and parking the airplane, Robin christened her "Airventure 2013" mug!

Meanwhile, back at Vintage Wings, we kept trying to get the P-40 operational after its engine change. The problem was that the engine kept coughing and banging and momentarily quitting in flight. I flew it for about 5 test flights over a couple of months. It seemed to be a carburetion problem, but nothing we did fixed it. (I was getting used to not pulling the power back below 22" until I had the gear and flaps down and was 1500 ft over the end of the runway -- the proper gliding distance for a brick.)

This was taken on a day when I flew both these aircraft -- rather extreme opposites!



The Fox had been on static display at YOW for 2 years, and this was its first test flight since. (Went very well -- flew as always: like Stag Lane, 1932, with all that that entails. Smooth Gipsy, though.)

I took up Mark, one of the AMEs there -- always a good policy to take a mechanic on a test flight.



Eventually we got it all fixed by exchanging the carb for a freshly-overhauled one. The problem was that the spare engine had sat for too long. Sitting never does a carb any good. And that was that. Solution! Plus, the engine change did away with our oil pressure/temp concerns. Now the oil pressure sits at 60-62 psi and never budges, even during an aerobatic airshow display on a summer day. What a lovely change!

But it meant I never got to take the airplane out west and fly Abbotsford and the other airshows with it. My VWoC flying was confined to a few Yellow Wings flights.

We had a tremendous showing for the Edenvale Gathering of the Classics. Nearly 300 aircraft arrived. The weather was perfect for a Fly-In, and fly-in they did!

This was taken overhead about 11:00 by Gus Corujo.



Robin had conscripted me to act as ATC -- a misnomer, because we didn't exercise any positive ATC control. But I was on the old Cold War "bunker" with a radio, watching the steady stream of aircraft arriving overhead, and passing the field conditions over the VHF.

This flood of aircraft all got onto the ground in about 3 hours, and did so very well. No problems. No incidents. No control tower. It all worked! The secret was an arrival procedure published on the website http://www.classicaircraft.ca/Gathering ... dures.html which encouraged pilots to start over a village 8 miles away and meter themselves over the field one at a time.

Here's a photo by Shane, RCAF-100,



And a certain Fairchild 24W made it there and back in good form and style.


photo by Gus Corujo

Then, strangley enough, a contributor to this Forum led me to this photo,



Apparently a giant-scale RC kit manufacturer has decided to copy the markings of a particular F-24W featured prominently on the internet. There's glory for you!

Dave

The 2013 VWoC "Wings Over Gatineau" went exceptionally well. The weather was great, the crowds came out, and the organization (about 400 volunteers) is mature and experienced.

I showed up on the Thursday, while the rain showers were getting out of the way. Unfortunately they held me up, otherwise I would have been a part of this formation training mission.



Later, we hid in good company.



Even though we didn't have the Snowbirds, we had a full-slate airshow. All the bells and whistles. All the standard acts. And the crowds came out to see.

These were taken from my cellphone while in the cockpit waiting for start time.

There were lots of photographers in attendance, of course, and I've been sent some great shots.

It takes a big effort to get a show done.



This formation was interesting, as always. These are amongst the coolest formation flights I've done, hanging on the wing of the Lancaster. It's never mundane to look over at another fighter, of course, but you get focused on the job. You are trying to fly a balanced formation, keep the alignment, and so on -- and it gets interesting during a turn as you step wayyyyy up, or wayyyy down -- but every once in a while you give your head a shake and look around and actually SEE what it is you are a part of, and you're amazed.