PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

[Obergrafeter]

Say Taigh, does the TU-7 fit in with your radio array?

[Taigh Ramey]

It sure does, thanks for sending it. It's an Army radio that we can use for our BC-191 radio set. Thanks again,
Taigh

[Blackbirdfan]

Here are a couple pics I shot Saturday night at the Air races.



Beautiful Harpoon, I love seeing it out and about.

Will

[Taigh Ramey]

Great shots Will. Can I get a high res copy?

Still trying to catch up with the updates:

A few more radio goodies are finding their way back where they belong.

Mark came up with the antenna capacitor for the ART-13. These capacitors normally come on a mounting plate where they are arranged in a triangle pattern. I couldn't find a set of holes where the plate would fit as there was no room between the transmitter and the bulkhead where they were supposed to mount. Mark solved the mystery by taking them off of the plate and sure enough the three capacitors fit individually and the mounting holes lined up perfectly.



The antenna system was originally wired up with Packard high tension wire so we found the same stuff and began wiring up the long wire antennas.



As we started the push to get ready for Reno Daniel was hard at cleaning the belly starting with the bomb bay doors



While working on the doors I found a stamped bureau number on one of them. This practice was often done when the aircraft went through overhaul so the specially fitted parts would go back on the same aircraft. Alameda NARF was one of the bigger PV-2 rework facilities. We have many parts on 062 that are stamped from different PV-2's. I like having parts from many other aircraft flying again on 062.



Bill and I flew the PV-2 up to Reno alone. We couldn't get anyone to come along probably because we were going up on a Tuesday. I hate flying with empty seats.

After a slight bump we were positioned along the back next to a beautiful Grumman G111. The idea was to set up the PV-2, G111 and the howard 500 as a backdrop for the awards ceremony on Sunday. What an honor.





We had a lot of people come through the harpoon and a few celebrities too.



Here is one of the special guests that came to visit us: Lt. JG Howard Hassett. Howard was a copilot with VB-137 in the South Pacific.



Howard's two sons Doug and Brian drove him up Friday night and they spent the weekend with us. Howard sat in the shade of the PV-2 and shared his stories with the public. Both he and the public had a great time together. Not only was Howard in his element but Doug and Brian were immensely helpful too.

Howard brought some of his memorabelia along to show us. I didn't realize that the VB guys would have been issued blood chits but here was the one Howard had:



He also brought some awesome photos from his South Pacific adventures. Great stuff







Here is a shot of the damaged right wing of his PV-1



We have had a heck of a time finding PV vets. One at OSH, one at Topeka but we were quite fortunate at Reno.

Here is Pat Patterson, a Copilot in VB-135. His squadron was the first to receive PV-1's at Whidbey Island. He did three tours at Attu!

Pat joined us and shared stories with Howard and the public.



A guy came by on Saturday and said his Father was a PV vet. I had to ask the delicate question if his dad was still around and he said yes and that he was in the grand stands just down the ramp! He called him and told him to come on down and he did just that.

When John Leep showed up he looked real familiar. He was even wearing our old PV-2D shirt. It turns out that John was the very first vet we met at our first air show at NAS North Island, San Diego for the Centennial of Naval Aviation back in February of 2011. John was a gunner from VB-136 also from Attu came by for three PV vets at 062 at the same time. Too cool!!



The awards for the National Aviation Heritage Invitational program was set up in front of the harpoon on Sunday. Howard had a front row seat right next to the VIP seating section. I think he enjoyed it.





As you can see Matt Walker and John Sessions are more than tickled by our PV-2! Matt was the winner of the overall grand Champion award for his outstanding Beech D-18S and John was the winner of the Military award for his beautiful Spitfire. Well done guys!



After a great safe race week we were ready to head home. We had a special copilot for the flight to Stockton. Here is Howard and his son Brian all ready to fire up and go.



That isn't a peace symbol Howard is holding up. Its the original V for victory. Old school baby!



As Howard is getting ready in the cockpit the ground crew pulls the props through. Here are Caleigh and Michelle working hard on number one.



So Howard had his hands on the controls for takeoff and climb out. We arived at cruise altitude and I ran through the cruise check and set cruise power. Throttles set and props to 2050 and synced up and mixtures auto lean etc. Syncing the props is done by moving one prop lever to precisely match the RPM of one engine to the other. You can get the props close to synchronization by using the tachometer but you need to finesse it by sound and feel. The idea is to make the engines sound like one instead of a wah wah wah drone that makes me crazy and adds needless vibration wear to the airframe and passengers.

Howard took the controls and his left hand was shaking a bit as it moved across the throttles and landed on the prop controls. I was wondering if he meant to hold the throttles but was on the prop controls accidentally. I was watching the tach to see if he was changing the RPM as I wasn't sure just what he was doing.

Now I consider myself a stickler for syncing the props and when I have a student that has them a little out of sync it makes my head spin. I am usually ragging on my students to do a better job of synchronizing.

So after 20 seconds of Howard's hands on the props I realized what he was up to. even though I had synced the props myself Howard was doing a much better job than I was! a few seconds later he raised his hand and said "Hows that?"

How's that? it was magnificent Lt. JG Howard Hassett! Just perfect Sir!

He went on to tell me that when they were on a mission they would look though their own prop arc to the prop arc of the aircraft next to them in formation. When you do this there is a strobe effect of the prop blades and he said they would adjust their own props to sync them up with the aircraft next to them. This way both aircraft would have the same exact fuel consumption.

I have done this in the B-24 looking down the prop arc of number 1 and 2 or down 3 and 4. I had even done it from the astrodome in the B-29 Hawg Wild when I was a kid but I never thought about doing it with the aircraft flying next to you. man you just can't get this stuff from books or manuals. What a great honor to be flying next to Mr. Hassett. I am not sure who had more fun. actually I am sure.

This is exactly why we are doing this and selfishly; it is the best feeling in the world being able to get these guys up once again. It just doesn't get any better.





Michelle came up for a shot with Howard and when I showed him the photo he said that the guys back home would not believe he had such a good looking crew. He was obviously talking about me...

Michelle kicked butt and was always helping out loading gear, setting up and taking extra special care of Howard and our other vets. She worked hard and we really appreciate the help. Thanks Michelle!



Howard's son Brian was able to see his Father fly the Harpoon. He had a great time too. Poor Doug had to drove to Stockton to pick up Brian and his dad.



It was the best Reno I can remember. We have flown two PV crew members so far and we are just getting started.

we have found; two Copilot/Navigators, a Radio Operator, a Radar Operator and two AOM's or turret gunners. Now we need to get them together to so we can have a complete PV crew flying once again.

We have a new mission

[Chappie]

Who's Michelle?

Chappie

Taigh- It's great to see you taking vets flying.

[Blackbirdfan]

Taigh, shoot me an email, rad2ltr@gmail.com and I'll send you the hi-res versions over.

Will

[cco23i]

OUTFRICKENSTANDING Taigh!!! Man I wish we were closer!


Scott

[TAdan]

Simply awesome Taigh.

[Dan Johnson II]

Taigh, did you have any idea of the magic that would result from your efforts with that old bird when you first looked at her looking forlorn and stuck in the dirt?

I can't imagine you could have written the story any better than it's been.

Thanks for continuing to share it with us

[PJ]

Great to see Howard Hassett, young as ever. We enjoyed having him at Mount Comfort a few years back. Would like to have met the vet from VPB-136, as that is the squadron that was training on "Hot Stuff" at Whidbey Island when the war ended. Do you have any contact info for him, Taigh?
Congratulations on a great trip!


PJ
PV-2 Harpoon "Hot Stuff"
www.amhf.org

[Taigh Ramey]

We were supposed to go to the California Capitol air show at the old Mather Field in Sacramento last weekend but they called a week before and said that they didn't have the fuel for us so we were cancelled. Probably a good thing too as the show folks backed out on what they promised many of the participants that went. Lots of Warbird folks were shorted their fuel allotment and there were many unhappy campers.

I flew the Collings B-25J Tondelayo to Mather for the Jimmy Doolittle Museum and we were lucky that we received what was promised for fuel. It seemed like a good turnout. lots of people attending.



I am glad that we didn't go in the Harpoon as the museum certainly couldn't have afforded to have been shorted or stiffed on fuel after flying up there. We were also sad that we had a PV vet meeting us there and no PV for him to hang out with.

Earl is in great shape with a bright smile and wonderful sense of humor. He flew PV's on the East coast for patrol in VB-128. He tells a great story about being off the coast of New York when he says he "saw the biggest darn German sub he had ever seen'. He said it had a rail on it that was most unusual. Earl was an Aviation Machinist Mate second class and said he hammered that sub hard with the 50's from the top turret of the PV-1. He also said that the sub hit one of their engines and it looked like they may have to ditch
because they feathered the wrong engine! They fixed it and landed and everyone was running from the Ventura thinking it might explode. Man I would love to find out more about this great story.

Earl also flew in the Berlin Airlift and he had brought his log books with lots of Wiesbaden entries flying C-54's.

We hope to get Earl up flying once again. Now we just need a U boat and some
working 50's...

Ricky and I have been plugging away on the Harpoon fixing things here and there as usual. Mark has been wiring up more radios namely the second ARB receiver and is now starting on getting the AIA-2A interphone wired and working. He installed the two dynamotors that mount under the forward starboard radio rack. These dynamotors are for the RL-24C interphone amplifier and the AIA-2A system. The AIA plan is to feed the J box power and high voltage with the dynamotor and them wire up the radio ops control box and work our way forward and aft to bring the crew jack boxes in to the system.

It was quite the system for its day as the radio op, pilot and copilot could switch in each of the aircraft radios at one control box. It was one of the first audio panel type of systems that are standard today.

Jon has just about finished up his turret project and since I have been nagging him for a while he is turning his attention to the APS-3 search radar. I'm all giddy at the thought of getting the radar up and running!

We have collected almost all of the components for the APS-3 radar and have them installed in their proper places. I still haven't put the antenna and transmitter in the nose or the pilots scope in yet but the rest is in place.

In collecting parts over the years I had picked up the modulator probably about 30+ years ago. I recall is was pretty crusty as it came out of the radio pile at Pima and was sitting in a wash and was full of sand and crud. It came out of storage a while ago and was cleaned up, fins straightened and given a quickie paint job. It went back in place on the floor of the Harpoon in front of the radar ops station. This beast is big and heavy and I remember thinking it was butchered up as there was a cut harness and other ugliness. To me this was a weak point and I have been looking for a replacement or two since but no luck so far. Most of the rest of the APS-3
components we have are like new and should work with minimal effort but the modulator was certainly a concern for the working system.



Jon and I pulled the modulator out of the Harpoon and hefted the beast in to the museum hangar. We turned it on its side and removed the bottom cover to check out the belly of the beast. Flaking paint from the Arizona sun and some crustiness but not that bad. The wiring is still good and it is basically unmolested.



A lot of the fun in playing with this gear is digging in and figuring out how it works. Here is Jon beginning that process. What is under the dome with the cooling fins anyway? Pulling off the...adapter thingy... to look inside didn't help much. It turns out that was thought of as a cut wiring harness was just a cut feed line from the modulator to the transmitter. The cool thing was the connector was on one end that is quite unusual and hard to find. The first of many connectors needed to make it all work.





Time to see whats under the dome. We really had no idea of what was under there and what condition was it in. This was a pressurized chamber presumably to reduce arcing or flash over in the thin atmosphere at altitude. The fact that it was supposed to be a sealed unit should help to preserve the parts unless it had moisture in it then the water would be trapped which would tend to support and propagate the corrosion.

The nuts came off cleanly. A good sign so far



The moment of truth...



Oh, my. Wow!



So it was probably pulled out of a Harpoon in 1958 and has been sitting outside in the Arizona sun since then. I'm guessing it was at Pima for 5 to 10 years before it was given to me around 1978 or so where I put inside. To be in such good shape after all that time is astounding.

This is a work of art in my book. Electronic geeks unite!



One interesting thing was this lever on the side of a rather large capacitor. The spring loaded lever would move if the cover was removed and would short out the electrodes of the capacitor thus preventing an unsuspecting tech from being on the receiving end of 15,000 volts at quite an ampere rating. I wonder how many got zapped before this little safety device was installed?







More cool electronic art history





This is what I believe is a desiccant chamber. It should have a cartridge of desiccant to soak up the moisture inside the sealed dome. It is also probably responsible for the state of preservation. I somehow doubt that the tech that overhauled this unit expected that it would last for 63 years but it has held up well.

One thing that seems to go along with dry, sealed old components is the fuzz found on cad plated hardware. All of the cad plating inside has a heavy coat of the cad fuzz. It wipes off easily and will need to be cleaned. Here it is all over the desiccant cylinder.



Here is the APS-3 transmitter. This transmitter takes the industrial strength magical electrical wizardry that the above mentioned modulator puts out and it converts it to X band radiated energy that heads out through the antenna.

How cool to have found a transmitter that is new and still mounted on its shipping board. Inside and out is about as nice as it was when it was made. it should be a runner





Okay I usually get these mixed up. I pretty sure its the thyratron tube... but it could be the magnetron...

This is the tube that goes in the heart of the transmitter where the energy changes form and heads off through the waveguide to the antenna.

How is that for a beyond simplistic explanation from a guy who is electronically challenged.

The tube came in its shipping box and looks nice







Here is where the tube mounts. It would have been shipped separately to prevent damage of the delicate part.



A cool beginning to getting the radar going. I am encouraged that the modulator is in such good shape and believe it can be brought back to life.

The biggest hurdle is the connectors and harnesses. I found a set of what we need in a Harpoon fuselage but I have not been able to talk them out of it so it looks like we will have to fabricate them. Anyone have any radar Cannon plugs, wiring or flexible conduit sitting around? We need it!

[Mark Allen M]

Hello Taigh, thought I would post this photo of the USS Saratoga at Pearl harbor c 1945 for no real reason other than you might possibly be an aircraft carrier fan ...

[lmritger]

Nicely played, Mark. Now if Taigh can find and restore a Culver PQ-14, and put some whitewalls on the airport jeep, he can recreate that scene!

Very cool shot by the way- did you find any others in that series which might give us a hint as to the identity of the 'Poon carrier?

Cheers,

Lynn

[Mark Allen M]

USS Lexington CV16, Just wish it was a better shot of the carrier without all those darn airplanes in the way on the deck ...

[Craig59]

USS Lexington CV16, Just wish it was a better shot of the carrier without all those darn airplanes in the way on the deck ...

Wow! Amazing photograph. Check out the nine PBJ's all equipped with wingtip radar.