We had the Harpoon out for a couple of local events here on the airport. One was an EAA Young Eagles program where we let the kids and their parents into the PV-2. The other was a fund raiser for a local pilot who is running for a County office position. We need to spread the word about our museum.
Paul and his daughter came out to help out last Saturday. Paul has been a camper at two of our Bomber Camps and he flew in both the B-24J and the B-17G. Thanks for coming up and helping out!
They worked on one of our major projects which is the bomb bay. The bomb bay is pretty much untouched and is in need of a lot of work. We will need to clean up everything, repair some mods and dings to the bomb bay doors, fix up the bomb racks and bombs for display.
We have two 1000 pound GP style bombs in the left stations that were in the middle of getting reworked when we had to throw them in for OSH. We didn't even have time to prime or paint the fins we had made.
The bomb bay can hold six 500 hundred pound or smaller bombs or four 1000 pound bombs.
It can also carry one Mk13 torpedo or two big Tiny Tim rockets. I think a pair of Tiny Tim's would be great for the ultimate lawn dart game! It will be a while before we can get the bomb bay to look like this once again. Man does that look good!
Work on the Harpoon lately has been mostly low visibility with a lot of work going on to assemble and acquire parts for projects. We are low on funds now so we have to be quite selective. Any donations are greatly appreciated.
The one project in need of money is for the radar wiring harnesses. We have found a good source of cannon plugs to build the harnesses and each plug will be about $50 each. Here is a typical drawing for one of the harnesses.
At last count we will need about 30 cannon plugs and a lot of the shielded conduit. One quote for the conduit came in at about $5000 so needless to say we are looking for more cost effective options.
Any of you all come across any surplus flexible braided aluminum conduit out there? You will be our new best friend if you can help us.
We had Pat Patterson come up and give a talk to our Warbird Group meeting. We had a good turn out and Pat was one of the best speakers in a long time. Maybe it was because he was a PV-1 copilot and then pilot out of Attu with VPB-135 and he sure had my attention. He did three tours up there and he is as sharp as can be.
I loved the one story about how they were real tired of the powdered milk that they had which tasted like chalk. They had a farmer amongst their crew so they sent him to Seattle to rustle up a cow to bring up to Attu. I was surprised to hear that the weather in Attu was about the same as Seattle and not as frozen as I thought it was. Anyway, they set up a real nice shed and corral for the cow and fed it from bales of hay that they also brought up.
Pat said the milk was wonderful for the guys until they ran out of hay. He said they let it graze on the tundra up there and soon after the milk turned sour!
Great stories and Ken and I agreed that we will drive down and visit Pat to take him out to dinner soon just so we can listen to more of his stories and ask questions.
Anyone know of any PV radar operators out there? We have a lot of questions about the radar and how it was used.
That's all for now.
_________________
To donate to the PV-2D project via PayPal click here
http://www.twinbeech.com/84062restoration.htmWe brought her from:
to this in 3 months:
Help us get her all the way back
All donations are tax deductible as the Stockton Field Aviation Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Tell a friend as the Harpoon needs all the help she can get.
Thank you!
Taigh Ramey
Vintage Aircraft, Stockton, California
http://www.twinbeech.com'KEEP ‘EM FLYING…FOR HISTORY!'
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