Warbird Information Exchange

Part of tomorrow's plan (Saturday, April 5) is to continue chasing fuel leaks like on the fuel selector valves. Don't know why they decide to leak. Gremlins, maybe? BUBA has had the same problem. Sitting too long probably? We should have a good group working on K. We are preparing to pull the left engine. Come on by and say howdy at Meacham Field, Ft Worth, especially if you are here for the races or one of the other big events this weekend. Spring has sprung, finally! Might rain on Sunday, but the VFM museum opens at noon then. It would be a dry place to hang out for awhile!! JR

David A and Rand got Ichabod Crane ready to go this morning. It was needed to lift the VFM Stinson L-5 up a few more feet on the ceiling suspension so the B-29 wing can slide under it. FiFi is due at Meacham on Monday about noon, CAF time (somewhere between 10 am and 7 pm on some day of the week). You know how it is with old airplanes! Chuckie, yes, that Chuckie, namesake of the B-17, is coming over to see how the guys are doing. A Mariachi band and margaritas are rumored to be planned for the homecoming! Monday might be a good time to visit Meacham Field if you can make it. The B-29 will be undergoing maintenance for about five and a half weeks before resuming the tour circuit. The B-24 should leave about the same time since the winter maintenance is coming right along. JR

One of the things David and company did this morning was install a muffler on Ichabod. Not very many cranes can be found with a Piper Cherokee muffler on it! Anyway, it was given to us and it worked so sure can't complain. It helped reduce the noise level to where you could hear and not have to yell. Now if we could just figure out how to run the rivet gun... oh, nevermind, hopeless cause there. JR

JR have you seen this? Good stuff ...

http://napoleon130.tripod.com/id309.html

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Hi Mark... yes, we are aware of this excellent website. It has everything you would like to know about the A-26 on it. We have been in contact with the webmaster at times in the past and he has included Kay along with all of her siblings in one section about the K models. Kay, before becoming a K, served as a crew training ship in the early 60's in the unit mentioned in the VN story. We have interviewed some of the pilots involved in this particular story. The Military and History Channels have run a series of Famous Planes documentaries and we think we see K with her 198 number and gray paint in some of the videos of this period where it talks about the training. It goes so fast though, it is almost impossible to be sure. But thanks for bringing up the website. A little searching thru it and you can find everything from WWII, Korea, VN and up thru the exec or air tanker phase. It's a great site. JR

The question of the day is, "How many DC-3 pilots does it take to put an airplane muffler on Ichabod Crane?" This question has been brought to you by the real JR. Yes, the GGA DC-3 has come out of winter maintenance and was taken around the patch today to limber her up. Among the passengers were several of our volunteers..... and two special guests who will be shown in the next picture. The other JR

For the past couple of weekends, we have had some help from two of our active AF guys who happen to be in town for several weeks and love old warbirds. During regular duty hours, they work on a certain B-747 that is at Meacham to get the paint touched up. It has all those shades of blue on it and when certain people are on board, goes by the call sign of Air Force One. Needless to say, Joe and Nate are top notch mechs. Here they are working on the fuel selector valve in the left nacelle. We got one overhauled and just needed a couple of O rings to finish up the other. Ed will get those on Monday so we should be in business next Saturday. JR got the engine sling laid out and we have some parts to pick up for that also this week. Looks like the engine pull will happen next weekend if all the stars align finally. Can hardly wait to see what we have behind the firewall. The other JR

What to do if you have a leaky roof? Well, at Texas Motor Speedway, they just delay the race a day for rain. Race was run today and Jeff Gordon did not win. Finished Second, but I digress. Anyway, there are a couple of antenna housings topside that had damage from exposure to the sun for too long or something so they started leaking. We have repaired one with new glass, but the other one may have to be replaced. They both allowed water to leak in and start some corrosion that Ray has removed, treated or is now replacing where appropriate. He has a lead on another mounting plate and housing which would be quicker than repairing the old. So that was Ray's, JR's and David A's Sunday projects. Mine was to hold down the couch in case of a change in the Law of Gravity. The other JR

The lights are now on in the doghouse and somebody will be home soon. David finished wiring it in along with JR. JR is also looking at a couple of seats that might fit back there to make it a little more comfy. If I can just get a couple of the guys checked out on flying the airplane, I can sit in first class and read the latest issue of Aviation History or Air and Space, huh? I wonder if they have centerfolds? The other JR

And for those who have waited breathlessly all day for FiFi to arrive at Meacham, the ETA now is about 8:20 pm tonight. For the AF guys, that is 20:20 hrs. For the Marines, the big hand... well, you know or just ask an AF guy. It will be nice having a big new neighbor in the hangar. Looks like she will be there about five and a half weeks for maintenance and then resume the tour schedule. The B-24 should also be ready to go by then most likely. Haven't heard of any show stoppers, anyway. We welcome the CAF B-29/B24 Sqdn to the hangar. JR

Well, happy to report that FiFi is now at Meacham. With weather coming in, they came direct and made it just in time. The line is about 30 miles out with gusts forecast to 50 and pea sized hail possible. But she is safely in the hangar now! Yippee... JR

Ray and Lou shot the newly built replacement cockpit frame in and it sure sounded good to hear that rivet gun pounding away. This puts us closer to being ready to hang the cockpit clamshells although that is another project in itself... installing the glass will not be as easy as it sounds. The ventilation window has to be cut out for one thing on the right hand side. But we are going in the right direction!! That's what counts! JR

Larry and Stan have been putting a lot of overtime in during the week to finish up the wiring in the cockpit avionics and out to the various antennae. Larry is installing the jacks for the headsets on the copilot's side. The pilot's side will be done shortly. We are just waiting on a few connectors that were ordered and while the bags were labeled correctly, they had the wrong connectors in them. Go figure. You would think that somebody would be able to figure out that a male connector does not go into a female bag.... or er, however that goes?? Maybe I got it backwards. Whatever... it was wrong. So Larry had to go chastise the folks about it and get the right ones. BTW, the B-29 looks purty good sitting next to K. You really should come see this weekend. Meacham should be a very busy place with all the work being done on old airplanes. Maybe BUBA will make it back from S Texas as well. The GGA DC-3 will be selling rides. A fun to place to be. JR

Plans are underway for the engine pull on Saturday. The sling is ready. Ichabod is ready. We have an old DC3 tire to cushion it. The AF mechs said they would be there to help. Maybe this time the stars will be aligned and there won't be any earthquakes, tornadoes or bad Fung sway, whatever that Chinese term is!! We sure don't want it to sway cause the thing probably weighs close to 6000 lbs, just guessing. Wouldn't want it to fall on my foot I know that for certain. Anybody know what a PW R-2800 QEC weighs for sure??? JR

According to the interweb, it weighs 2,350lbs.

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