Warbird Information Exchange

Back over to the Vintage Wings Hangar yesterday to help show the Project North Star gang around. Lots of changes underway and the work is till progressing. The Hawk 1 Sabre is undergoing her annual in preparation for the 2014 season. Work is slowly going ahead on the Willy McNight Hurricane, its nice to see that the idea of converting her to a two seater has been shelved. Progress on the wings for the Y2K Spitfire is still ongoing, what a monumentous task! Nice to see the mainstays ready to go looking as pristine as ever.

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“Try to fly in the middle of the air. The edges are filled with mountains and oceans and rocks and it’s much harder to fly there.”

Any idea as to the current status of their Stearman after last years accident?

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

Thank God they scrapped the idea of making the Hurricane a two seater

As for status of the collection , it was posted here that only 3-4 aircraft would be active this year and the rest would not be flying unless they got paying appearances.
Is this still the plan ?

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...it was a plane adrift beneath the moon moving serenely thru beams like an angel of the night .....fair as a song ........aloof from mortal dreams

Shame they couldn't come up with a nice, clean way to put a second seat in there.

-Tim

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Keep 'em Flying.

I don't think a "two seat hurricane" was any more than just some fun, with a whimsical idea. (Thank goodness really) It's gonna look wicked in Willie McKnights colours.

I do believe, that the remains of the Stearman have been sold.

I had a chance to look at the Mk IX wings in the jig. Very complex art work! Beautiful. I couldn't help but admire the genius of R.J. Mitchells engineering.

Is it wrong for a grown man to drool like Homer Simpson over Spitfire wings?

Andy Scott

Drool on!

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“Try to fly in the middle of the air. The edges are filled with mountains and oceans and rocks and it’s much harder to fly there.”

I have seen many two seat configs on Fighters over the years and they pretty much ruin the look of the aircraft every time. Some fighters did have true Prod mods to covert to two seater ie Spitfire
but Corsairs P51s P40s . Look at the P40 with all that glass , it just looks wrong
The most important thing to remember though is the obligation Museums of a Vintage Aircraft have )and private owners for that matter also).
That is to preserve the aircraft and to accurately educate the public
Putting two seats in that Hurricane would have been a travesty and I think VWC has made a wise decision .

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...it was a plane adrift beneath the moon moving serenely thru beams like an angel of the night .....fair as a song ........aloof from mortal dreams

What happened to the Stearman? And did the Tiger Moth get repaired after it was wrecked?

It was reported that the Stearman threw a propeller blade just after take-off (like less than 100' in the air or so). The one bladed prop then caused the engine to leave. The engine departing then caused the c of g to abruptly move aft, well beyond any kind of manageable limits. And all of this happened in about half a millisecond. Both guys were pretty badly hurt but they were damned lucky to have survived at all. I flew mine once after that happened and couldn't even begin to relax. The next day I pulled the prop (same kind) and sent it out for teardown and a complete NDT inspection.

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

The Tiger Moth is still at Vintage Wings but has been sold and plans were to restore it at some future date.

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“Try to fly in the middle of the air. The edges are filled with mountains and oceans and rocks and it’s much harder to fly there.”

That's why there is an AD dating from 1949(?) to disassemble and NDT both the Army and Navy versions of the prop every 100hrs of operation. Some prop shops have given up on them. We'll do a Magnaflux only inspection, and leave the reassembly to the owner.

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

I am told :
The second Tigermoth that was purchased out west is currently for sale.
The heavily damaged Cornell that suffered engine failure has also been sold.
The Damaged Stearman has ben sold
Hurricane restoration to continue.
Y2K Spitfire restoration to continue
Spitfire hulk from India(?) not being restored
And as I stated above , unless plans have changed most of the collection will not be flying
unless they have paying appearances( understandable due to the costs involved )
Thats too bad really as it is alway great to see VWC at the shows.
Hopefully, we will see their Fleet Finch attend the BCATP Gathering at Hamilton on May 31 /14

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...it was a plane adrift beneath the moon moving serenely thru beams like an angel of the night .....fair as a song ........aloof from mortal dreams

Is it not better to just go wood prop ?

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...it was a plane adrift beneath the moon moving serenely thru beams like an angel of the night .....fair as a song ........aloof from mortal dreams

If you are willing to give up the adjustability, then I suppose so. If you live somewhere like Phoenix, where the summer density altitude is a big concern, it may not be the best option.

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

Cam has it essentially correct (Fleet 16B).

The previous CEO of VWoC, Rob Fleck, resigned last Fall when his LOA from Air Canada ran out and he had to go back to work full time. The Board has had a difficult time finding a replacement. They did find someone last month, and signed him up, but the job turned out to be more than he thought, and he declined after a few weeks.

Until there is a new CEO, it's hard to make a Plan for the season. But Michael Potter has commissioned the maintenance outfit, Vintech Aero, to make airworthy the P-40, P-51, Harvard and Finch, plus the Extra 330 he bought. All else gets inhibited and parked until VWoC finds a leader.

I've taken on the job of being Aircraft Assets Manager for Mr. Potter, overseeing large expenses and restorations. We've been working very hard at getting some over-budget and over-schedule projects back on track. In this I work for him, but remain a volunteer pilot, happy to be of use to whomever needs me.

The Stearman prop had undergone its inspection, but failed anyway. The damaged airplane has been sold.

The original Tiger Moth we had, CF-DHQ, has also been sold -- to a member of this forum! -- as a rebuild project. I'm sure you'll hear about that in due course from him.

The Cornell has also been sold to one of the VWoC pilots, who is putting together a partnership to own and operate it. It's at the Denest shop right now, and when it comes back, will stay at our hangar. It was wonderful to see this example of Mr. Potter's vision being taken up by others; continuing on with other stakeholders.

The Chipmunk is owned by an associate of VWoC, and will carry on as before.

The airworthy Tiger Moth, CF-ANN, has always been owned by Rob Fleck. I believe he has it up for sale. If anyone has a Moth they'd like to park in our hangar, we'd be interested.

The Fox Moth was sold 2 years ago to Blake Reid, one of our pilots, and is still in our hangar and I hope will remain so. (I love flying that piece of history.)

The Spit IX restoration is back on track and should be flying in 2015 if all goes well.

The Hurri XII reassembly should start soon. The Hurri IV will probably go up for sale when the XII is getting near ready.

The Spit XIV is on hold.

The Swordfish engine has been addressed and work on the cylinders is about to commence. It may get flying again in 2015 as well.

Any requests for these aircraft for events in 2014 should come to me. We'll consider any interesting and practicable plan that doesn't involve giveaways. An interesting idea is evolving to fly the 2 fighters with CWH more. Details to be released later.

I'm happy to answer any questions, BTW.

Dave