Warbird Information Exchange

It was OK when cold, and in a pinch, we'd drink it warm if necessary. Our snack bar on base had beer iced down in big vats, and downtown the beer was usually pretty cold. The Thai beer was Singha, and is still available here.

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

So Randy, how did it gets its name? After a couple of those, did you want to sing-a-right-along? What did those cost at the snack bar? I remember the Biergarten at the old Amarillo AFB charged like a nickel for a glass back in the early 60's. The juke box was rockin! The "Flameout" downtown was a favorite hangout for enlisted guys. The red and white buses to town were always full. The big tech schools were running full blast there at the time so lots of slick sleeves and one stripers and not enough girls!! JR

Our avionics guys have been really busy re-populating the instrument panel. Had to hold up at this point for the HSI to come back from overhaul at Bendix-King in KS. Should be hearing about that soon. Anyway, Larry, in particular, has been putting a lot of extra hours at this crucial stage to make sure all of the radios work well. He changed out one antenna that was not getting good reports back from the tower. Got that problem solved when he can hit the tower from inside the hangar from that far away. Then Larry and Stan can get back on the engineering of the KLR-10 lift reserve system installation. The last piece of the puzzle hopefully to having a fully functioning cockpit will be to run continuity checks on all of these gauges out to the nacelle and engine sensors. It sure is going to be a long hot summer from here to Sept. The guys are very dedicated to getting this project done though. Come by the hangar on some Saturday and check it out!! JR

Co-pilot's yoke is all painted and ready to go back in when the time comes. The guys did a beautiful job cleaning it up and getting it looking black again. The really interesting part is that the hinge pin that helps lock it in place has been missing forever. In fact, when the guys started to remove the yoke from the base, it just popped right out. It could have come out in flight as it was designed to do, but that would have been a big surprise to the pilots who ferried it from Montana, huh? Well, back to the story, JR found the original hinge pin while deep cleaning the floor of the cockpit so now we have solved the mystery. One less part to make or scrounge. The other JR

Our second asst wiper to the Crew Chief got his first fish this week. He looks a little puzzled like maybe he was expecting something bigger??? I'm sure he will catch on how to tell fish stories... "this monster was at least 4 lbs." These are manly things that need to be passed on to our youngsters: how to fish and how to work on airplanes. One of my favorite T shirts asks the question: "To fish or not to fish, what a stupid question" I'm planning to go scare some trout in NM in August myself. A man can't live by airplanes alone. There must be other pursuits on occasion. Trout are the perfect answer. It is cool in the mountains with the smell of pine air every morning where I plop my line in the lake. It just doesn't get any better than A-26's and fishing as manly things to do. JR
PS Did anybody else see the NATGEO Wild program on wild hogs this week? Now there is a real mission.

If you are familiar with the A-26B fuel selector panel, the K looks somewhat different. When Rand gets thru with it, it will look considerably newer. There are good reasons why the rudder trim has a quick turn knob. At full Take Off power, engine failure without autofeather of the prop, requires 300 lbs of force on the rudder pedal to keep going straight. That trim wheel and the copilot helping to push the pedal better be enough help or a power reduction will have to be made at a critcal time in the take off right after lift off. Hey, just a walk in the park, right! Now, let's see, what did I do with that leg press exercise gizmo?.... hmmm. JR

JR and Ray got the carb air intake for the top of the cowling all finished and adjusted to fit with new Dzus fasteners, etc. It is all nice and tight now. So this shot is from the inside looking up. And now you know the last thing an air molecule sees before going into the Black Hole of the carb and being thrown around all over the inside of the engine before being spit out the exhaust after some other disgusting things happen to it. Just how would you like to be treated that way?? Huh?? Huh?? Oh WAIT! OMG, I'm starting to sound like a tree hugger. Forgive me, please. Breathless in Texas, the other JR

Other JR-
I know that on the original A-26 yoke, the center of the yoke had a Douglas "button" that covered that round plate. Did the K models have those removed, or were they all just gone by then? I would imagine that souvenir hunters had probably scrounged them by that point.

Second question, possibly already asked- where was this airplane originally built?
kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

FYI... For those that don't know, Randy's story on his "Big Eagle" deployment is in "More Memories of Naked Fanny". Most of the pages of chapter 9 are Randy's account.

Larry and the "Duck Drivin' Lady" have copies of the book. Perhaps they can share it with the other folks working on "Special K".

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Bob
Memories of Naked Fanny
More Memories of Naked Fanny (Nov 2013)
609th Nimrod, Bomb loader, Gun Plumber, '68 - '69

Hey Kevin... the K's never had the Douglas button. (But I do have one.) In fact, if you look at the yoke in the earlier picture, it is completely different from the A-26B it once was. The K yoke is closer to a DC-9's than the original. K was built in Long Beach in late "44" and delivered in early "45" in time to make it to England for the last big push. Tulsa primarily focused on C models when the factory got ginned up. The glass noses made it faster and were set up for bombardier's, of course. Not much use at night. Attack air was needed in Laos during the war in SEA, hence the K's although each was delivered by OnMark with both noses, glass being for recon, all had solid gun noses at NKP. Thanks for asking!! JR

At first glance the K yoke may look like a DC-9, but it's quite different. It's the same as a C-130E & most H, plus U-2 drivers may see some similarity as well ...

The U-shaped cutouts in the horns and the circular cutouts for autopilot disconnect match right up. The trim as seen here, is an add on piece. The center disc takes on different forms and, in the Herk is often set up to receive an approach book holder (not shown here):

http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Air ... 5909a0aa0d


http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.s ... humbnails=

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Thanks, Other JR. And thanks for the additional info Ken!
kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

Got my curosity up now. Why would OnMark use a Lockheed product on a Douglas airplane? In looking at the MD-83 and DC-8, they look very similar as well to the basic yoke with some differences for the pedestal or other accessories. I will have to see if the part numbers give any clues as to supplier. OnMark was famous for using DC-4, 6 and 7 parts on the A-26 executive conversions they did, but the yokes definitely didn't come from any of those. Thanks Ken... JR

Some time back, our friends at Bendix King in ABQ helped us get a KLR-10 Lift Reserve system for K since there is no stall warning device on the airplane. She may be the first to ever have one. Anyway, a quick shout out to Lori in ABQ as this is her last day with BK and a big thanks from all of us. In fact, our avionics guys are getting all of the parts out tomorrow for a looksee at the rest of the installation. We can't wait to try it out. Meanwhile, we had bad news from the overhaul shop on the HSI. "Not economically repairable" were the words we did not want to hear. Will have to come up with a Plan B. So come on by the hangar tomorrow and see our progress on K. JR

I dunno but trust me, I've got a lot of DC-9/MD-88 time as well as C-130E/H ... never did fly the U-2 though. I recognized that yoke the moment I saw it, same thing with photos of the NMUSAF bird. If you guys have any contacts at the C-130 unit at the former Carswell, I imagine they could shed some light on part numbers and such; they have 85-86 H-models using the same basic yoke.

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."