Warbird Information Exchange

Craig, kinda far off to say what it might take to drop by, but I did check the runway to be over 5000 ft which is going to be our minimum for operations. So that is not a problem. I have been over Glendive several times, but never got to stop. It would be great to give the town a looksee at a very unique airplane and to tell her story. Costs are impossible to predict right now. Several things could happen in terms of perhaps getting a sponsor (s) to fund the tour or be on our way to an airshow somewhere. Billings is on our list of places we must go as is Helena and Missoula. Wish we could be more certain of when, but we have to get K flying first. I lived in Worland for a couple of years back in the late 80's. Made the trip over to Greybull several times to droll over the Big Iron. Flew Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Powers down to Denver a few times when they were escaping the winter! Know the airtanker folks over at Missoula and keep in touch with some of them. So Montana is definitely a place we want to come. Stay tuned!! JR

Earlier, we talked about finding the rate of climb indicators problem. This shot shows the 0-2000 ft/min rate of the existing gauges on top. The two below are the 0-6000 ft/min rate that are more like the originals. Gathering opinions in order to decide which way to go. We could fix the existing although incorrect indicator for about $200. Or we could buy another one for $245. The two 6000 rate correct for the era would run about twice that. Any thoughts? How about some help? If you would like to support this effort, a few bucks sent by hitting our donate button on the website would certainly be appreciated. That would help us decide which way to go. Thanks!! JR

http://www.thormeyer.net or http://www.facebook.com/a26specialkay

JR

Did you know Claude and Jerry when you lived in WRL?

Craig

Craig, been a bit too long ago to recall those names, but they kinda sorta ring a bell. Did either of them work at Sky Aviation or the FSS when it was open there? JR

JR,

Claude was the manager at Sky and Jerry was his second in command. Claude was was/is the one with the gray beard, one heck of a guy.

Craig, yes, I would have worked with them then. In 1989, I was flying a Beech 99 out of Worland. One fine frosty morning, I had a 6 am departure with the thermometer showing minus 40 degrees. The engine oil temp was barely above this start limit, but I was given the go ahead by maint to try and start up. Well, those ol PT-6's just fired right up without complaint. So loaded everybody up and away we went for about six feet. As I started to turn, the nose wheel tire went flat. The doggone tire was so frozen that the bead broke loose. Did you ever try to get a mechanic out at 6 am in the morning to come air up a tire at -40?? I think we finally launched about 11 ish. It would have been someone at Sky who came out, but I don't remember which one it was, Claude or Jerry. They used to come fuel us in the darndest cold I have ever seen. An inversion set in the Big Horn Basin there for six weeks. It would be minus temps on the ground and if you climbed up a thousand feet or more, the temps would go up rather dramatically to above freezing. After that experience, I moved to Phoenix for awhile to thaw out!! Ah, the good old days!! JR

A few weeks back, we posted this picture of the green thingee that looks like a bicycle seat as a mystery part of the week. Did anybody ever decide what it was for? Our agenda for tomorrow includes completion of the installation of the left aileron. We have the new bearings that held it up last week. We will also pull the left prop temporarily to install new seals and then retorque it with a calibrated T wrench to the proper value so maybe we won't have to mess with it again for some time to come. Larry's better half had surgery today so not sure whether he will make it, but we wish his family our best. Nevertheless, the avionics and cockpit group will motor on with their part. It is supposed to be over 100 deg tomorrow so I expect we will knock off work in the early afternoon. The invitation is always open for folks to come by and visit though. Give us a shout and we will be glad to show you around up close and personal with Kay. Of course, we will report our progress afterwards so check back here for pics. You can also see us on the web at http://www.thormeyer.net or http://www.facebook.com/a26specialkay. There are some new pics and links up on our sites. Cheers, JR

The dispenser is the SUU-14, actually designed on a napkin in Ft Walton Beach, FL for the Skyraider, although it saw use on a number of other airframes. As you say, the bomblets loaded in the outboard dispensers (with yellow stripe) are CBU-25 anti-personnel cluster munitions, while the inboard dispenser (with tri-colored stripe) has CBU-22 white phosphorous smoke cluster munitions. The "standard" Sandy load varied from year to year and also by squadron, but this is the most common configuration seen for the final years of the war ... it was normal for three more SUU-14 dispensers to mirror this load-out on the opposite wing. Four 2.75" Rocket pods (typically the LAU-3 and LAU-68 (or similar variants), two M47 100# WP bombs, two fuel tanks and a SUU-11 mingun pod normally rounded out the load for a total of 15 stations on the Skyraider.

Ken

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

So you mean kinda sorta like this? This pic came from the website that Bob D had the link to above. Our man Ray thinks he can duplicate these at some point in the future. He has a ton of other stuff to do first. But wouldn't that look cool? JR

Finally!!! After much discussion and a few shots of Gatorade, ice and water, Rand, Tim, Stevo, JR and Stan got the last control surface on to stay. That aileron fought us all the way, but the team prevailed!! We are very happy now to start doing the control rigging as the next step to finalizing this portion of the things to do list. As you can see, the code was broken when Tim discovered that you had to hold your mouth just right to get the last bolt in. Rand then discovered he needed to also follow suit in order to do surgery on the gap seal which was just a tad too long. All done now though, thankfully. Got to 102 deg today and the humidity felt like it was about the same. The guys hung in there though!

The other JR

Tromblay Tool in Mukwanago, WI made a set for the WHF A-1 "Bad News". The workmanship was excellent; they actually pressed the forward caps out of aluminum and replicated the look of the real thing better than I've seen anyone else do. They're also ready to anodize the head in order to match the original look. I've been working with another A-1 with the idea of creating another set as part of a Sandy load and have detailed photos of these as well as the real things from the Armament Museum at Eglin. Lemmee know.

Ken

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

Ken, please PM with cost for two of these launchers if they are that far into it. Thanks, JR

Bryan and Ed used the power washer to get the cowl flaps and rings cleaned good for the right engine today. Afterwards, Bryan, who owns the big rig, helped the Navy guys give the Whale a wash job so they can have it all spiffy looking for the Meacham Fly-in next Saturday. That is an impressive machine. Come out and have a look. Starts at 11 am. FOOOOOOOOOD, too. JR

Larry and Stan pulled the engine oil/fuel pressure gauges to attach check valves and start filling the lines out to the engines. Naturally, the old gal didn't want to cooperate. The filling valves were frozen so they had to work quite awhile to free those up. Now, let's see how does the old saying go.... something simple turns into something complicated in a nanosecond in old airplanes. K will turn 70 in March 2015 as near as we can figure. Oops, never supposed to discuss a woman's age. That's bad form and they will remember it.... forever! JR

They Dynamic Duo working on the filling valves on the firewall in the aforementioned post. We all managed to get a good bit of work done with the fans running full blast. Expecting cold front in the middle part of the week that should cool things down for next weekend to the 80's. Perrrrrrfect. JR