B-26K Counter-Invader Restoration ("Special K")

[pjpahs]

A-26 Special K announced on 8-23 that Mid-America Flight Museum had purchased Jack Basler's A-26 and now I found on the Courtesy Aircraft Sales site that the A-26, 44-34104, registered to MARC has it's sale pending. Any guesses as to who? Looked to be low time since rebuild. Great times ahead, more flying Invaders, I hope. Powerball keeps picking the wrong numbers!!!!!!

[A26 Special K]

Phil, no I don't know who has the pending sale on the A-26 at Mark Clark's. Mid America looked at it and decided Basler's airplane fit their need better. It was dual controlled and the Courtesy airplane was not so this was one of the deciding factors. There are two other A-26's for sale now. Wish they would stay or come to Texas!!
Anyway, looks like I may be on the crew of Buba to the Lancaster show after all. I arrived back in the Republic this evening so we are talking about a 0900 departure in the morning from Meacham. Besides the show, we are going to do some pics and video's air to air with one of the Tora Zeroes. So everybody in the DFW area, please come to Lancaster or Meacham for some old airplane flying and old cars on display. Here is a link to the CAF DFW Wing and the "Warbirds on Parade" info. 10 am to 4 pm, Lancaster Airport. See you there. Be sure to drop by and say hello. JR http://www.contrails.us/caf_dfw_wing/index.htm

[A26 Special K]

We had a distinguished visitor while I was gone to Lancaster with Buba today. Sorry I missed him. This is Frank Jackson who flew B-29's in the Pacific. He told JR that his most memorable mission though was flying over Tokyo Bay during the Surrender Ceremony in 1945. I bet that was a spectacular sight. Naturally, the team got a lot done today, but will have to get a full briefing later. Buba behaved and made it over and back to LNC for the fly in. We formed up with the B24 for the run in to the airport. After the show, we formed with a Tora Zero to get some good air to air of Buba. Hope to get those from the photographer this week and will try to post some of them. Got some good ones of the B24 that look like they could have been made during WWII. It was a good day!! The Other JR

[A26 Special K]

Speaking of Buba, JR caught this unusual shot yesterday as we departed from Meacham going over to the Lancaster fly in. If ya'll missed the show, you missed some great airplanes and fantastic old cars. This was the best car show I have seen in quite awhile. There was even a "horseless carriage" running around. The work that went into restoring a lot of them would equal what goes into restoring many old airplanes. It was very hard for the judges to decide who the winners would be. We hope K does well at Oshkosh in the restoration judging there next summer if we can push her over the finish line in time. The Other JR

[A26 Special K]

Larry and Stan with some help from Ray, got the pressure transmitters installed on the firewalls and ready to go now. We just need to get the engine back to finish up the right side. JR

[A26 Special K]

This is the flex drive coupling that goes from the electric motor thru the firewall to the cowl flap actuators. We had some problems with these on Buba so will make sure the limit switches work on K to keep from stripping out the teeth inside the couplings on each end. These are getting rare so don't need to lose any. If anybody has some couplings, please PM me. Thanks, JR

[A26 Special K]

Tim and Jim S are finishing up some of the vent lines on top of the nacelle. The oil tank is being installed in the number one nacelle while the oil tank is coming out of the number two side. This will be the last component of the engine oil system to be refurbed. This is a good view of the air intake from the wing to the oil cooler just above Jim S's head to the right in the picture where the wing panel has been removed. The oil cooler has already been sent off and will probably be returned in three or four weeks. Everything should be new then for the installation of the newly overhauled right engine. This includes new hoses and just about everything else we can possibly replace to make sure we don't get any contamination from the old stuff. In other words, we clean up for the new baby to keep her healthy!!

[A26 Special K]

Left oil tank is in place, but not quite buttoned down yet. JR has one more line to engineer for the fire extinguishing system. Look closely at the unconnected line just above his hand in the picture. The extinguisher bottles are in the back of the nacelle. Until he is sure how that extinguisher line runs to the front and accessory areas of the engine, we don't want to nail the tank down only to have to take it back out again. It is a bear to do that because it doesn't just slide in. It has to be angled into the front and then eased into the back while pushing and shoving on various areas to make it fit, all while trying to do it with fingers because there is no room for anything else. The problem is that the tank is quite heavy so it takes three people to support it. But "All we lack is finishing up" The Other JR

[Obergrafeter]

Have you had the Extinguisher bottles recharged/recertified yet? The price is a shocker!!

[A26 Special K]

Have you had the Extinguisher bottles recharged/recertified yet? The price is a shocker!!

Yes, gulp, we have done that. Not sure what drove these extinguisher costs out of sight, but I suspect it has something to do with the EPA. It is plum ridiculous. Same people who are trying to put us out of business with no lead aviation fuel would be my guess. Going to be even more expensive and hard to get even if it works in our old round motors... and I have my doubts that it will over the long term. Engine overhaul costs are out of sight now for a PW 2800 so if we get a lot fewer hours between overhauls due to this fuel change, it may be the straw that broke the camels back. I suppose everybody would be happy to just park all of the old warbirds so they end up in museums or scrap yards and we lose that part of our heritage. So yeah, Ober, you hit a sore spot that I am sure you understand. As the interviewer asked, "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play??" JR

[A26 Special K]

We have a new display case out in front of Kay now and JR has started filling it with some of the more interesting "Easter Eggs" we have found left inside the airframe. They range from tools to parts. He also placed a map of SEA that shows where the A-26's operated along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. We have some photos of aircrews mounting up for a mission and several others. There are T shirts for sale in the display and we will place our model of Kay in there as well. So drop by some weekend and have a looksee. We welcome visitors. The Other JR

[A26 Special K]

More of the display case shown here. We will rotate items in the display to try and keep it fresh. Notice in the lower left hand side, there is a picture of Kay after the crash landing in Macon, GA back in the late 70's. JR

[A26 Special K]

Whoa, JR came up with a new Mystery Part of the Week. This will be a tough one. It will take some detective work to unravel this brass ring with strange markings. Sounds like the Roswell UFO crash now, huh? But it is a part of K and we will give one hint. It is located in the cockpit. The Duck Drivin Lady with all of her interrogation skills won't get this one.... unless she cheats and resorts to her black arts to "see" the answer!! Incidentally, when she hit the landing pattern at Lancaster in the Duck last Saturday, several aircraft responded with "Roger, Broomrider". The word is spreading!! Game on!! The Other JR

[A26 Special K]

Arnold worked very hard on getting the left engine set on Top Dead Center for the removal of the ignition system. We are sending it off for overhaul like we have done so many other items. We want to know where we are starting from on these critical components. The prop is set and now everyone must be careful not to bump it as the engine needs to stay at TDC so that the reassembly can go smoothly. Overhaul cost of just the wiring harness is about $1200 now. Who woulda thunked it? JR

[A26 Special K]

Larry and I decided to take Kay around the pattern for a little practice today. Cool, huh? Just look at how those gauges are showing that she is a lot faster than we figured especially on one engine. But don't tell JR cause he would be upset if he knew we took his airplane out without clearing it first with him. You know how a Crew Chief can get testy! He only lets pilots use his airplane when he approves and you better not bring it back busted. With two engines running, I bet we could keep up with Broomrider One. This is going to be such a fun race at Halloween. What do you say, Broomrider??? The Other JR