Warbird Information Exchange

Mark,I once had the hydraulic line at the top of the right landing gear strut fail on brake application on the rollout during a loaded landing at Porterville in B-17 Tanker 65.All of the hydraulic fluid went overboard and there's no backup for the brakes on the B-17s that I've flown.So,I had no brakes at all.I managed to do a more or less controlled ground loop at the end of the runway to the taxiway using the throttles.It wasn't pretty,but it worked.

So far,so good.The real trick was trying to stop on the narrow taxiway.Even with the tail wheel locked and no wind,the airplane wanted to drift off the taxiway when I shut the engines down.I was only moving about 5 miles per hour,so full rudder and aileron had zero effect.I had to quickly fire up a couple of engines while my co-pilot found a wheel chock in the airplane and managed to toss through the front entrance hatch to under the left main wheel.

It's a really helpless feeling moving along with zero control.You can't even retract the gear if you are headed for something expensive or about to go over a cliff.Someone once told me that all friction in the wheel bearings disappears when you step on the brakes and there's nobody home.I think that he might have been fight.At the time,I thought about a story of a Liberian oil tanker that ran over a sailboat and it took about 5 miles before they could stop.I can believe it.

This is actually a picture from the nose hatch of T68 at Alamogordo in 1980, but it gives the idea of tossing a chock under the left main wheel stopping T65 with no brakes



Here's a shot of T65 at the Porterville Tanker Base in 1982 at about the time of the hydraulic line failure.

I think maybe not.
1. look at the tailwheel of 229850, not swiveled to the rear as it would be were it pushed rearward by a tug (it is a full swivel wheel, correct?), or to the side if it were blown sideways by the wind.
2. The damage shows 229850's rudder is pushed to the ships left, showing movement from it's right, not rear.
The shredded aluminum from, and damage to the right horizontal of 229850 show the prop was turning on the other bird.
4. The photo caption states "taxi accident", not storm damage or ground personnel...
I think more possible could be a brake failure of the B-17 preventing it from stopping or turning in time.

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Always looking for P-51D parts.

This looks a bit like your B-17 outside the hangar picture.This was a weight and balance procedure with the R4D-8 that I flew on the 1981 Alaska Fish Haul at Sequioa Field in about May 1981.Weighing a DC-3 isn't easy.There are a couple of posts that stick out from the side of the fuselage to support a carpenter's level and you need to get into the position in this picture.Some fun! One of these days I'll post the pictures from my Fish Haul experience.Accent on experience....

According to Baugher's site:

The '17 with the tail damage:
42-29850 Boeing B-17F of the 351st BG was returned to the US 7-25-1944

The '17 that apparently lost the right gear:
42-37721 Douglas B-17G of 381st BG, 534th Sqdn was salvaged 6-2-1945

Old timey straight wing B-25? Now there's an early bird!

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Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas

PIC, Ford 6600 pulling Rhino batwing up and down the runway

Something most of us (me anyway) omit from thought when we see movies and such of aircraft shooting guns is the amount of 'stuff' that falls away once the bullets start spraying around. So what are those clips for? Holding the string of bullets together? Never thought about seeing those ejected as well as bullet casings. Hmm!!!

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Zero Surprise!!...

What are the "prop socks" role? ...


Maintenance and support personnel of the 555th Bomb Squadron, 386th Bomb Group with the Martin B-26 Marauder "Loretta Young" in England, 1943-1944 (Pima A&S Archives)


Martin B-26 Marauder "Secksma Sheen" 558th Bomb Squadron, 387th Bomb Group (Pima A&S Archives)
BTW Nicely imaginative name

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Zero Surprise!!...

That is exactly what they are for, they look the same for the .30 caliber machine gun belts, only smaller. I have a couple of ammo cans full of belted 30-06 and a partial can of .50 that I am very slowly using up, just pull a cartridge from the links as needed.
some planes collected the links and brass in a separate box to be emptied after landing.

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Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
Check out the Ercoupe Discussion Group on facebook

FWIW, current jets re-capture their spent brass after the rounds are shot.

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Flight test aircraft. He's working on the data system.

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When I was young "sex was safe & flying was dangerous".

This is just a guess but judging from the angle of the tarmac and how the planes collided a good guess would be that the planes were lined up for take off and the parking brake released while the crews attention was focused on something inside the aircraft. I had this exact thing happen to me once on "Chuckie" while we were parked in the run up area. We caught it right away but still moved forward a few feet before I could react and set the brakes. Fortunately we were all alone out there. If this had happened during an engine run up the plane would have darted forward pretty quickly.

It's interesting to note the hook and cable attached to the left gear and running back to the truck in the background. Looks like they are about to clean up this mess.

Correct, although you only do full adjustments on the first two perpendicular headings, all the rest are half-error adjustments.

Some aricraft are running, others are not, all depending on what the manufacturer determines.

I've swung Hornets, Hercs, Twin Otters, Hueys, Griffons, Kiowas, Tutors, and Trackers while serving in the Canadian Airforce.

Brake failure is the more likely cause and it is apparent engines were running. Obviously it was a taxi incident as the picture states it was.

They keep ice off the blades and are still used to this day.