Warbird Information Exchange

Gary,

I gotta tell you that that was one of the most inventive things I have seen done in many many years around aircraft. The lower fairing around the Tail Gunner's compartment looks fantastic. Excellent job m'friend. One thing about the English Wheel work you have done. While I, myself, have a fairly good amount of tin bending work in my resume', the one thing I always found was that guys that actually KNEW how to work with the English Wheel were guys who had done sheetmetal work to a fine art. One of the, now retired, guys I used to work with was one of the finest Tin Benders I have ever had the priveledge to work with. He taught me alot. And I was lucky to have worked with him. I saw how good he was with an English Wheel once, when he was doing a personal job. He took a flat piece of .063, 2024-T3 and in about 1 1/2 to 2 hr's he had made a complete bowl shape. The item was absolutely perfect in symetry and no stretch/shrink cracks. After abit of trimming and polishing it was indeed a work of art.

You're doing great work with that old English Wheel.....far better than I could have done, without screwing up at least one or two attempts. I wish I myself could be that inventive and as good as what you are doing there. Keep up the Fantastic work m'friend.

Respectfully,

Paul

I was doing a bird once and fretting about everything and an old mechanic told me that I wasn't perfect and the bird wasn't perfect the day it was built.. It's airworthy and only you ( I ) know of the cosmetic mistakes. He said I should stop or I would drive myself crazy.. I always remembered that.

I've been away for a few days so I am catching up.

I would bet that those big presses shown on a previous page are still being used somewhere. That stuff doesn't seem to ever wear out.

I saw some of those big presses at Vought-Dallas (the old North American plant) several years ago. It is amazing to see.

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Zane Adams
There I was at 20,000 ft, upside down and out of ammunition.
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Today, I don't really have an update to speak of, even though some forward progress is slowly being made. I do, however, have a story about an encounter I just had in the hangar moments ago. So please, just bear with me for this one post.

I have been under the weather the last day or so with the inevitable funk that everyone gets from time to time. You know, headache, nausea, and what feels like a slight fever, just to top things off. That and being just plain tired seems to make how I feel today worse than yesterday. Someone just asked me why I'm even here and why do I insist on trying to get this airplane flying, even when I feel so bad. Well, I'll tell you why...

I was just standing at my workbench, staring at the entry door handle mechanism, which must've looked like I was trying to do my best Luke Skywalker impersonation by using "the force" to put some pieces together, but it just wasn't working. That's when I heard a quiet voice call out my name. It was a nice elderly lady and her husband from who had seen that latest newspaper article about the work we're doing on the Liberator. She said her husband made her drive 10 hours just to see this airplane.

You see, he used to work on B-24's in WWII. More specifically the hydraulic systems, along with being a sheet metal specialist earlier in his military career. And he was as sharp as a tack! He had a handshake as firm as a vise, and after telling me his name was George, he started quizzing me about what hydraulic pumps we had and how much pressure did our system work with, and so on. Man, I had to be on my toes with this guy.

Then, George started quizzing me about my sheet metal work and what I was doing with his airplane! He was simply too feeble to climb inside the airplane, but didn't want me to know it. He said he'd just inspect my work from the ground. Then, he took out some glasses that were so thick, they were probably microwave and dishwasher safe, and attempted to put them on. His hands were shaking so badly from Parkinson's disease (his wife whispered to me later), that he could hardly get them up to his face. Saddened by this sight and the fact that I could see that this was embarrassing him, I turned around as to check on the hangar cat or something. When I turned back around, he had managed to work those big ol' glasses on his face and was inspecting the tunnel gun position much like a drill sergeant might inspect a new recruit's polished shoes.

I stood there nervously and awaited his "inspection report." He reached over to me, shook my hand, and started crying. He said that he loved what I was doing to his airplane and is going to come out here and help me shoot rivets on this airplane so that I can get it flying before he dies. His wife kindly pulled him to the side and tried to explain to him that he couldn't even get his glasses on, so there was no way he'd be able to help me with those rivets. He said, "Bullsh*t!!! I don't have a problem with rivets, what I have a problem with is those d*mn glasses!" We all shared a much needed laugh after that.

Eventually, with his wife leading him by the arm, he shuffled out of the hangar. And although I know he was happy to see a B-24 again, he seemed sad to be leaving. I must say that I was sad to see him leave as well.

That is why I do this.

Gary Austin

Nice post, Gary.

All I can add is, been there. Brings tears to your eyes.

Gary, great post. It feels so good when you have experiences like that. It makes all the problems seem so unimportant.

I have had similar experiences in my secondary line of work. On the weekends I teach the Motorcycle Safety Foundations Basic and Experienced Rider Courses. I have been sent a few emails, and have had a couple people come up to me that were all former students that wanted to thank me for what I drilled into their head because it had saved their life.

So keep up the great work Gary, as you can see, we aren't the only ones watching

Thanks Gary;
You never really know how what you do touches someone else,
and what they do that touches you.
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

Thats a great story Gary. Hope ya feel better asap.

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

Gary,
Thanks for sharing your story with all of us. I've witnessed several encounters like this while at airshows and museums and it's hard to keep back the tears when you see these aging vets light up again while walking through a B-17 or B-24. That's why they are called "The Greatest Generation".

John

Amen.

I hear you Gary, I had a WWII vet thank me for volunteering at the museum. THANK ME? I said, for what, thank you for doing what you did. It is nice to have stories like that. Keep up the good work.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Amen, brother! That's the same way I feel when I have the privelege of escorting a WW2 vet or civilian contractor (Rosie!) on a tour of the B-17. It's mighty hard to keep from bursting right out in tears when I see the look in their eyes as they are teleported back 60+ years in time. Some of them seem happy to go back and relive their experiences. Others aren't so happy. Some just look around quietly. Some point at empty places and tell me precisely what little doo-dad originally occupied that space; they remember it as if they'd just seen it there yesterday. Many have story after story to tell, and I listen to them like my life depended on it. No matter what, it's a real honour for me to help these GENUINE HEROES take that trip back in time. I thank every one of them for coming on the tour and I invite them to come back and see us again some time. "Greatest Generation?" You betcha.

Geez, I'm getting choked up just writing this!

Cheers!

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

That is what makes it all worth it, isn't it Gary?

Thank you for sharing that with us all!

Several years ago, my dad and I went past Chino one day on there sitting on the tarmac in front of Aero Trader was sitting two A-26's. As my dad was looking at them from a far, he said there was something wrong with the first one. So we walked up to them to take a closer look and yep he was right. The first one was Week's B-26. As I turned around, I could see my dad wasn't here, he was back in England working on B-26s. I'll never forget that look that he had and then he started pointing out all the differences between the two planes.

This experince that my dad had changed him as before he never talked about the war but afterwards he opened up and even dragged out some photos he had from England and France.