Week 371 - 23 December 2009 NOTICE!

Its been such a long time since I have posted any information. Actually much longer than I realized. We did not work on the project at all in the year of 2009. How is that possible?

Rick, Greg and Myself had a little get together last night at a local restaurant. We got caught up with what we had missed in each others lives over the past year.

We came up with a decision on the project. We all three are still committed to finishing it. We marked our calendars as 6 January 2010 as our next night to work.

In checking the website I seen we have over 3300 hits this past year while we did nothing. Thank you for your support and patience with us.

From our Group and our families, MERRY CHRISTMAS to each and one of you. See ya next year!

Gary Himes

Week 374 - 14 January 2010 NOTICE!

What a difference one week makes. We did not work again last week because of the winter blizzard warning and extreme cold. This week low 40's and sunshine, what a difference.

Our priorities has changed. First business was to go to Subway and get something to eat. We picked up the sandwiches and brought them to the house to eat. As we talked, we got caught up in discussing other common interests besides aircraft. Much latter we finally got back on course.

No real work was done to the project tonight. First on the agenda was to get the shop set back up to handle the project. The table had been broken down and everything put away or in a corner.

Next we looked everything over and discussed how to proceed. Then we all got our assignments. Rick is to get our exhaust back, Gregg is to bring tanks and equipment to energize air systems, and I am to buy paint to match aircraft primmer color.

See ya next time! PS Attached is a picture just to prove we still have the aircraft :)

Gary Himes

Week 375     -     20 January 2010

Greg showed up with Subway sandwiches in hand, so first order of business was to fill the tummy.  While eating we watched the video of the fall 2009 Elkhorn float fly/ camping trip.  It was cold then also, but as always, we had tons of funs.

We have decided that we need to pick an area of the project and complete it.  Greg wanted the first area to be the landing gear so we let him win and start there.  The gear has been installed for literally years but were never tested.

So we tested the systems using parts the project had, parts I got from the Stocker estate, and parts Greg had for his P51.  For the gear we tied together 2 medium air tanks.  Using this setup gave us 12 cycles on the gear.  The last two seemed iffy, but gave a positive lock on the gear never the less.  Happy with the gear set up we moved on to the brakes.

This proved to be the challenge of the night.  Our brakes are air driven and proportional.  We used one of my radios and set up the brake electronics.  We could see the valve was working properly but did not apply the brakes.  Finally our mental light came on and we realized we had never bolted the wheel assemblies together.  The brakes work using the heads of the wheel screws to apply the brakes.  Now everything works perfect.

The brakes use lots of air when in the positions between full off and full on.  This means we need bigger tanks than the ones for the gear.  With testing done we made our shopping list and called it a night with smiles on our faces.

See ya next time! 

Gary Himes

Week 376     -     27 January 2010

Greg was here 30 minutes early this week with Subway sandwiches in hand.  I could embellish on this, but I will take the high road and simply say Rick and I enjoyed our supper.  (Sorry, sounds like Greg didn't enjoy his sandwich)

Decision was made to start painting the interior compartments etc with aircraft primmer color paint.  This is a bigger job than you might imagine, so we didn’t get it all done.  I need to buy different brushes this week also, as this would help the process.

Not too wordy tonight and what can you say about paint?  See ya next time!

Gary and Crew