Warbird Information Exchange

Today's weather was perfect for working on an A4. Cold and rainy! Work continued on with the engine hookups as well as prepping for installing the tail section. This engine has more room around it than the F86, but fewer panels to access what you need to for removal and installation. It's taken a bit to get our minds back on this project as it's been over a year since we sent out the engine components (oil pump, fuel pump, fuel distributor blocks, hyd pumps, magneto generator and fuel control ). We finished wrapping the tailpipe with the insulating blankets, cleaned out the birds nests, installed access panels in the tail corrrectly, inserted the tailpipe in the tail section




then installed the tail. This was very easy to do with the model 4000 trailer that we have and it went on with no problems. This tail section is held on with 8 bolts and the lightest torque was 100 ft/lbs.

Here's a few pictures of how she looked as we headed out the door today.




David
WHF Maint

Headed To Oshkosh tomorrow to continue the engine and airframe hookups. I'll make a point to take some pictures of the connections for thw Scooter fans out there. The excitement is building as we close in on our first attempt at an engine run. This is what it's all about, bringing them back to life. Stay tuned for more updates and pictures.

David
WHF Maint
www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org

Progress was made last Saturday. Short of one hydraulic line kicking my butt, we have most of the engine hooked up. We need to install the tailpipe and hook up the throttle. Then we are on to servicing the engine and aircraft with fluids. I'll post a few pictures of our progress in the next day or two. Thanks for looking and following our progress.

David
WHF Maint

Keep it up!

Heres to 2 A-4's at Thunder! Hope you guys can make it!

_________________
Keep Em' Flying,
Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

CASC Blog Page: http://ctair-space.blogspot.com/
Warbird Wear: https://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/shop

Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

I think the only Airshows the Skyhawk will make this year are Oshkosh and the Waukegan Airshow. We still have an issue to overcome before our guys will be able to train in the plane and get their type rating. Wish I had more positive news in that regard.
As promised here are a few pictures from last Saturday. The first picture is of the tail section and our new N-number installed so we can complete the registration process. The inspection program approval will follow soon.


This next picture shows my hydraulic line from He!!. The guys working with me will attest that last Saturday was a reality check for me in just how a persons patience can be tested. Three hours to get one line on and a whole lot of crabbiness on my part. The line in the picture is the lower red aeroquip fitting in the middle of the picture. Now it didn't take me 3 hours for the quick disconnect end, but the opposite end of the hose which goes up to the utility hydraulic pump. This was three steps backwards to get one step forward.


This last picture is of the AOA indicator being disassembled in my shop. After 16 years of sitting it is sticking and I'm working on it in my shop making one out of two of these.


We're headed North again this Saturday to work on the Skyhawk and pick up the canopy for the T2. We had the canopy polished a bit as it was showing a little more wear than we would like and we found a great resource for polishing our canopies and other acrylic parts.

David
WHF Maint

We're headed North again tomorrow. Anyone have any specific picture requests while we are there with our Skyhawk?
Thanks for following our progress.
David
WHF Maint

Today was a great day at Oshkosh. The weather was perfect and the A4 project made another milestone. Our two volunteers, Bruce and his son David, came by today as they have most every other day we have been up North and were a great help as they always are. Thanks guys from all of us at the WHF.
Our goal today was to service the airplane and engine and then attempt a motoring cycle or two to test the huffer cart, starter probe and the electrical system. First we needed to put some fuel on so we could make sure the electric fuel pump worked and provided fuel to the engine driven fuel pump.
Here's a picture of Sean and I fueling the airplane for the first time in 17 years. No leaks at the present time.




I'll back up and say that before we fueled the airplane we serviced both hydraulic systems, engine oil and preoiled the engine front, center and rear bearings. We then fueled the airplane with 50 gallons of Jet A for now and applied external AC power to run the fuel pump.

Here's a picture of David hooking up the huffer cart hose to the starter probe.



After all this things got scary and fun at the same time. Bruce and David had to leave for a prior commitment, so we made some noise without them. We promised them we would do it again next weekend.

Sean and I decided to attempt the first motoring cycle with him controlling the air on and off. He turned on the ground air and the hose filled up immediately and the engine was spooling in a flash. We couldn't have had the air on for more than a few seconds and the engine was zinging.

We did a leak check and servicing level check then prepared for the next motoring cycle which would check out the pilot controlled start system. This time Sean started the huffer cart with the electrical cable from the starter probe connected to the cart and I initiated a start attempt with the start switch in the cockpit. Once again, everything worked as advertised. I was able to control the starter probe and abort the start as I commanded. It is truly amazing how fast this engine will get turning with the huffer cart.

Next weekend we plan to put more fuel on and attempt the first engine start in 17 years. We'll post how it goes. I remain optimistic but cautious as things hopefully will go smoothly as we try for the engine run.

Check back to see how we progress on our Scooter.

David
WHF Maint
www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org

Great news David!

Any chance of getting some detail shots of the Starter Probe, Attach Points, and the Cockpit Controls for the Air Start system? The method of starting these aircraft has always been interesting to me, including the different methods of controlling the Huffer Cart from the ground and the cockpit.

Absolutely, we can get some photos of these items. I don't have any that I have taken yet, but I will make a point to do so this coming Saturday. We intend on videoing the first engine runs and will get that on the Foundations website in the A4 section.

David
WHF Maint

Good luck. Awesome project

_________________
Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Thanks Chris,
We are headed up North to fire up the old kerosene burner tomorrow. If all goes as planned, I'll have some pictures and some news to post tomorrow.

David
WHF Maint

I'm very excited to see the progress on the A-4. Keep up the great work!

we are all willing to wait for next year so everybody and everything is safe!

Tim

_________________
www.tailhookstudio.com

What a day! The WHF Scooter lives again. Almost everything went as planned. Thanks to everyone involved today. I brought out my "I'm bringing Grumpy back" t-shirt in preparation for the day. I think I only become Grumpy once. I hope I'm telling the truth.

Well here goes the run down of the day. I'll start by posting a couple of pictures for CAPflyer in regards to the huffer cart and starter probe. I didn't get the best pictures of these items, but I will do my best to describe them. This is a picture of the huffer cart control panel. Pretty simple in that it is an APU used as our air source to start this engine. There is the master switch to turn power on, the start switch to start the unit and the air control switch to supply air to the starter probe.



We connect the air hose to the starter probe. Sorry I didn't get a picture of it installed in the airplane.



After the probe is installed we can move the lever in this photo to connect the electrical circuit for the airplane and the pilot controlled start. This feature did not work today and it worked last weekend. Not sure why yet. We had to do a ground control start today where the ground crew turned the air on and I signalled when to turn it off.



On to the engine run. We preoiled the airplane as it had been sitting for a week and checked the servicing of the other systems. We also closed up anything we could forward of the intakes for the engine start attempt.
We did an extended motoring cycle first to verify we had oil pressure and we built up pressure shortly after initiating the motor cycle. Next we checked everything over again and prepared ourselves for what the plan was for the start.
I signalled for the air to be turned on and waited about 4 seconds to move the throttle to idle. It seemed like forever as I waited for some sign of ignition. I was scanning the engine instruments pretty hard and actually heard the RPM pick up before I saw an EGT rise. I then watched intently for RPM and EGT to make sure I didn't have a hot start or hung start. The engine accelerated right on up to idle with an initial EGT of 450 and a stabil idle EGT of 525 with a fuel flow of about 1250 lbs per hour. Here's a few pictures of the airplane after the run.





I was briefed by a very experienced Scooter pilot that we would see a large amount of oil vented overboard on the R/H side and he wasn't kidding.



The engine run went well and we found we have a hydraulic leak in the R/H speed brake area we need to address before the next engine run. At the end of the day the Scooter had left it's mark on Oshkosh.



It's exciting to make it this far and we look forward to power runs in the coming weeks. Thanks to all involved and to the Oshkosh Fire Dept who stood by today for us. Check our website in the next few weeks for a video of the first engine run on our Scooter in 17 years.

David
WHF Maint
www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org

Congrats my friend!! That is awesome. Will it be at the KOSH show?

_________________
Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Good to see that the little machine is coming back to life!

Seeing all that oil puking out of the breather is nothing new to me, I've gotten a "Rolls Royce tickbath " more than once from the RB211s I hammer on. A friend worked A-4s in the Marine Corps and mentioned the breather just the other day.

Great job, all!
Scott