Anyone fancies a Bearcat?

[Michel Lemieux]

Anyone fancies a Bearcat?

https://www.platinumfighters.com/inventory-2/1949-grumman-f8f-2-bearcat-

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/f8fregistry/f8f-121752.html

LOVE that shot!

https://www.platinumfighters.com/inventory-2/1949-grumman-f8f-2-bearcat-?pgid=kcxiqnmf-24414f_6c03c698d25c4fb2a7baace215e56bfdmv2

[Snake45]

If I hit the Powerball, this will be the first call I make.

[Lon Moer]

I would love to save it.

[sledge39]

... Reno '68 ... the Blue paint job above was at Reno '64 ...

Attachments

Last edited by sledge39 on Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[JohnB]

The aircraft is currently on display at the Historic Flight Foundation at Felts Field in Spokane, Washington. It was flown over from the Foundation's old Paine Field facility several months ago.

https://historicflight.org

John Sessions isn't in a huge hurry to sell it, it's just that he has his eyes on a potential replacement, he told me he is looking at an example of a type with more combat history.
It is in lovely shape.

[Neal Nurmi]

That airplane has had a lot of paint on it over the years.

Attachments

[wendovertom]

I cannot look at any bearcat and not think of getting "educated" on the fueling of that type of plane. A friend of mine told me I need to start somewhere and fueling the plane was a great place to start.

After being shown the basics and told, "just listen to the sound and you will hear the fuel coming up and you will know when to stop". HA - I listened carefully and was looking forward with my ear close to the fuel fill - listening listening - and then the tap on my shoulder and my buddy says "STOP tom!" Yup - fuel running down the wing off the trailing edge. He laughed and said, "its not full - finish the job" so this time I watched the fuel port and yup I got it full, and a face full of fuel as it topped off. My buddy was just rolling with laughter and said he did not know a single Bearcat pilot that had not had a similar expreeience to mine. I love that plane!

Tom P.

[Michel Lemieux]

Hey Tom. I always been curious about your Avatar.

Any specific story behind it?

Cheers and happy to see all the stories and older pics of the bird.

Cheers!!!!

[Hooligan2]

If I win the lottery tonight... it was, of course, based in Europe for a while with Doug Arnold and later TFC.

Mind you if a Tigercat became available I'd love to have one based here again.

[Saville]

I, too, have said to myself that if I win the lottery I'll get some war bird.

But I've always wondered about the fact that I most likely would not keep the plane at or near some war bird maintenance facility but, rather, at my home airport.

Given that, how does one handle maintenance? These are complex airplanes. What if something needs work - even something relatively simple. How is this handled?

You have to bring the mechanic to the plane, I suppose. That could be time consuming and expensive. You won Powerball so for a while you can afford it. But you'd have to wait until a mechanic experienced in your airplane is available.

So I wonder how much down time is experienced per month when you own a war bird.

[bdk]

Given that, how does one handle maintenance? These are complex airplanes. What if something needs work - even something relatively simple. How is this handled?

Probably about the complexity of a civilian piston twin and less complicated than a T-28 I'd think. Military Technical Orders are usually quite thorough, better than civilian manuals. The engines are very reliable.

[JohnB]

The engine is the R-2800, not that rare of exotic.
And I believe the Bearcat on offer comes with a spare engine...it's on a huge swiveling stand that raises it from (prop shaft) vertical to horizontal...the stand alone is a work of industrial art.

The rest of the airframe seems to be standard WWII tecnoligy, nothing terribly exotic.
This particular airframe is part of a collection which includes a Mustang, Spitfire, B-25, DC-3, T-6 and other types, so it has received proper maintenance.

[Hooligan2]

Well, I didn't win the lottery last night... but it's even bigger on Tuesday.

Sad thing is that I'm likely too old now for learning to fly to a sufficient standard so I could even think about flying such an aircraft...

[Saville]

Given that, how does one handle maintenance? These are complex airplanes. What if something needs work - even something relatively simple. How is this handled?

Probably about the complexity of a civilian piston twin and less complicated than a T-28 I'd think. Military Technical Orders are usually quite thorough, better than civilian manuals. The engines are very reliable.

Civilian Piston twins do not have superchargers on the backs of their Merlin engines.

I would think that a Merlin is much more complicated than the Lycomings you see on civilian twins. Does one check and/or set the magneto timing the same way in a Merlin as on a Lycoming?

P-47 landing gear struts, and landing gear operations, are a bit more complicated than your average Aztec or Navajo. I would think the timing is a little more complex.

And civilian piston twins have a pretty good parts supply.

Don't know anything about T-28's but I include them as war birds and so my question pertains to them as well.

Dunno - seems hard to believe that you could take your average 10 year experienced A&P and do everything that may need to be done on a P-51, P-47, F4F, F8F, in terms of regular maintenance and occasional repair/replacement. I'm not talking about changing the oil or filling the oil and typical maintenance stuff like that.

But I'm happily willing to be convinced otherwise.

[bdk]

“Civilian Piston twins do not have superchargers on the backs of their Merlin engines.”

Been D18 has two supercharged radials. Routine maintenance does not include removing the super chargers. Generally a Repair Station does that. Same with most Merlins.

“I would think that a Merlin is much more complicated than the Lycomings you see on civilian twins. Does one check and/or set the magneto timing the same way in a Merlin as on a “

More or less. Valve adjustment isn’t more complicated, there are just more valves.

“P-47 landing gear struts, and landing gear operations, are a bit more complicated than your average Aztec or Navajo. I would think the timing is a little more complex.”

Perhaps, but 18 year old guys did this in the military with the same manuals a civilian would use. You learn about hydraulic struts and sequencing valves in A&P school.

“And civilian piston twins have a pretty good parts supply.”

Some do, some don’t. Obtaining parts is a different question however.

“Don't know anything about T-28's but I include them as war birds and so my question pertains to them as well.”

“Dunno - seems hard to believe that you could take your average 10 year experienced A&P and do everything that may need to be done on a P-51, P-47, F4F, F8F, in terms of regular maintenance and occasional repair/replacement.”

For the annual inspection you would likely call in a specialist or fly the aircraft to someplace that can do the heavier maintenance tasks.