A place where restoration project-type threads can go to avoid falling off the main page in the WIX hangar. Feel free to start threads on Restoration projects and/or warbird maintenance here. Named in memoriam for Gary Austin, a good friend of the site and known as RetroAviation here. He will be sorely missed.
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Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:53 am

We do plan on bringing the Sabre to Oshkosh. It might look a little different this year as I hope to have the time to change some of the markings. We'll be at Thunder over MIchigan, Oshkosh and a few others. We have the schedule of airshows we plan on attending listed on our website. www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org. Speaking of the website, we've added some new pictures that Xavier Meal took at Osh 2006. They look fantastic. We are updating and changing the website a little and it would be nice to get some feedback as to what you all think of it.
David
WHF Maint

Thu Apr 26, 2007 9:09 am

The Website is great ... I enjoyed the photos, etc. on the F-86 the most.

I spent 7 months back in the 50's at the Suwon Bomb & Gunnery Range in Korea where we would handle up to 20 flights of 4 F-86's in a single day. Somewhat of an outpost as 5 of us lived in a Quonset, generated our own power and guided the aircraft on and off targets for both the guns and bombing.

I volunteer at the AF Museum here in the Dayton area and do so in the gallery with the Korean War Exhibits.

One of my embroidered hats is that of the F-86 which I embroidered myself. See you will be in the Dayton area a number of times this year so I will see if I can make it to one of those events.

Again, great web site..

Thu Apr 26, 2007 9:42 am

Sabremech wrote:I don't have too much more to come apart. I have to tear down the front of the engine a little yet. Once that's done and some work inside the fuselage is finished, we can re-install the engine. All this work is just part of the annual. I get to do this on a yearly basis. It always feels good to see it come back together after looking the way it does right now. I still have a ton to learn about the F86 and luckily I work next door to the Guru who use to take care of this plane. His help is greatly appreciated.
Gary, as always thanks for checking on our work as you accomplish a huge transformation of OL927. I can't wait to see her finished.
Sdennison,I think we plan on heading over to thunder on friday July 6th.
That would be kind of neat to fly over with Paul's T33 and our F86 and T2.


David,

We're planning on departing on Friday so I'm up for flying over with the three jets together if Paul and you guys are up for it. I'm ordering some Atomix fuel additive from Mark Sherman since he's had such great results with it--eliminated coking, eliminated smoky exhaust, 8% increase in fuel efficiency in his F-104 with no ill side-effects. Mark said add approximately 1qt-1gal per fuel load. My fuel nozzle cleaner guy out west did a great job cleaning the crud. I'll email you info on him and Atomix. Hope the rest of the annual goes smoothly.

Scott,

Great idea to fly over with the WHF guys...Waukegan's only 10 minutes out of the way. 8)

Thu Apr 26, 2007 11:31 am

Paul,
I'm interested in the Atomix product. What size container does this stuff come in? Thinking how we would transport it and what equipment may be needed for a large quantity. It's already a little bit of a task to fuel the airplane with 100LL and Jet A.
David

F-86/T-2/T-33

Thu Apr 26, 2007 11:57 am

Scott, David, Paul:

I hope you are able to work out a joint arrival of the F-86, the T-2 and the T-33 for The Friday, July 6 "Arrival Day" at Thunder Over Michigan. That would be spectacular.

:D

Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:42 pm

Jerry (Mister97),
I can only imagine what it was like to see these birds in action. Do you have any pictures of your experience in Suwon? If any WIXer's see us at the upcoming shows, please stop by, say hello, and let us show you these birds up close.
David

Thu Apr 26, 2007 9:14 pm

Sabremech wrote:Paul,
I'm interested in the Atomix product. What size container does this stuff come in? Thinking how we would transport it and what equipment may be needed for a large quantity. It's already a little bit of a task to fuel the airplane with 100LL and Jet A.
David


David,

I hear ya...Mark said it's shipped in 1 gal containers due to constraints with shipping it UPS. If you use this stuff, Mark says you can skip the 100LL.

Jim C,

We'll keep you posted on a T-2/F-86/T-33 three-ship. 8)

Thu Apr 26, 2007 9:27 pm

Hi Paul,
I guess I should read your previous posts thoroughly. Add 1 qt-1 gallon per fuel load. What is yours or Marks average fuel load? Right now we add about 50 gallons 0f 100LL to each load. I also have 4 seperate tanks to fuel. Any and all details would be much appreciated.
Thanks
David

Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:02 pm

Today I managed to get the airplane on jacks and remove the brakes as we will be rebuilding them. I also started to gain access to the high pressure hoses for the hydraulic pumps that are due replacement. Some parts started to arrive this week so we can start to go back together soon. The O2 bottles are back, hydraulic and fuel filters, Hydraulic pumps, aileron actuator are back from overhaul. We might just have it torn apart as far as we need to go.
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David

Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:39 am

David, in the third picture, just next to the gaggle of hoses, and appearing to go all the way around, are several triangular items that look like cooling fins or similar. Are they for cooling the oil or just for helping smooth out turbulent air before it goes through the engine?

Gary

Sat Apr 28, 2007 7:33 am

Gary,
My understanding is that they are used in the anti icing system for the engine. We don't use them, but they are still functional. The fairing I removed that covers those lines has a tube connected to it to put hot air to it for anti ice too.
David

Sat Apr 28, 2007 7:43 am

retroaviation wrote:David, in the third picture, just next to the gaggle of hoses, and appearing to go all the way around, are several triangular items that look like cooling fins or similar. Are they for cooling the oil or just for helping smooth out turbulent air before it goes through the engine?

Gary


When I worked on an F-86D, those are FOD screens that are retractable. They are electrically acutated and controlled by a squat switch on the nose gear. With the weight on wheels, they are extended and should keep FOD from entering the compressor. When retracted, they allow more airflow into the engine.

Supposedly they are attributable to saving more than one airmen who were sucked into the intakes while removing the chocks when power was applied to the engine, from having a J-47 pedicure.

Sat Apr 28, 2007 8:01 am

Hmmm, interesting. On the airplanes I work on, they have a big, two, three, four, or five bladed rotating assembly at the front of the engine to keep fod out. :lol: Of course, it's not as user friendly to folks who get in the path of it like those cute little jet engines, but it still works.

Thanks for the explanations, y'all. I'm learning more about classic jets and what it takes to maintain them everyday you post something. :D

Gary

Sat Apr 28, 2007 9:22 am

Another interesting tidbit of knowledge on the F-86D, I'm not sure on the earlier models, that the reason that the external power plug was on the belly, and at an angle, was to allow it to taxi away without having a ground crewman disconnect it. This made it possible to scramble faster.

Anonther

Sat Apr 28, 2007 12:02 pm

Hi David,

Thats a really nice looking F-86 you got there. Thanks for posting the photos of it here. I was wondering what model of F-86 is it exactly? Is it powered by a J47-GE-27 engine? Just curious. These photos bring back lots of memories of when I was helping our Museum in Dayton restore our RF-86F "Haymaker," photo recon version of the Sabre. The RF-86's did not have any guns, just cameras only. The gun ports were actually painted on to make the aircraft look like a regular Sabre. Here is a link to a photo of our RF-86F after we completed its restoration in January 2005. (Hope it works). The blisters on the side of the fuselage are there to provide enough clearance for the K-17 camera on the inside. This plane carried two K-17 cameras mounted on the inside wall of the fuselage where the blisters are and one K-24 camera mounted in the center belly. The wings on ours are actually from a E model F-86 as we could not locate spare F model wings anywhere. As a result, we riveted the leading edge slats into the up position to simulate an F model since the F models were not equipped with leading edge slats. Ours was built in Los Angeles in 1952 and was used to photograph the eastern coast of the USSR including: Vladivostock, Khaborosk and the Kurile Islands in the 50's. I wish you good luck in your annual inspection a hope everything goes smoothly for you. Here is a link to a photo of our RF-86F after restoration was completed. Can't seem to get this photo to come up here for some wierd reason.

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1493533 ... 5100iQsDKN

Jim
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