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Classic Wings Magazine WWII Naval Aviation Research Pacific Luftwaffe Resource Center
When Hollywood Ruled The Skies - Volumes 1 through 4 by Bruce Oriss


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 10:05 am 
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N3NJeff- It would be great to the story from his perspective in the back seat!

Castle also has a WB-50 that was flown out of the Pima Air Museum in Tucson. That aircraft was complete sans the 8 day clocks.

When I worked at Pima, as a kid during the summers of high school, I would often spend the night at the museum with Fred Lindig who was on the restoration staff and doubled as the night watchman. Fred and I would use the batteries of a golf cart and would power up several of the aircraft that were complete enough electrically to do so. The WB-50 was one of the aircraft that we powered up. Fred was in the back getting the radios working (the BC-348 liaison receiver and interphone) we were talking over the interphone as I was sitting up front in the flight engineers seat. I was listening to a foreign broadcast on the headset as I was turning over each 4360, one at a time with the starter motors. I was a 16 year old kid in the ultimate candy factory. I was amazed that every system that we fired up in that WB-50 worked beautifully. I remember wishing we could get one of the 4360's running so I could check it out on the Bendix ignition analyzer at the flight engineers panel.

Pima had two B-50's; a KB-50 which was stripped and gutted and the WB-50 which was, as described; beautiful. I recall being sad that Bob Johnson, Director of Restoration, had let Chief Master Sergeant Russell Morrison have the WB instead of the KB. I thought Pima should have kept the one that was in better shape. Oh well... I also recall hearing that the "crack restoration crew" from Castle took two weeks to get her ready for the flight. My reaction was: it took them two whole weeks to air up the tires and pre oil the engines!

Two years ago my employees and I flew the RC-45J to Castle for their open cockpit day. The WB-50 was opened up and I was talking to her crew chief. I asked why the bomb bay doors weren't opened for the public to look inside. He said that the doors had never been opened before so I offered to open them for him. They wouldn't open by the normal method of pulling the T handle in the front of the bomb bay. I found that they had been wired shut for the ferry flight with bailing wire which was easily removed and the doors soon popped open. The doors wouldn't open all the way due to corrosion in the lower longerons. I was saddened to see how much she had gone down hill since leaving Pima. She was looking real rough and the last 20 years at Castle have been pretty hard on her. Poor old girl!

The Chief sure did put together an awesome collection of aircraft. A lot of those aircraft flew in under their own power. I don’t think that he ever really got the credit that he deserved for building that museum into one of the best ones around.

_________________
To donate to the PV-2D project via PayPal click here http://www.twinbeech.com/84062restoration.htm

We brought her from: Image to this in 3 months: Image Help us get her all the way back Image

All donations are tax deductible as the Stockton Field Aviation Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Tell a friend as the Harpoon needs all the help she can get.

Thank you!

Taigh Ramey
Vintage Aircraft, Stockton, California
http://www.twinbeech.com
'KEEP ‘EM FLYING…FOR HISTORY!'


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 12:45 pm 
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Thanks for the link. I am glad to see that they are fixing her up.

The golf cart had a bank of car batteries under the seat that far exceeded the 24 volts that we needed. Fred would use jumper cables and would tap into the series of batteries to get the 24 volts and he then tapped into the external power receptacle for the aircraft.

I can't remember, since it was so long ago, but I believe that the WB-50 had starter switches for energize and mesh for the inertia type of system. I don't remember if I did the inertia cycle or just did direct start. Most of the engines that came on aircraft to Pima from Davis Monthan were internally preserved and you were not supposed to turn the prop as it would scrape the preservative off of the cylinder walls. Unfortunately most of the recip aircraft at Pima had their props turned by museum staff and visitors to the museum. I remember worrying a bit about that when I wanted to turn the engines on the WB-50 with the starters but that concern was replaced quickly by the insane enthusiasm of a 16 year old kid who was about to turn over a 4360 for the first time. Turning props through by hand to check for hydraulic lock was also not a big concern for me at the time. I guess I didn't hurt them too bad as the engines got the WB-50 to Castle. Dumb kid, but it sure was a blast! I still thank Fred to this day for that and many other wonderful experiences that I had as a kid at Pima.

_________________
To donate to the PV-2D project via PayPal click here http://www.twinbeech.com/84062restoration.htm

We brought her from: Image to this in 3 months: Image Help us get her all the way back Image

All donations are tax deductible as the Stockton Field Aviation Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Tell a friend as the Harpoon needs all the help she can get.

Thank you!

Taigh Ramey
Vintage Aircraft, Stockton, California
http://www.twinbeech.com
'KEEP ‘EM FLYING…FOR HISTORY!'


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 3:15 pm 
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Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 7:32 am
Posts: 105
Here are the Castle B-29 and WB-50 (bit off topic but hey!)

Image

Image


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