TEXAS RAIDERS- First Flight in Seven Years- Oct. 14, 2009

Alan Brooks · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2009 4:12 pm

Hey Don! Congrats again! While you were running the engine, I was hugging on your PIO up here in Midland!!!!!!! I will be down tomorrow evening at the hangar after Steph's Dr.s' appt's. Lets see if I can get dirty, but hope that my home town girl in Addison (B-24A) does not get jealous about smelling B-17 oil on me! :shock:

Alan

SPANNERmkV · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2009 9:28 pm

Here is the video EVERYONE has been waiting for!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aTFL55UkIw

Actually #2 was rougher getting started as David wrote earlier.
But once it did settle down it was as happy as a clam, however happy THEY are!

Al, come on down.

DCarr · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:03 pm

Flaps... all five acres of them:

The flaps on the B-17 have a really interesting design. You can sort of see in the second picture that they and their pivot arms form a sort of wonky parallelogram structure. The geometry of this parallelogram is such that they move downward, aft, and tilt all at the same time. I'm looking forward to getting the motor (or hand crank--- heh!) hooked up and watching them in motion.

-David Carr

SPANNERmkV · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:23 am

Here's the high RPM test run from Engine 2 on March 7,ought 9...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQY_MJhuJA4

Onwards towards upwards,

SPANNER

the330thbg · **Joined:** Wed Nov 14, 2007 3:06 pm **Posts:** 2713

so, how do these flaps work again?

SPANNERmkV · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:33 pm

I am looking for a generic part that does not seem to have a BAC # from the Boeing parts manual.
This is a serrated locking tab that is on the throttle and mixture brackets as used on the firewalls of the B17.

It is approximately 5/8" X 1/2" X .125 thick.
It is drilled for an AN3 fastener and is serrated on one side in order to lock into its mates side on an L bracket.

Anybody have one (or two) please contact me.

retroaviation · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:35 pm

Contact CAF HQ. They are there to help and I would almost bet my truck that they have something like what you're looking for in the back room at the warehouse. Try either Dave Miller, Mark Baxter, or Keith Lawerence. Any one of them should be able to steer you in the right direction.

Gary

DCarr · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:54 pm

Here's a diagram that shows how the flaps work:

-DC

SPANNERmkV · **Posted:** Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:11 pm

As I was driving away last Saturday David was on the cherry picker and reported that:
The upper two rudder fasteners are in and cotter pinned!
That rudder has been on and off at least three times that I know of.
I was in on one of them because I dropped a fastener when someone was working on another part of the plane and caused a jiggle at JUST the wrong moment. :twisted:

But that is all behind us now.

Next up we are preparing wing extensions for mounting. Nothing is going easily with that, but it is being done correctly and that is what counts.

Parts of the insides of the airplane (that will never be seen by WIX fanatics) are being painted non-correct colors to be sure.
And I'm pretty sure the rivet count will be wrong.

Fire-sleeves are being installed on bunches of hoses between the firewalls and the accessory cases of the engines. Cols Bud and Ole are getting really proficient at the banding...Photos of funky orange hoses to follow at some later date.

Col. Ken has finished the air ducting on the left wing and Col. Taylor found a bird's nest in #4's fresh air duct on the right wing. ALL of the ducts will be inspected and properly screened prior to RTS.
Gotta keep our ducts in a row!

More news as soon as it happens.

SPANNER

DCarr · **Posted:** Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:58 pm

Update for the last two Saturdays:

March 28th
- Ran engine #4 for ~1hr to monitor health trends
- Installed elevator torque tube bolts
- Started removing Tokyo tank in R outboard wing to make room for a corrosion repair

In between
- Deciphered blueprints and returned fuselage hydraulic panel to correct location (it had been relocated and modified in the past)

April 4th
- Replaced 75% of hydraulic/brake tubing in forward cockpit (a big deal)
- Installed #3 oil cooler
- Removed some very badly corroded engine control cable pulley brackets
- Fixed some minor damage to the R flap
- Cleaned a lot

No pictures with this update, but I promise to take some of the hydraulic work soon.

Onward,
-DC

SPANNERmkV · **Posted:** Mon Apr 13, 2009 2:28 pm

My latest project...
I started looking at the paint bubbling up on the carry through spars in the bomb-bay.
These are steel tubes that run laterally through the front and rear of the bomb-bay and the wing attachment points fit inside them.
These are related to the infamous wing AD and they have their own ADs that require certain fasteners to be periodically pulled and inspected for corrosion.
Since the spars are steel and everything else around them is aluminum I had to be judicious with the stripping.
Oddly enough the diagonal and longitudinal tubing that defines the bomb-bay is the same size as the steel carry-throughs, but aluminum.
What I found was surface rust and I will be treating it and repainting them.
Since I was in the neighborhood ANYWAY I decided to get the compressed air after ALL the loose paint and scurf in the bomb-bay and what should start falling out in droves but drilled out rivets from the various repairs done in association with the AD.

Photos courtesy Col. Kevin Hong.
Scraping courtesy of SPANNER

Holedigger · **Posted:** Thu Apr 16, 2009 8:56 pm

As long as you are sure all those parts that fell out ARE old, drilled out rivets and such...necessary parts falling out...NOT so good! Too many nooks and crannies for things to fall into. Just turn her upside down and shake! Get all that old loose junk out! :wink:

SPANNERmkV · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:43 pm

I had the honor of helping FORTRESS FIXER install the rebuilt #3 and 4 engine oil pressure gauge.
I was so giddy I spent the rest of the day scrubbing out the inside of the left wing. This was in anticipation of having the left wing flap transmissions installed and hanging the left flap.
The right wing passed its test of handcranking the flaps up and down.
While I saw the motor deploy the flaps I have not personally seen them retract under electromotive power. But I have faith!

Larry "Pretty Boy" Doucette painted the flap crank handle, so ought to be uptown! Speaking of which... It's Monday... I'm cranky. Wouldn't it be nice if a simple coat of paint could cure that?

more later as it develops.

CrewDawg · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:55 pm

Hmmm......I'll have to make a note to look for the same thing on Chuckie when I inspect that area on her. Thanks again Don, I'm learning so much just from reading this thread.

SPANNERmkV · **Posted:** Thu Apr 23, 2009 1:51 pm

Just in case you didn't read it anywhere else first...

Don't tell ANYONE....

CAF-Gulf Coast Wing is aiming for late July or August for a test flight for TEXAS RAIDERS.

(Gulp... yes 2009!!!) :shock:

As always this is assuming there are no more major "gotchas!"

And we do have a piece of paper or two to fill out. :roll:

SPANNER

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TEXAS RAIDERS- First Flight in Seven Years- Oct. 14, 2009

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