Warbird Information Exchange

You have ever been involved in/with or have seen regarding warbirds ...
Mine was just last week in Watsonville. The CAF Hellcat pilot trying to get away from a "stalker" .... too funny ...

an arch rival in the pits at reno had a "DO NOT MOVE PROPELLER" sign taped to a blade on his mustang. We waited till everyone left and moved the sign one blade so it appeared to have been moved.
THIS IS ONLY FUNNY if you are there before everyone to watch the initial reactions...then hastily step in and tell the truth......do not attempt this at home!

While working on that ol' B-29 a few years back, we had to put quite a few cylinders on three of the four engines (the fourth engine was supposedly being overhauled). What's odd about that B-29 is that nobody really wants to work on the airframe, but they're all attracted to those sorry-stinkin' engines. Sooooo, after this one guy "insisted" that he work on the engines, I let him change those cylinders. This guy was a real jerk, but he was incredibly organized. He had every single gasket for every single cylinder (about 17 total, if I remember correctly) laid out on several tables, along with all the tools, books, etc.

Well, after about three weeks of this jack-ass fighting those engines that he once loved, he finally completed the job late one night. So, before he came in the next morning, I found a spare cylinder base gasket (which is merely a large o-ring) and strategically placed it beneath one of his "personal checklists" that he kept, and had it sticking out from beneath the clip board just enough to where he could view it when he was to clean up after his arrival to work that morning.

The look on his face was freakin' priceless when he saw that base gasket there! His upper lip got to trembling and I thought he was going to cry as he tried to figure out just which cylinder he "forgot" to put that gasket on. The most difficult part of this whole excersise was for me and two of my good buddies (and GREAT co-workers) to keep from laughing our asses off and giving up the joke. You see, this guy was scared to death to ever admit he'd made a mistake...especially to me. So, we just let him think about it for a while until we finally couldn't hold it back any further. I reckon it was about lunch time before I went over and asked him how come he hadn't gotten much done that morning...and "where did that base gasket come from???" When his lip started trembling again, we finally all fell out laughing.......well, all of us, except for him.

Dang, it's cracking me up just thinkin' about it now.

Gary

Fake bullet holes on Jerry Janes Albatross ewas pretty funny.
Passing a guy in a motorized parachute a 5000' in the B-25 was weird

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Don't touch my junk!!

That may be the best ever! LOL...............................!!!

Hellcat, I heard that CAF pilot was about to report you to the CHiPs, you should be more descreet,

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Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
Check out the Ercoupe Discussion Group on facebook

lolol .... not likely!!! .... if I was going to "stalk" any warbird pilot, I'd out smart them and get the keys .... wouldn't be too tough!!! ... You insinuating something about warbird pilots? .... lololo

When I was on SJ we had the wing root fairings off and had a guy small enough to fit into the opening between the wing and fuselage, he crawled into the wing to look around and while he was in there, we put the fairing back on. after alot of pounding and yelling from inside the wing, we decieded to let him out due to possiable W&B issues........

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Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
Check out the Ercoupe Discussion Group on facebook

I met one of my best friends this way. While walking past Tallichet's B-17 while it was on the ramp at BVI, my friend was working on the number 3 engine. I was 13 at the time. He said, "Hey kid, come and stick your finger in this hole." Which I did getting oil on me in the process. I thought it was the coolest thing.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

I walked into our hanger one afternoon and our mechanical brain trust
of Chuck & Larry were kicked back with there feet up on ther desk and having a coke while trying to out lie each other. I ambled in and said what's up boys. Larry said they were changing the oil in the T-6 and it was to technical for me to understand. So I headed to the back corner of the hanger to check out this work in progress only to find oil going everywhere. I yelled "hey you guys got a big f-ing mess over here!" Larry shouted back "I got a 5 gallon bucket under it so what's your problem?" I replied "yup, 5 gallom bucket for 10 gallons of oil.... that sould work!" The sounds of chairs flying and cursing signaled that it was time to exit hastily and leave the clean up crew to their self inflicted task

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Don't touch my junk!!

...Speaking of Janes, I remember helping (although I was about 11 at the time) rope starting #2 of his B25 with a VW Van in Penticton.

On a fine, sunny day in July of 1981 my friend's, Steve Penning, Lynn Hunt and I flew from Santa Rosa to a little airstrip 10 minutes away on the northwest side of Petaluma, CA in Lynn's Cessna JRC-1 Bamboo Bomber. The airplane was painted in Navy markings from NAS Alameda (we got free paint from them). You can still see this airstrip from 101 freeway south. After the BBQ Lynn and Steve and I were getting ready to leave. As we walked to the plane we all had this funny look on our faces all of a sudden with a big grin. We decided that when Lynn makes the take off, and the once the plane gets airborne, Steve and I would drop our drawers and each have a butt cheek in a window. We let Larry Rengstorf and another photographer in on this. We had to tie the cabin door closed as sometimes it would fly open when we would least expect it, usually on take off after rotation. Makes for an exciting climb out! The big moment came. I'm kind of half standing with my pants down to my ankles, my right foot on the wing spar behind the co-pilot's seat and hanging on to what I can. Steve is in pretty much the same position. We get the word from Lynn, "Now!" Lynn positioned the plane a little to the right, our butts in the windows and everybody that looked over at the plane were in total disbelief as to what they just saw. Larry said one person yelled out something about a strange look on our faces! As Lynn flew around for another pass Steve and I quickly pulled up our pants and put our faces in the windows. There must have been 30 cameras pointed in our direction. Sometimes ya never know what you might see flying.
Jim
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s184 ... Moons2.jpg

Gary wins.

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"Anyway, the throat feels a bit rough...the legs have gone...but I'm still able to chant, so let's get going."

Joe Strummer, 1999

Kirk Kerkorian was having his 727(?) outfitted at VNY many many years ago & one of the item fitted was a table with hundreds of hours of inlays & veneers etc. VERY valuble table. The carpenter was VERY proud of his work.
One day one of the guys got to work before him, lit a cigarette & placed it on a piece of aluminum until it burnt down to the filter. After it had cooled down it was gently moved from the aluminum to the edge of the table so it looked like someone had carelessly put a cig on the table & allowed it to burn down.
Apparently the carpenter almost required hospitalization when he saw it

As for engines:
When I worked on auto engines we'd wait until someone had finished putting a V8 together & then leave a cam follower on his bench...(or a valve collet, wrist pin circlip etc)

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

Well...mine involved a certain P-38 and Steve Hinton and I've told it before so I won't re-tell it here.

Mudge the too big...too bad

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Land of the free because of the brave