Gary ~ What's The Plan For Diamond Lil ? 2006 and Beyond!

[retroaviation]

Quick question though, what are the two circles where the doors meet in the first pic? Lights or something? They look like the are mounted on a vertical frame between the two doors?

Those are formation lights for the bomb run. One is white, which tells the other airplanes behind your airplane that you're on the bomb run (doors open), the other light is a red one, which is "bombs away."

Or so I'm told........over to the experts.

Oh, and yes, I have the lights that go in that location, however it is HIGHLY unlikely that I'll get them installed this year.

Gary

[retroaviation]

We had quite a productive day today overall. You've seen my report on the tailgunner's doors, and we managed to get a little bit more done after that. Both James and Kirk were able to get the engines completely cowled (albeit temorarily for painting) and prepped for paint. One of our pilots, Paul Stojkov, came in late in the day and got one of the "27"s hand painted on the R/H vertical fin. After everyone left for the day, I moved airplanes out of the way, and went ahead and primed all of the engine cowls. I've taken some pictures as the day went along, but since I've been here for right at 16 hours today, I think I'll just post those tomorrow between coats of paint.

Until then, goodnight.

Gary

[RickH]

Amazingly correct, especially when you did it with no real drawings !

Way to go, Gary. A very nice addition.

[Flashonyrsix]

Gee I always thought they were the brake and backup lights

Norm

[K5DH]

Tell you what though I wouldnt want to be a rear gunner on that plane though talk about hanging out in the open unprotected!!

Chuckie is undergoing her annual inspection right now. I did the inspection on the fuselage today. As part of that effort, I had to crawl back into the tail gunner's position. This was the first time I'd ever been back there. Holy cow! Sitting back there today, all alone, I got "the willies" just thinking about how vulnerable that gunner was, with only some thin aluminum surrounding him. I can't begin to imagine what it would have been like to be that B-24A tail gunner, sitting completely in the open like that, with the enemy shooting at him! Yikes! And from what I've read, "taking out" the tail gunner was a priority for the enemy, because having him out of the picture made it that much easier to attack the bomber stream from the rear. Yikes again!

[Mustang51]

Try sitting in the dorsal turret of a Lockheed Hudson with the Boulton Paul turret. Its like being on a seat on the top of the aircraft with everything hanging out. Nothing like the more enclosed quarters of the B-17 or B-24

[bawest]

Hello, most of the time when I go help out, it doesn't really feel like much gets accomplished on my part, but today was different. I got there early and hit it hard, and Kirk and I were able to get the engine cowlings on and prepped. It felt good to be able to finish what I started since I only have limited amounts of time I'm able to spend at the hanger. Just thought I'd reflect on my day! James

[retroaviation]

Well, as promised, here is a photo update from yesterday afternoon/evening. I've been painting for about three and a half hours now (got here early...couldn't sleep ). I have all of the black done on the cowlings and may even have enough time to get some of the brown on there before folks start showing up for the day. We'll see.

Anyway, here goes..........

Paul Stojkov is an excellent example for the rest of our pilots and Squadron members out there. He's one of only four of our Squadron's pilots to come out and help (none of our pilots with A&P's have pitched in. Don't you know that's frustrating?) He's had significant personal issues that have kept him from coming out as frequently as he'd liked, but he still cares enough about the airplane(s) that he is fortunate enough to fly that he makes time to come out and help anyway. He is also quick to point out that he has very little mechanical ability or knowledge whatsoever (but is an awesome pilot), yet he still wants to do whatever it takes to help. Paul is definitely NOT what some folks call a "Kodak Colonel," that just flies from point to point and leaves as soon as we land somewhere.

Here he is during the process of painting the numbers on the side of the R/H vertical stabilizer.........






Another thing to note about Paul's willingness to "do whatever it takes to help", is the fact that he's deathly afraid of heights (something I learned after I had him up on the stand)..........




And here's the finished result.......






Now, I realize that there are going to be quite a few of you out there who will question the reasoning behind the "27" on the tail. Trust me, there's been a fair amount of discussion about which number should go there. The way it typically worked (for the B-24A, that is) is that the number of the airplane was the last two digits of the aircraft's serial number. However, since our airplane was a B-24A "conversion" (as Consolidated officially called it), and eventually became an LB-30, the serial number is, of course, AM927. So with that and the fact that the airplane is now called "Ol' 927" (as it became nicknamed back in the War), it was more "marketable" (yeah...I know ) and made more sense to put the "27" on the tail, vs. some other number.

My bullet proof vest is on, so the nay-sayers may start shooting at anytime now.

Anyway, here's a picture of the cowlings after primer. It was after this picture was taken that I left for the day yesterday........




Well, I think I'm going to try to get as much of the brown shot on the cowlings as I can, so I'm sure I'll update y'all later.

Gary

[retroaviation]

Here's the black on the cowlings.........




And here's the brown........




I'll have to put the green on later...perhaps tomorrow morning. We'll see.

Gary

[TAdan]

Great work guys!

[Django]

Wow, you sure busted *ss this weekend, especially with it being a symphony weekend. Awesome.

[Ztex]

Look at that!

A gun hanging out th eside of "ole 927" !!

Cool! ( and the 27 looks great too )

[Eric Friedebach]

This is really cool – I’m flipping through the latest issue of the CAF Dispatch that arrived in the morning mail. Between bites of my lunch I’m reading Gary’s article on the history of 927, along with photos of the work in progress.

But I heard it here first!

BTW Gary, thanks for the idea of using a socket set for holding taps.

[snjfxr]

Gary, the Tail Gunner doors look great! I'm glad you won't loose anymore sleep over that project. You have tremendous patience to figure out what would seem to most, to be impossible.
Tell Paul, the numbers look beautiful and thank's for giving of your time! Now get him back to work. Afraid of heights? The guy work's at 39,000 feet??
Ya'll are doing great and she's really looking fantastic.

Dave

[Lynn Allen]

I see that the tape holding the paper over the nose art is still hanging in there. I can't wait to see what it is.....

Lynn