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

[retroaviation]

First of all, I just noticed that we've now gone over 2,000 posts on this thread! Simply amazing. Congratulations to Scott for hosting such a great website.

Second, I'm starting to get kind of tired (finally) and am tossing around the idea of going home to get some sleep. I've tried to do the math on how long I've been here over the last couple of days, but my brain is just mush right now. If it's too mushy for simple math, then it's too mushy to be working on airplanes, right? Anyway, for those of you who do know simple addition and subtraction, I got here around 5 a.m. or so yesterday (if I remember correctly) and left the hangar at 7 p.m. (no lunch). I hung out at the High Sky Wing hangar until 8 or so, checking out the rudders/elevators in progress. I went home and tried to sleep, but failed miserably at it, so I came back to the hangar at 10:30 p.m. I've been here ever since, with the exception of a lunch break today. It's now just after 3:30 p.m. Don't you just love these types of math problems?

Anyway, I know I've done a fair amount of work today, but can't seem to put into words all of what's been done. Maybe it'll come to me tomorrow and I'll post it then, if y'all are interested. I do know that I did manage to get the floorboard for the tunnel gun all finished up and installed (albeit installed only with clecos so that I can make it more permanent after the unveiling). Here's how it ended up looking.......








I could've sworn I'd taken other pictures as the day went along, but those three are all I had in the camera. Sorry about that. But most of the things being done right now are smaller items that aren't very exciting anyway.

So on that note, I'm going to leave it with y'all until bright and early tomorrow.

Gary

[cott]

Hello Gary,

Beautiful work.

This may have been asked before (apologies if it has), but are you bringing 927 to Oshkosh this year?

Hope you get some sleep. I do believe you have earned it many, many times over.

Chris

[peter]

How about we start a fundraiser for gary for some nyquil or sleeping pills for when this is finished? I think he needs to sleep for a week to catch up a bit!
Excellent work Gary! I thought I get carried away working on our lancaster sometimes!!

[krlang]

I recently had one of our volunteers (who's become a friend of mine) tell me that he initially had some reservations about coming down to help me work because he'd heard that I can be a reeeeal *sshole to be around sometimes. Well, I reckon it's situations like I found this morning that make me that way.


I'll holler at y'all later.

Gary

Gary,
I used to work with a guy who at first, I thought was a "reeeal *sshole". As a youngin in the shop I could never please him. As time went on and I had become the "Cranky Old Bas*ard" (I still dont beleive that I am), I began to understand where he was coming from. Now I have become the same "reeeal *sshole" in the minds of most of our rookies, hopefully in their best interest. He has since moved on to another job, and recently I got to work with him on his airplane for a few days. I told him how I thought it was tough having to be the "Smitty" of the shop now, (His last name being Smith) and I now appreciate the extra guidance.

Keep up the good work G!

[snjfxr]

Hey Gary, glad the run up's went good. The fuel line find was, well huge!! I know it's tough with a mostly unskilled work force out there helping but when you have our US Military out there......... You should expect better results! Maybe they were not aware, that this is not going in a museum? It's an actual flying Aircraft, with people on board.

[phil65]

Gary,
I see you have the standard bucket of tools with the optional blue Mag Lite.
Glad to hear the old P&W ran well.

Phil

[peter]

I sent you a quick email this morning Gary to see if you can tell if the part in the photo is B24/B17 or some american type seat.

[retroaviation]

Just a quick note here...

I was able to get a good, solid 14 hours of sleep last night, so I'm pretty rested up for now and feel great (nice change). I had some personal issues to take care of this morning, but the B-24 is all that's on the agenda for the remainder of the day. I'll check in with y'all later.

Gary

[Shay]

Gary

You might of missed my question earlier. Not pestering just curious

927 definately has a whole new attitude.

Very sharp and refreshing. Perhaps CAF will see the benefit of scheme changes every now and again and apply it to "other" aircraft in the CAF's stables.

Gary

Was there ever any thought given as to maybe restoring the main portion of the 927 in "A" model configuration while restoring the cockpit forward in "D"model configuration? With the Dual Wing Pitot tube, astro dome and 3 .50 cal greenhouse gun configuration? Since that is essentially what you have.

Just wondering. Just something about those "Prickley" front ends on the "D" models.

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

Thanks

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

[retroaviation]

Nope. No current plans to make the front end a "D" model. The idea was to make the airplane represent itself as close to an "A" model that it was originally intended to be. I have changed the pitot tubes to be a little more "prickly" than the ones that were on there back in the Diamond Lil days, but they're still not quite perfect. But remember, the "A" models didn't have the big, giant pitot tubes that the later models had, so the tubes we have on it now are fairly close.

Gary

[Jack Frost]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the later nose turret equipped B-24 need the long pitot tube masts to get the tubes out in non-turbulent airflow?

Jack

[retroaviation]

If you're asking me, I dunno.

Gary

[Shay]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the later nose turret equipped B-24 need the long pitot tube masts to get the tubes out in non-turbulent airflow?

Jack

This may very well be true but as you can see, in the picture of "Strawberry Bitch" above, the long pitot tube masts appeared on the B-24 before the nose turrets did.

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

[Second Air Force]

The pitot tubes were extended and moved around in order to get them out of the turbulent air caused by firing the cheek guns and, on later models, the nose turret guns. There were at least four different configurations from the "D" until production ended. Strawberry Bitch has the later "D" masts that carried on into "G" and "H" production. The later models had small masts aft of the bombardier windows because nose turret firing messed with the high-mounted masts as well. As with all things B-24, there was a wide variety from model to model and factory to factory.

Scott

[retroaviation]

Gary,

How are the rudders and elevators coming?

About to go over to the High Sky Wing in a few minutes and paint the leading edges on all four surfaces and the black on the bottom of the elevators. We're hoping to hang them all late today, so that I can paint them tomorrow. No pressure.

Gary