A few pictures from Butler Aircraft

[Larry Kraus]

Scott,
Tomorrow (September 26th) is the last day of this year's ODF (Oregon Department of Forestry) contract for Tanker 62,although they could call us back on if necessary.However,there are plenty of Fed tankers in the area at the moment.I doubt that we'll have to go to Southern California before the Santa Ana winds start,but that could be in a couple of weeks.Personally,I'd just as soon skip SoCal this year,but the company could use the income.Tanker 66 is still in California on another extension of their Cal Fire (CDF) contract and Tanker 60 is already off contract with the ODF.

[RNDMTRS4EVR]

Larry,
Enjoy the time off and stay warm! It's starting cool off here in Wyoming, I've took some pictures of #65 sitting in Casper, I need to get few more before she heads north for good! I'll email them to you and you can post them if you would like. Are the hercs still working out of Mojave, CA on a DoD job? Keep the good pictures and stories coming!

Scott.......

[RNDMTRS4EVR]

Larry,
Did you make it back home off contract yet? Have any new photos for us to drool over?
Scott......

[Larry Kraus]

I got to test fly Tanker 60 today.Among other things,we needed to run in some new cylinders on all of the engines.Our latest instructions from the overhaul shop is to run for an hour at a fairly high power setting and try not to touch anything during the run in period.About the best power setting that uses enough power and doesn't burn an astronomical amount of fuel is 150 BMEP and 2200 RPM.Even at that,we're running around at 200 kts indicated airspeed and showing 800 pounds per hour (per engine) on the fuel flows.

About 15 minutes into the run in,#3 started a slight BMEP fluctuation and needed a bit more manifold pressure to maintain 150 BMEP that had taken before the fluctuation.A quick check of the ignition analyzer showed a double shorted seconday on #10 cylinder,This means that both spark plugs in that cylinder had quit firing.As #10 is the bottom cylinder,fouled plugs were a strong possibility,however,it could also be a sign of something rattling around inside the cylinder that had peaned both plugs.

So.we shut down #3 as a precaution and completed the run in.That brought the speed down to 190 kts indicated and I got to make my first DC-7 landing of the year on 3 engines (which happens on at least every other first flight of the year).Anyway,I took a few pictures.

You can see the #3 engine indications at zero in these two pictures





Here's Tanker 60 in front of the hangar.Pete Marshall is doing some trouble shooting.It turned out to be a bad ignition component,probably the coil.At any rate,there was no damage to the engine.

[Roger Cain]

Thanks for the update, looks like there's some fires going on down in AZ.........

[retroaviation]

Neat stuff Larry. Keep the updates coming and have a safe season!

Gary

[the330thbg]

Very nice.

Thanks for sharing!

[thundergull pilot]

Larry, That last post was very informative. Thanks so much. Would you have even known that you had lost a cylinder if you did not have the BMP gauge? Regards Carl

[Larry Kraus]

Carl,

The indications,other than the slight bounce in the BMEP needle and a very small increase in the manifold pressure were so subtle that we most likely wouldn't have noticed the loss of the cylinder for a while.Without the ignition analyzer,I doubt that we could have been sure if there was even a problem.That's mainly due to the relatively low power setting,an "empty" airplane (our gross weight was around 83,000 lbs of an allowable 113,800 lbs with 100 octane fuel),and a cool day.Also,the exhaust for that cylinder goes to the outboard PRT,so we couldn't see the occasional small puffs of white oil smoke.We had an experienced mechanic along who was able to monitor the analyzer,as well,which meant that I didn't have to do that.

Also,thanks for favorable comments guys.I still have some pictures from last fire season to post.Mainly of P2's on the ground.I managed to get some interior shots of Tanker 06,which is a P2V-5F or SP-2E with the throttle quadrant in the conventional location rather than overhead as in the P2V-7 or SP-2H.I'll post those and anything interesting around Butler in the near future.

[Larry Kraus]

On the off chance that anyone might be interested,I copied a few pages from our Ignition Analyzer books.Tanker 60,as an ex-Eastern Airlines DC-7B,uses a Sperry analyzer.Tankers 62 and 66 were United Airlines DC-7's and use the Bendix version.They give identical information,but the interface (to use a modern term) is different and the shape of the patterns is also slightly different,but easily recognizable on either analyzer.You have to keep in mind that on the actual analyzer the patterns aren't quite as crisp except after dark when the contrast is good on the cathod ray tube.

This shows the pattern for a shorted secondary on the Sperry analzer



This is the same pattern as seen on the Bendix analyzer



This is a quick reference cheat sheet that we carry in the airplanes next to the analyzer that's from the Bendix

[Canso42]

Larry, were you flying last week at the Santa Barbara fire? I saw a big Doug dropping slurry but the color scheme didnt quite match Butler's aircraft. This one had a red nose and solid red tail with a white fuselage. The news footage showed a good look at the drop but not the tail number.

[RareBear]

The red nose and tail scheme sounds more like Aero Union. They have at least one C-54/DC-4 aircraft still going.

Walt

[Larry Kraus]

Doug,

That tanker on the Jesusita Fire by Santa Barbara must have been one of Aero Union's P-3's.I saw Tanker 22 and Tanker 17 make drops there on the news.It looked like the runs were very steep.From the restricted flight following site,I could see a few P-3's and P-2's working the fire from Porterville and Santa Maria.The Cal Fire S-2's don't show up because they don't carry the transmitters required to participate.

Other than my first two maintenance test flights in Tanker 60 last month and a 3 hour instrument refresher flight in Butler's Cessna 206,the only thing that I've "flown" is Northern Air Cargo's C-118 flight simulator.I just got back from Anchorage yesterday (technically,it was still Wednesday at 2358 hrs).My co-pilot Ron Carpinella and I spent two emergency filled days in the old girl.It was a lot of fun and we made it interesting by trading off as pilot and co-pilot.Ron Valentine,Northern Air Cargo's simulator instructor,came up with a number of interesting equipment failures to analyze and figure out how to work around or live with until we could "get on the ground".

I'll be glad when this month is over with.I have Jury Duty between May 19th and June 1st.I get excused on May 26th to get my flight physical out of the way.The court picked a good time to call me as April and May are about the only two months that I can participate.It isn't too bad.Last time I had to show up twice and wasn't assigned to a jury.If I make it as far as being selected,I'm usually booted out by the defence attorney after answering a couple of his interview questions truthfully.

We should start flying Tanker 66 and maybe Tanker 62 next month for maintenance test and training flights as well as my check ride.One more item worth mentioning.I bought a new copy of Ray Wagner's classic "American Combat Planes" this month from Avion Books (through Amazon).I've owned several copies of various editions of this marvelous book since the mid-1960's,but usually end up giving them to friends who look through the book and ask how to get a copy for themselves.I was pleasantly surprized to recieve the latest (2004) edition.It's a bit more expensive (at $49.95) than I'd remembered,but this version is published on art paper which greatly enhances the photos.This is a big deal as there are over 1700 of them.There are also new sections with both photos and text covering newer aircraft up to the F-35.Avion Books is run by Ray Wagner's son Roger and I was very impressed with the excellent packaging that Avion uses,which includes a sturdy cardboard box and even bubble wrap.

[sledge39]

.
....P-3s on the Jesusita...

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-sbfir ... y?index=60

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-sbfir ... y?index=63
.

[retroaviation]

Yeah, those are definitely Aero Union's P-3s. "Double Zero," pictured in that second link, was the one that was based here in Midland last month.

Gary