Warbird Information Exchange

I'm not a pilot but I've played one on TV (my own tv by the way), though I have actually played the part of a Doctor on real TV, er anyway, grounding the 17s for those that own them and choose to do so, is a very safe thing to do in the interest of Aviation Safety, as well as personal safety to the crew and the civilians on the ground that may suffer the consiquences when one of these birds come down. I know for a fact that if I owned one, whole on in-part, she would be grounded and inspected, and looked at to see if we could do something better to improve the current system.
Keep 'Em Safe and Keep 'Em Fyin

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

Liberty Belle had aluminum fuel tanks and not the original self sealing "rubber" ones. These aluminum tanks can be seen in this photo:
http://suncoastwings.com/LB/Photos.htm

See the post by Wingmanb25 in this thread: http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41377&start=120

Todd

It does. I guess in an instance like this it's better to have some pencil pushers "Remind" those in the trenches. What's the cost of a reminder or gentle nudge? Nothing and it could bear fruit. Seems we're both on the same page.

John
CC Red Tail

Also, the cost of not sending the reminder, from pencil pusher or not, can be quite costly. Not just in matters of safety, but also matters of public perception. If it's SOP to send out a reminder to have a look over your planes, that prevents "why didn't someone look into this?" While it's great to expect everyone know what their role is (i.e., "I'm already looking into it becuase it's the right thing to do."), it's also not surprising to expect someone to say, "hey, have you looked into this?"

Still one problem with the Caf grounding the fleet. WHAT ARE THEY LOOKING FOR? There is not even a preliminary GUESS as to what caused LBs problem. Still think they got that cart in front of the horse just to have a good PR day.

Oh, I think that they have a guess... and that's probably why they're doing something.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

Don't kid yourself that a bad PR day won't wreck warbirding for everyone just as effectively as an accident. Whatever we might like to believe, operating "old airplanes" is on sufferance with the general public - the wrong PR with the general public is quite capable of knocking the non-essential fun on the head.

It IS just as important to be seen to be doing 'the right things' as is is to be doing them.

Hereendeth the rant.

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

maybe checking everything in the way of a hose/tube, anything that goes through and behind the firewalls for chaffing, loose connections, cracks and anything that doesn't look right.

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

Why not do that every inspection, thoroughly at every 25 hr. and a good look before every long flight. It's not like the fuel connections haven't been looked at since 1945!

Because in aviation, as well as marriage, it's often just as important to be seen to be doing something as is to do it properly in the fisrt place.

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

Now Shrike that's the first thing I have heard all day that makes perfect sense! I didn't miss the irony of the misspelled word. That was on purpose...................right?

Aaaaaaand now I have my new signature line. That is an outstanding observation, Shrike!

There are companies who can make new fuel cells for old planes. Not the same type of cell, but a bladder type. We have had to replace old cells on the Yellow Rose before. I think we actually gained a couple of gallons of fuel space by going to the thin-walled bladder instead of the thicker WWII self-sealing cell.

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Mike

I'm sitting here reading this and armchairing some old recollectons from my early days working fuel bladders in helos. Buna-N comes to mind as one material the bladders are made out of. On the older helo's, there wasn't a life limit....they are good or their bad. They newer ones may have a life limit these days? Leaving bladders empty was bad due to the cracking and something about the elasticers. If a bladder was to be left empty for more than 72 hours, they were to be coated with 1010 to protect them from drying out. When we pulled them, they had to be strung up to keep their installed shape. We didn't want creases/folds to form anywhere on the bladder. Anyway....old memories talking fuel bladders.

John

Ober, The folks at Midland have to look out for the organization. I have been in Washington with the CAF and others discussing with the FAA, safety concerns they have with these "old" aircraft. I didn't see you there. The one the doesn't "Turn a wrench" was in Washington, looking out for the interest of the CAF. Midland has the responsibility for the aircraft to the FAA as the owner- operator. As you know, volunteers are able to walk away with no responsibility. It has nothing to do with whether they "turn a wrench". It has to do with who is responsible. I think it's a great call and I applaud it. As was said "it's being proactive". Would you rather have the FAA come out with a grounding, which they would love to do? If we don't police ourselves, the police (FAA) will, with no mercy.

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Blue Skies,
Doug

www.cavanaughflightmuseum.com