PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

[Chappie]

Great shots Taigh. Its great to have pictures of your aircraft at work. Double cool ground shot- PV-2 and an LTD!


Chappie

[K5DH]

Great shots Taigh. Its great to have pictures of your aircraft at work. Double cool ground shot- PV-2 and an LTD! Chappie

That's not an LTD... it's a Thunderbird!

Great shots of T101 in action, Taigh! That kind of history is really a cool thing to have when you're working on a warbird. Keep the updates coming!

[PJ]

Those are some great pictures! Most of the Harppon tanker pics that I have seen show the tail wheel extended. What was the thinking behind this?


PJ
PV-2 Harpoon "Hot Stuff"
www.amhf.org

[Taigh Ramey]

Most of the Harppon tanker pics that I have seen show the tail wheel extended. What was the thinking behind this?


PJ
PV-2 Harpoon "Hot Stuff"
http://www.amhf.org

From what I have learned from several different Harpoon tanker operators it was that the mud, or retardant, would collect and cake up in the tail gear area and would jam the tail gear or keep it from extending fully so they simply locked it down.

In our PV-2 the gear mechanism in still there and should be simple to get working again.

[AviationArtist]

It's great to see a story told in such detail, and those shots of tankers are great! Thanks Taigh.

Here's a shot of PJ's 'Hot Stuff' I did for them a while back...

[GARY HILTON]

Taigh, way cool pics, thanks to Ken as well for sending them to you.

I have found only one pic of "Annie" during her spray/tanker days, and that is in Marston's Lockheed Twins book...showing John and Connie converting her to a borate tanker...sadly the job was never completed....

I was doing some research the other day, and read about Bruce Kinney owning Tanker 101 for a while, as well as ole Bill Dempsey too....He claims to have owned Annie at one time as well, but I have not verified that in her CAA/FAA records. Who knows, I have been quite shocked, to find that more than one operator of the Harpoons, has benn involved in questionable activities!

In the last photo, with Tanker 101's "combat sorties record" , Do you have the identity of the couple ?

G.

[rclausen]

Taigh, way cool pics, thanks to Ken as well for sending them to you.

I have found only one pic of "Annie" during her spray/tanker days, and that is in Marston's Lockheed Twins book...showing John and Connie converting her to a borate tanker...sadly the job was never completed....

[...]

G.

Annie??! Hmmm... It seems the angels did lift her up.

[cco23i]

Amen Ricky, AMEN!

Scott

[Taigh Ramey]

Taigh, way cool pics, thanks to Ken as well for sending them to you.In the last photo, with Tanker 101's "combat sorties record" , Do you have the identity of the couple ?

G.

Ken said that it is Jim and Darlene Keel and their Cocker Spaniel.

Here are the captions from Ken:

Here are some photos taken from the archives of the SC Forestry Commission. These were taken in the coastal plain of South Carolina.

All the 101 photos were from 1985, I'm pretty sure.

"101 color drop" and "101 drop over trees" were taken in Colleton County, SC in 1985. I remember that drop well 'cause I was in the woods right under 101 and got caught in the red rain.

"101 on grd" was taken on the tarmac at the Walterboro, SC, airport where we had our tanker base in 1985.

I took the photo "drops" just prior to 101's departure from Walterboro in 1985. The poster notes that 101 made 105 drops for us during the 1985 spring fire season. This photo shows Jim Keel, his wife (Darlene?) and their cocker spaniel.


Speaking of dogs...

Ricky,

Annie is the name of Gary's Harpoon.

Gary, Annie was the name of my bestest buddy, a Golden Retriever, who is chasing tennis balls in the next life.

[Taigh Ramey]

Incidentally, we are having our very first Harpoon, Scotchbrite, suds in the sun in Sacramento this Saturday. If anyone wants to come out and get sunburned while scrubbing on the Ol' PV-2 to get her ready for paint come on out.

We can promise you sore muscles and burned burgers and dogs! Hows that for salesmanship!

If you want to come send me an e-mail or PM for details.

[cco23i]

I'd like to BUT you know it's adrive.

Scott

[cco23i]

You know salesmanship would be having pin up models in bikinis washing the PV-2!!

Scott

[earnie]

Hey Doug,

I'm sure Gary has better numbers that I but by my count there are 7 surviving D models which is a pretty high percentage. 35 built and 7 surviving is 20%. Your D at Lonestar and the one at Tillamook are the next ones closest to flying I suppose.

I am guessing that there are so many surviving D's because they were likely the newest and the lowest time Harpoons available when they were sold surplus. Similar to all of the surviving warbirds. If you had a choice to buy a war weary bird with cool history or a brand new one that was just flown in from the factory which one would you have picked back after WWII? Silly question as you and I would probably have picked the one with the most colorful history instead of the boring new one. If I could I would pick the historic bird and the new one for spare parts! I think this is why there are so few Warbirds with combat history that survive today.

Yes we most certainly are going to put all 8 50's back in the nose along with the ammo boxes, feed chutes, chargers etc. It ain't gonna be cheap though as replica 50's are $1000 to $1200 each these days for the aluminum ones. That's out of reach for our financially strapped museum as we are still collecting donations for the paint. I suspect we will have some cooling jackets sticking through the gun ports until we can afford the full 50's. Carl Scholl at Aerotrader has one of the cool stainless steel link and spent case ejection chutes, about a 7 inch square part, that we need for $450 so that is on the want list too. It's only money right?

I'd love to see what your Harpoon looks like on the inside. Any chance of some interior photos sometime?

This weekend was a good one for our Harpoon. A kind gentleman drove up and dropped off an air flask for the Mark 13 aircraft torpedo. The air flask is the center section of the torpedo or the middle third. It looks like it is in good shape too. Now all we need are the nose and tail. Anyone know where any torpedo parts or complete torpedos are? Here is our start:



This thing could be mistaken for a hot water heater which I suppose it kinda was...



The cool cart was picked up a number of years ago and is a WWII Navy bomb and torpedo dolly. I found it in a lady's back yard and it was being used as a planter. Looks good with a Mk 13 Mod 2A air flask on it. It will look even better with some restoration attention and a full torpedo.

any pics of that cool tracked torpedo dolly and a data plate please

[Invader26]

Taigh, when does get her new blue suit?

[Taigh Ramey]

Taigh, when does get her new blue suit?

As soon as possible but with a volunteer crew it is real hard to nail down a completion date. We're working on it though.

any pics of that cool tracked torpedo dolly and a data plate please

The data plate is not in the best shape:

Here's a shot of PJ's 'Hot Stuff' I did for them a while back...

Great painting! well done