P-38 replica

[Rob Mears]

I'll be passing through San Angelo in the next few days. I might try my luck contacting Mr. O'Hara to get some detailed photos and descriptions of the construction process.

[Green Goggles]

That is totally sweet. I love it!

[jschillereff]

That is a very nice and accurately scaled plane; it looks like he is using counter rotating engines as per the full scale as well...... nice touch.

[JohnH]

I usually don't get into replicas unless they are full scale but this is perhaps the coolest ever. Fantastic!

[Old SAR pilot]

...Saw Mr. O'Hara's jewel at the last air show here in Angelo. You really can't fully appreciate the workmanship until you see it up close. The cockpit area is just as astounding!

..And by the way, my offer to take anyone on a tour of Goodfellow AFB's "mini petting zoo" still stands, with enough notice. Accesible acft are:

MQ-1 Predator
B-25
T-6
BT-13
T-28
RF-4
MiG-23
MiG-29
EC-47
C-130 x 2 (if the Fire Academy hasn't had them dismantled by then)
...Don't have access to the Fire Academy grounds where there are two more C-130s, a YF-15A, a CH-53, and an F-14D.

[ww2John]

A little more info posted today on EAA web site:
http://www.eaa.org/news/2009/2009-11-19_p38.asp

[Rob Mears]

...and some way better photos at the bottom of this page:

http://www.oshkosh365.org/ok365_DiscussionBoardTopic.aspx?id=1235&boardid=147&forumid=178&topicid=3321

[menards]

Awesome looking homebuilt. I'd have to say i'd have reservations about flying it. Can anyone speak to the flying characteristics of this thing? I know the real p-38 had some real quicks to it. (compressibility, mainly) What would make me extremely nervous would be the emergency procedures with a pax on board. In a real p-38 you had to unbuckle your seat belt and flip the plane over to bail out. tough to do to your pax in this.

[cooper9411]

That is freaking awesome. See, with a little determination anything can be accomplished

[cwmc]

I like the pictures on the EAA site that show the avionics suite. A handheld. A man after my own heart, it's about the airplane and flying it, not programing flat screen TV's!

Chris...

[menards]

It would have been just a little cooler with twin falconer v-12's

[famvburg]

Would those be Lycoming or TCM IO-360s? I'm guessing TCM since they're counter-rotating, or does Lycoming make an IO-360 that turns 'backwards'? (Without me looking at the TCDS on them.)

It's good to see that it has flown. I met the builder and his a couple of years ago and at the time it was ready for taxi test. It is 100% scratch built, and is powered by two air cooled engines. I think it has IO-360s but I may not be remembering that correctly. His wife told me at the time that after spending 20 years building it, that his health probably would not allow him to fly it, and she doubted he would ever let anyone else fly it either. I hope he was able to be the one that did.

[Old SAR pilot]

Would those be Lycoming or TCM IO-360s?

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-34_Seneca
(The engines are off of a Seneca)

"the PA-34-200 Seneca I, is powered by pair of Lycoming IO-360-C1E6 engines. The righthand engine is a Lycoming LIO-360-C1E6 engine variant, the "L" in its designation indicating that the crankshaft turns in the opposite direction, giving the Seneca I counter-rotating engines."

[brucev]

those are the seneca 1 engines but I'm pretty sure Mr. O'hara's aircraft is powered by seneca 2 (or higher) engines which are the Continental TSIO-360 and LTSIO-360 series.

[marine air]

I got to see the aircraft lat year. One of my students is his nephew and he bought Jim's Meyers 200. He wasn't flying it anymore. preferring to fly the 38 with wife Mitzi now.
Pilot Report per conversations; Engines, props, and some of the landing gear parts and gear motors are from a Seneca III. He's been approached by numerous suitors, but the aircraft will not be sold in his lifetime and there are no blueprints. He's a retired Tulane Univ. engineering professor. He has a thick journal on his kitchen table where he would sit down and do his calculations by hand before making each part in the garage. Weight and C.G. were calculated with each item so he kept it in C.G. as it was being built.
He did have to add about 8 pounds of ballast in the tail, however, last January he was building replica drop tanks and this was to bring it to perfection. In his garage are all the wooden formers that he would draw by hand on paper, then make wooden patterns, then fit the aluminum to. Each piece was weighed and C.G. was calculated as it was installed.
He warned me "at my age I couldn't be a perfectionist. If it fit I used it." that being said, it looks really nice and is well built. He started taking flying lessons at age 63, and building the plane at age 65. He is 85 now. It has to be the most ambitious garage "homebuilt"aircraft project ever attempted.
Does anyone want to know how it flies?