Warbird Information Exchange

I have a pdf of the page in the parts book that shows it pretty well. PM me with an E-mail address, I will send it on.


Look at the flap linkage / mechanism very close. They have a tendancy to develop cracks.

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Expert:
Ex: Former.
Spurt: A drip under pressure.

Well, gosh, it has been a long week. Spent most of it across the Red River in the I.T., but made it back to the Republic just in time for the A26 work today. Had a good turnout of volunteers and we got a lot accomplished. The guys got the tailcone lights all going. Now all we need to do is make the top little white side lights amber on each side. The white tail light also works, but not shown in the picture. Took some troubleshooting, but they got it going. Felipe, David and Miquel finished up the spar repair on the left horizontal. Good as new now, so that is a major milestone. Both stabilizers are just about ready for riveting the leading edges back on. Another team got both oil cooler door actuators running now so that is another major thing off our STD list. Waiting on new thermostats to make the auto feature work on these actuators. Work good in manual, but we would like to have them working in auto as well... not that we will trust them, but still it would be good to have auto to make it like the original. We obtained the miitary style quilted fabric to replace the sun bleached and ragged material in the cockpit. Another team cut that out using the originals as templates and will send that out to a local upholstery shop where they will get it out finished out and hemmed right. Can't wait to see it when that is all done. If you are out in the neighborhood of Meacham Field in Ft Worth, drop in and see us. Today was Kid Camp Day and we saw about a million of them with their parents. OK, maybe it was more like 50 or 80, but it seemed like a million!! A group of local pilots took them for rides in their airplanes. Nice to see those big smiles when they came back!! JR

Mark has been working out some of the sheet metal repairs in the area of the tail cone below the rudder. This should be ready to start shooting rivets next weekend. We are waiting on one part that had to be fabricated for the vertical tail and the fabric to be installed in the rudder gap seal and then we can hang the rudder. When that is all rigged, we can hang the horizontals. We are starting to work on the smaller details like new seals around where the horizontals mount to the empennage to keep water out. The old ones are in very bad condition and probably are responsible for the problems we had there. JR

This is our new Navigator and A26 Materials Handler for our outfit. He helped Dad load the new brake parts into the car to take over to the shop where our brake is being overhauled. Just need one more part to make that complete. Have you ever ordered a part and gotten a bag with the right part number and nomenclature, but not be the part you ordered?? Well, that is what we just ran into with ordering the wiper, piston and got a segment, rotor, instead. They look nothing alike. Isn't that odd?? Will have to deal with that on Monday and hopefully somebody will have the right PN 153490. We need 8 of them per brake. Until next time boys and girls, keep those cards and letters coming.
The other JR

Our Roving Reporter, Randy R, has been making the rounds of aviation museums across the country has sent us this shot of B-26K # 640 which resides at Ellsworth AFB, SD, in their air park. It is painted all green on top with a white underside in an ersatz original On Mark scheme. The question of what the tail skid looked like has now been answered. Jason, indeed, you have a T-28 skid. And it is very likely ours was removed when it was converted to a target tug. This makes sense if the cable might be hitting it. Thanks for helping us out Randy!! At last report, he hit the SAC museum in Neb. yesterday and sent us some great shots of their B-36 and B-58 among other things. He reported that they have an A-26 as well although not a K. We are so lucky to have our airplane!! JR

Randy also sent this pic of the spoilers that are extended when the bomb bay doors open in order to disturb the airflow and allow the bombs to come out of the bay at high speeds. We have discussed these in earlier posts, but we wanted some other closeups to see some of the details. This is just one of the group he sent. Thanks again Randy. Cheers, JR

Another shot of #640 at Ellsworth AFB, SD, sent by our Roving Reporter Randy which shows the bomb bay spoilers from the bottom side. The bomb bay doors are closed so the opening in front is for the nose gear. Randy is making his way back to Va. and we hope to have more reports from him when he gets back. What a great trip he has had from Va. to TX and then on thru NM, CO, WY, SD, NE ... sorta a great circle route to see all of the aviation/space things one might find along the way.. including the other mammal that flies blind... some bats at Carlsbad Cavern. Way to go, Randy!! JR

Lucky day again. We have been struggling to find one last part for the brake overhaul. It is a teflon ring that scrapes debris off the piston. The confusing thing about it was that it shares a part number that is used by a different manufacturer for a different part called a retainer. PN 153490 was sure a popular number evidently. Has caused a lot of wasted effort trying to sort it out, but we finally got a picture of the thang to send with our inquires and that helped tremendously. JR pulled another rabbit out of the hat. We need 16 of these and got 16. Yay!! Still looking for others for spares. This won't be our last rodeo for brake overhauls most likely. Have a great day!! Cheers, the other JR

OK, now we need some help out there from someone with PW R-2800 CB-3 engine mount experience. We are trying to identify the part number for the donuts that go on the engine mounts. They probably are the same as used on the Convair or Martin 404, but don't know that for a fact. Anway, we need to find the part number to do a search for a source of these. If anybody knows the PN or a source, please feel free to let us know on the forum here or a PM to me. The doggone things are not in the illustrated parts manual. Who woulda thunked it?? Stumped in Texas, JR

I don't have the part number (sorry) but I can confirm that the CB3 can be mounted on a CA18 or CB16 mount on the CV240/340/440, but the problem is that the engine mount itself may be specific to the type (i.e. I'm not sure the mount for a CV240/340/440 would work on a DC-6). I would check with any of the Corsair operators that have CB3's (the CAF Corsair is one) or call up someone who operates a DC-6 or Convairliner. Those are your best bets for finding part numbers.

Thanks for the info. Gives a place to start. I did look at the great shots on the Sander's website where they are converting a Sea Fury to an R-2800 CB3 or 16. I am not sure the mounts differ all that much, but the thing we really need to find out is whether the rubber donuts are all the same and to get the part numbers so we can search for a vendor.

We were indeed honored today by a visit of three Tuskegee Airmen. They graciously signed three blades from one of our B25 propellers. Wow, what a treasure! We will be very proud of these. As we have gone out to various airshows and tours, we have run into a great many vets who have signed our bomb bay doors or one of the bombs that we carry. Dick Cole, who was Doolittle's copilot signed one of these. It is just simply awesome when we meet these great fellows that made history instead of just talking about it. So many thanks to Dr. McDaniel, Capt. Platt (pictured here) and Lt Col. Spann for winning in so many ways that have changed us all for the better. Thanks! JR

The real JR went back and forth today helping to hang the replacement engine on the DC3 and working on the rudder gap seal. It is one of the things we need ready when the piece we had to get made comes back for the vertical stab. Then we can hang the rudder and get started on the horizontals. The tail cone is about ready as is the sheet metal repairs to the side and top of the tail below the rudder posted earlier. So about half of our team had to work on the 3 while the rest banged on the 26. We took time out for Hawkeye to grill some great burgers and chow down. Some progress was made on both airplanes today!! It's good to see things going back together. The other JR

Arnold, Tim, Rand and Miguel pounded on the pesky oil cooler actuator doors on both sides to finish them off in auto and manual modes today. Thanks to Sean at Military Parts Exchange, we found a serviceable thermostat unit and bolted it in today. Of course, we found some hoses and other plumbing that need to be replaced in that process. It again proves that when you open a can, it may have a bunch more worms than expected!! JR

Joe and David were among the bunch who worked on the replacement engine for the DC3 and put a new elevator on the left side. I just like the flags flying in the top of the hangar. Isn't the flag of the Lone Star Republic pretty? Now for you sharp eyed folks, which way is the flag facing? To the left or the right? Notice anything about the US Flag? JR