FM-2 Wildcats!

[JohnCFord]

Yeah, that makes my heart thump a little bit. Looks great!!!!

~J~

[fighter_ace06]

The black cylinder in the rack would be the Radio Magnetic Indicator "RMI-400". It is wired into the dynamotor in the next picture and to the indicator on the rack below the instrument panel. I finished up the last cannon plugs on that system a few days ago and the next time I flipped the master switch I heard a new noise... It was the dynamotor running!

[DH82EH]

Conrad!
What on earth are you doing wasting time on the internet?!!
Get back to work on the Wildcat!!

Seriously dude, that looks fantastic. It must have been so satisfying to measure up that scratch built wing and get the results you did. Really impressive.

Thanks so much for updating us. Nice choice on the paint scheme BTW.

Andy Scott

[fighter_ace06]

Well DH82EH, I took your advise and got to work.

I had a very busy two weeks with lots of sanding and lots of inhaling fumes, but we came out with a beautiful paint job that I am very happy with.

We first started by building the largest fort that I have ever seen to protect the hanger from overspray. It took 350 ft of plastic and lots of tape. It worked rather well with no traces of blue on the hanger floor. We used PPG Desoto paints for the flat uniform look, overall nonspecular Sea Blue and the stars and bars in Insignia Blue and Insignia White. Before you critique the star you must know that it is an exact copy off of BU 55404 out of lake Michigan, from the size, points, and application method. After everything was nice and dry we applied all of the stencils, rolling them on with Insignia White. I held off on the final squadron markings as I would like to do them in a slightly different white and maybe even spray them out in the wind like they would have on the carrier. So for now we have a bone stock, just rolled off of the assembly line look. Grumman "and General Motors" were good about corrosion prevention, any chance to add another coat of protection was taken. In short they would pretty much assemble everything and then give it a nice heavy coat of paint. The wing folds have a little bit of exposed hardware and unpainted flex tubing but not as flashy as most warbirds today.

The last few pictures are some of the engraved panels that I built today and the removable GPS/COMM/TXP panel that we will have for everyday flying. There will be no "new" antennas on the exterior of the airplane. COMM will use the original mast antenna, GPS will use a removable antenna that sticks to the armor plate via magnets, and transponder will use a small antenna that can thread into the ARR-2A antenna mount located on the belly.

[Dan K]

Wow.

Can't think of anything else to say.

Just wow...

[TAdan]

Looks Gorgeous Conrad! Nice work.

[lmritger]

Boy, that is one awesome looking FM-2. Would LOVE to see her in a formation flight (or just on the ramp) next to Taigh's PV-2!

Truly outstanding work Conrad, you and your team are doing incredible stuff with this old bird.

Lynn

[rtwpsom2]

Bitchin'!! It's looking awesome Conrad.

Regarding the drawings you guys are using; I am planning to do a CAD model of the FM-2 and was wondering where your set came from. The set I have is from NASM and I am curious to know how complete a set it is and how much you had to fabricate without drawings.

[C VEICH]

Fantastic!

[Clifford Bossie]

Wow!

[fighter_ace06]

Taigh and I have already talked about doing some flying together. I think the flat Navy birds would look great in the air together.

The NASM drawing are very complete, some are hard to read but most of the time there are duplicates. PM me with your email. I will send you my spreadsheet to search the drawings. What kind of CAD model are you doing? Part by part or just a very close model.

[fighter_ace06]

Well this morning I got up bright and early to retrieve our Curtiss Electric prop from San Antonio Propeller. I want to thank Texas Flying Legends for helping me out of a bind and allowing me to borrow their blades so we could get flying. The propeller looks beautiful, San Antonio Prop really did a nice job with all original markings and CAD 1 plated hardware.

I also got to assemble the removable panel and install it. It is a KLX-135 GPS/COMM, GTX-327 TXP, and even an audio input.

[Dan K]

Conrad, as busy as July is before OSH, I can't thank you enough for taking time to post at WIX. Many thanks for bringing the rest of us along for the fun.

Question: Are you scheduling any demonstration shotgun starts at OSH? I'm sure I'm not the only one for whom that would be a "can't miss".

[fighter_ace06]

I am scheduled to talk at Warbirds in Review on Friday at 1:00, accompanied by the recently recovered Michigan Wildcat. I will be doing a shotgun start then if they will allow it. If not I should be flying it a bit throughout the week and I will post start dates and times.

[Jim MacDonald]

Magnificent job, Conrad. Can't say enough about how great she looks. You & your team should be very proud of what you accomplished.

Mac