B-26K Counter-Invader Restoration ("Special K")

[NImrodA26]

The Duck Drivin Lady sent this teaser of a video over though of some wild pigs getting the treatment.............
========Wow! Remind me not to get in that guys sights!! That's some real shootin'! Imagine him with a door mounted mini-gun!!

[A26 Special K]

Randy, I have to agree with you about the marksmanship of the shooter, but if you watch the shadows of the helicopter, they had excellent teamwork in placing the chopper in the right spot for taking the shot. The rifle barrel hardly had to move. Of course the wild pigs have already tripled their numbers since this video was made if not more. They are a really big problem with their destruction of crops & land. Not something that can be solved by hunting alone. Sure would be fun to load up K & go after some though. Speaking of, although I'm not at the hangar today, JR tells me it is cold & while we are a little short handed, progress is being made by the avionics guys and the others. David A arranged for lunch today so that makes it even tougher for me to have to miss. Best regards, the other JR

[A26 Special K]

Yep, it's me again, JR, coming to you from beautiful downtown Newton, Iowa. Beautiful FROZEN Newton, Iowa. Somebody send warm up here please! There would be no hope of starting R-2800's with 60 wt oil without extensive pre-heating today at 12 degrees. I just don't understand how it was possibly done in Korea or other cold places back in the day. Maybe somebody could enlighten us. Yes, there was an oil dilution system which helped, but that alone would not have done it. How do you preheat these big engines on the flight line when there may be 12 airplanes to warm up? That's 24 engines. There just had to be some techniques and special equipment. Speaking of engines, we are still running our engine overhaul campaign fund challenge. With not much time left, if you would like to make a tax deductible donation and double your effort, please send to the A-26 Legacy Foundation, Don Vogler, Chairman, 311 Oak Grove Pkwy, Durham, NC 27703 or go to their website: http://www.a-26legacy.org and use the donation button for credit cards, etc. The TWH Foundation of New Hampshire will match any donation, dollar for dollar, but the time is running out, both for making tax deductible contributions for this tax year and for our campaign. Please help if possible. Thanks, and Happy Holidays everyone!! JR

[b29flteng]

To heat the engines in cold weather the Air Force used portable heaters built by a company called Herman-Nelson. They put out a lot of heat through a flexible duct stuck into the engine cowling. You could run several ducts off of one heater. The maintenance crews would start the process about four hours before flight warming each engine, landing gear, propeller, and cabin of the aircraft. The old style heaters were operated off of gasoline, yes they would catch on fire occasionally. The newer heaters are operated off of diesel fuel.

[K5DH]

I agree with b29flteng. If you watch Ice Pilots NWT, during cold weather you'll see the Buffalo crew using Herman-Nelson and Frost Fighters to warm aircraft engines and cabins. They also keep the engines covered with quilted blankets when not in use. Every little bit helps.

EDIT: I somehow left out the "and" between Herman-Nelson and Frost Fighters. Duh.

Last edited by K5DH on Fri Dec 20, 2013 6:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[A26 Special K]

Herman-Nelson heaters…of course. I didn't remember the name. Thanks guys! I will have to watch Ice Pilots to see I suppose. I did hear that one of the Buffalo Airways C-46's had a problem recently with an engine fire, but it was successfully put out on the ground. Are they still showing episodes on the Weather Channel or?? Incidentally, I made good my escape from the frozen north (Iowa) and am now thawing gently in PHX. We always had the opposite problem here. Was hard to keep the B-25 engines from overheating during the summer on the ground. There is an OnMark conversion A-26 that lives at the CAF hangar in Mesa that is just gorgeous. I think I may just have to run out there and take a closer look now that I know more about the airplane. BTW, does anybody know the answer to this….. the thought just resurfaced from many years ago…. my old flight instructor was on B-36's back in the day, in fact, his airplane was one of those used in making the Jimmy Stewart movie about SAC. He said something about loading a bunch of dry ice on the airplane, but I don't recall the purpose. Probably has nothing to do with cooling, but…..Anybody know??

[airnutz]

Herman-Nelson heaters…of course. I didn't remember the name. Thanks guys! I will have to watch Ice Pilots to see I suppose. Are they still showing episodes on the Weather Channel or??

The haven't been showing them lately, but coincidentally NatGeo showed a few episodes this morning.
Until you see it here's a youtube clip explaining the difference between Herman-Nelson and the Frost Fighter....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0mArUyxPbA

[A26 Special K]

We are very pleased that Bendix King has agreed to help us with the installation of their KLR-10 angle of attack system on K. Finding the best place for good readings that will be accessible for wiring are our main problems, but we feel that it can be done at this point. The avionics whiz kids will open the box tomorrow and get the first look at the system. Head scratching will no doubt follow. There are limited places to install that aren't influenced by prop arcs or wing pylons. This system should help make safer approaches possible in the 26. I would bet that if it had been available in WWII when the airplane first came out that a lot of pilots would have loved to have had this system. We are indeed lucky to have the assistance and are really thankful to Lori, Paul and the rest of the BK team for making this possible. Happy Holidays to everyone!! Live and Direct from rainy PHX, JR

[CAPFlyer]

Great news! It's always great to see corporations help out worthy causes like restoration and safe operation of historic aircraft. It's a win-win in the truest sense of the word and I'm glad Bendix jumped at the chance to help you guys.

[rdennard]

This is off topic but I wanted to share it with ya'll. I'll understand if an admin deletes it.

Tis the season and I wrote a story about my family's ongoing relationship with Santa. This year Santa brought us a special present.

Here's the link to the story: http://www.kokomoman.com/wordpress1/
(KokomoMan is a pen name that I write under)

Here's the link to the pics that go with the story: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.583288855076953.1073741828.351116651627509&type=3

And here's the video... watch it to the end: http://youtu.be/79_ZeF4uuzY

[A26 Special K]

Bob, that was a great story about Santa coming thru for you all those times!! Thanks for sharing! Did you ever have one of those at NKP? Meanwhile back at the hangar, the JR in charge, broken finger and all, led the guys thru the cold and rain to work on K last Saturday. Hawkeye brought chili to warm them up at lunch which was greatly appreciated. JR reports that the elevator trim was hooked up and the tail is about ready to close out. Tim and David A replaced a lot of the SCAT tubing for the vent system behind the instrument panel. Speaking of which, Larry and Stan took all of the instruments out for the last time and repainted the panel. It is now ready to for installation. They also opened the big box from Bendix King with our new KLR-10 system and started eyeballing how to install it. Better weather is expected next weekend so even more progress can be made. Many thanks to the BK team that is helping with the KLR-10 and to all, Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays. The other JR in PHX… back to the Republic tonight. Yay!!!

[rdennard]

Did we have Santa moments at NKP? Well... not really. I guess Santa did bring us Bob Hope, but that's about it.

In Dec '68 there was a "cease fire" on Christmas day in South Vietnam. What that meant is that almost all the aircraft in South Vietnam flew to Thailand. Every spare place on the PSP ramp had something parked on it. It was the same at all of the Thai bases. At NKP we got a bunch of Army Mohawks and stuff like that. All the aircraft were loaded with bombs, rockets, etc and flew missions against the Ho Chi Minh trail and NVA forces all over Laos.

It was a lot of work and despite our severe hang-overs from the night before, there was a certain satisfaction in delivering a "Merry Christmas" to "Uncle Ho"

[NImrodA26]

...............In Dec '68 there was a "cease fire" on Christmas............

Funny thing, the same thing happened at Udorn in1967.Christmas Eve was one of our biggest frag orders. Seems there was to be a "cease fire" on Christmas. We got normal frag order for the first round of missions, then for the second round, they wanted almost all the ordnance with time-delay fuzes, which had the capability of a 24 hour delay. They were also anti-disturbance/anti-withdrawl, just in case someone started to tinker with it before the delay timed out. Guess this is where the term "everything's fair in love and war".
Back to NKP in 66, we did fly some ordnance with some old AWD/time delay fuzes, left over from WWII. I don't know where they got them, and don't think we used many of them, and if I remember correctly, the pilots were told NOT to bring them back! I read up on these fuzes, and the delay was caused by a chemical reaction. I wasn't real comfortable with that theory and glad when they stopped using something that was older than I was at the time.

[A26 Special K]

Bob/Randy... thanks for reminding us about those days when Johnson/McNamara were sending our guys out while secretly telling the NV folks exactly when and where our strikes would come so "they could move innocent people out of the way". That makes about as much sense as govmint shutdowns/NSA spying/Obamacare and all the other crap politicians are putting out today. Tell us one thing and do another. Tell the world we weren't bombing Uncle Ho's boys on the trail in Laos and we were. Of course, Uncle Ho couldn't complain cause he was saying he wasn't there either. How do politicians do what they do and get away with it? Give our boys obsolete equipment and not enough troops and watch while Pearl Harbor goes up in flames. How do we keep making the same dumb mistakes? Oh yeah, let's cut the budget and do away with the military! We are at peace, we don't need 'em. Endless cycles of always being behind the 8 ball. I just wonder which time we won't be able to recover from the mistake in the future. Will 2014 be a better year?? We can only hope. Stepping off my box now. JR

[A26 Special K]

As previously mentioned, Tim and David A are doing the final change out of SCAT tubing for the vent system behind the instrument panel. That tangle of wires is most of the new wiring harness. All of the hoses were changed out by Big Mike with a little help from his friends. Glad to have Mike back from Alaska. Perhaps the instrument panel can be installed in the next weekend or so. We will be working on Saturday as usual but not sure if we will have everybody since it is a holiday week. Maybe if everybody is tired of turkey and dressing, they will come out for some BBQ or whatever we can find that is different. Ya'll come visit. By the way, GGA is still doing Xmas light flights in the DC-3. Ck out our website and call or email Dana if you would like to see the city all lit up so pretty. http://www.gga1.org JR