Warbird Information Exchange

[quote="T J Johansen"]On what kind of contract does tanker 60 operate these days?

DC-7s on State of California contracts (scroll down)

http://fireaviation.com/tag/t-60/

Thanks for the headsup on the SNJ-6, sledge39. Much appreciated.

Doug

Here's another picture of T61 at Fresno on the day of the flight described earlier. My B-17 Tanker 68 (N3703G) is parked for the day in the background. TBM Inc's DC-7BF freighter is behind T68.



This is what's left of the freighter in Erickson's back lot in Madras



On the first page of this thread, Stu Kunkee is mentioned. Stu was flying T60 out of Goleta (Santa Barbara) at the time. Looking like a scene from the movie "The Wild Bunch", here are from left to right, Vito Orlandella (co-pilot on T60), Stu Kunkee and Gene Soto (TBM Inc. mechanic)



This isn't the best picture in some ways, but Stu is leaning against the #3 prop of T65 (N5237V) with Vito behind him and Norman Stubbs and Gene Soto under the retardant tank



Captain Kunkee in T60



This is a not quite perfect fit of two shots of T60 loading retardant at Fresno with one of Sis-Q's DC-6's waiting in line



Here's a sight that you don't see very often anymore



Stu Kunkee was next in line to drop on the fire which Don Ornbaum made the uphill runs in the pictures posted earlier. There was a CDF Airco (Air Co-ordinator/Air Attack) running the show and no leadplane. I remember Stu stating positively that he wasn't going to make runs like that. I agreed wholeheartedly, although the way Don set up the drop runs, it was reasonably safe. The Airco said that nobody expected T60 to make runs in that direction. Stu ended up making an effective drop across the head of the fire.

Kunkee in Catch 22, I flew with him, that's me on the left.

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...Larry... just wanted to see if Photoshop could fix the mis-alignment...

. Sledge

Holy cow...there are no words.
Please, please, please keep the stories, (and pictures) coming. Nothing fascinates me more than reading about the old days in the airtanker business.

Craig
ex-H&P

Thanks Sledge. That's a neat trick. I have Photoshop. but I didn't know that procedure. Definitely a major improvement.

...Larry you mentioned flying "tanker 65" with Forbes...any possiblity you're in this pic ?

...It's a 'go-around' at Hemet (HMT) July 1980 ("Tanker 65" N5237V)

Sledge

That's a great shot of T65, but I was flying T68 all year in 1980. Bob Forbes had Jerry Glenn (or Gerry?) as c/p that season. Jerry was a Marine Gunnery Sergeant in H-34's in Vietnam and he eventually ended up as a pilot on them flying Ag work for Moore Aviation. Jerry flew as my c/p on T65 in 1982 out of Porterville. The closest that I got to flying T65 in 1980 was to ride from the parking area at Fresno to the pits with Forbes and Jerry.

Bob Forbes (in flight suit looking away), Jerry Glenn (in flight suit looking at at part) and Kenny Stubbs (TBM Inc. Director of Maintenance) at Fresno on the same day that I flew with Ornbaum



Bob Forbes (looking away again) and Gene Soto with T65 at Fresno



Bob and Jerry walking toward Norman Stubbs with the CDF S-2 Boneyard in the background



Forbes and Jerry Glennstarting engines in T65 to taxi to the loading pit at Fresno



#4 engine starting on T65 with Sis-Q DC-6 and DC-7 T60 in the background at Fresno



T65 in the loading pit at Fresno Air Tanker Base on the day in question in September 1980



T65 starting engines at Fresno to head back to the fire that Ornbaum and Kunkee and I dropped on earlier by Friant VOR

This isn't the best picture in some ways, but Stu is leaning against the #3 prop of T65 (N5237V) with Vito behind him and Norman Stubbs and Gene Soto under the retardant tank




Two questions, is that a T-28 nose wheel tire on the tail? And what is the purpose of the siren mounted on the belly? To scare the birds away on a drop?

Steve, that's a main tire from a Grumman F11F Tiger. There was a severe shortage of B-17 tail wheel tires at this time and Aero Union came up with an STC using this alternate tire. It wasn't at all ideal as there was no give to the sidewall as in a stock B-17 tailwheel. This was a major problem in crosswinds as a couple of good sideloads from winds against the tail would cause the tailwheel lock to release. The flexibility of the standard tire absorbed these loads. Once the tailwheel lock released on landing, the tailwheel tire turned 90 degrees to the direction of travel and unless you immediately brought the tail up, you ended up leaving a black zipper mark on the runway and peeled all of the tread off in a few seconds. This was definitely not helpful. When I was flying Evergreen's B-17 Tanker 22 out of Alamogordo in 1983, we had the tailwheel lock release while my c/p Chuck Ott was taxi-ing and the tire was destroyed before we could get stopped. Needless to say, we always carried a spare tire and a jack. I also deflated the tire a bit down to 85 psi from 150, which helped by giving a small amount of flex to the sidewall of the tire. I though that maybe adding a second tire might help to reduce the load on that too small tread area. it looked like there might be room on the tail strut for it.

This shows our spare tailwheel tire in T22



















The loudspeaker was hooked up to a P.A. and siren. It was part of an experiment for communicating with people on the ground in the days before everybody had radios with compatable frequencies. We would also use the siren on live retardant runs to warn the grond guys that we were going to drop this time. You would be surprised how quiet a B-17 or a DC-7 can be with the power back, especially if you are looking in a different direction. It was a good idea and could still be useful today.

.
...showing the narrow tailwheel and the fabric-covered tailcone...

...are the side windows remnats from it's CIA days ?

...seen re-loading at Hemet...26 Nov 1980...

. Sledge
.

[quote="sledge39"]. ...are the side windows remnats from it's CIA days ?

...according to the Warbird registry was a VB-17...

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b17regis ... 83785.html

I don't know exactly where the extra side windows in T22 came from. As a matter of fact, there's some question as to the actual airframe identity of this airplane. Even in the Registry, it mentions a change from one serial number to another. I never heard a satisfactory explanation of that business from anyone at Evergreen. As everyone probably knows, Intermountain (CIA Airline) owned this airplane when it was set up with a Fulton Skyhook system. The repositioned pitot tube and the fabric covered tail cone are a couple of remnants in the pictures above. There was a thread cocerning this subject on WIX.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=43437&hilit=Fulton+Skyhook#p436273

Sorry about the highlights on this link, but I didn't have time to find without using the search function'

This link is on the thread and has three excellent shots of what became T22 as Intermountain's N809Z with the complete Fulton Skyhook gear installed. Just scroll down to find the pictures.

http://www.dhc-2.com/Marana.html

Craig from H&P may not have seen my earlier thread that covers my B-17 tanker days and contains a few storied and a fair number of pictures.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18840

Another tanker oriented thread covers tanker subjects from a few years ago.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20695

Here's one more picture from B-17 following out a couple of Douglas types from Porterville Tanker Base to the runway in 1980

.
...Good quality video of N809Z (later N207EV) making the '007' extraction (the ending of 'Thunderball' 1965)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVwRDtEEEes

Sledge