Warbird Information Exchange

Not to kick Gary down any furthur than he already has been kicked, But I was wondering even though Doc is a way's from first flight do you think it's possible she'll fly before Fifi do's again? Just thinkin out loud.

With all the cahnges that's been happening with Doc, I'll say it'll be years before she flies. The last time I stopped by was in Sept '03 and a volunteer had help drill out the rivets on the wings. Drilled all the thru the ribs and oversized the hole. They were working on new brackets to add on the bracket. They said they Boeing engineers it'll be okay Since then people have changed and left the project. I had signed up to help with the plane but never got anything from the United States Aviation Museum.

I did read where Doc's web site will be back up shortly, just not on Boeing's dime.

Hi All,

Will ALL due respect to volunteers everywhere. And PLEASE understand I hold most volunteers in high regard. but this kind of thing is what you get when you have folks with little or no experiance doing this type of work.

Forgive me all, but this type of thing gets to me at a personal level from being a person who did the work. I always hated cleaning up the mess that someone else left behind.

I hope that things like this incident, are rectified and fixed without too much additional work and that Doc will get the TLC she has been getting.

Please understand everyone...this is NOT intended to be an attack of any sort on volunteers or volunteering. It's a "sheetmetal" thing \

Paul

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:10 pm Post subject:

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Hi All,

Will ALL due respect to volunteers everywhere. And PLEASE understand I hold most volunteers in high regard. but this kind of thing is what you get when you have folks with little or no experiance doing this type of work.

Amen!
Forgive me all, but this type of thing gets to me at a personal level from being a person who did the work. I always hated cleaning up the mess that someone else left behind.

Double Amen, I hate beeing the janitor to clean up someone elses mess.

I was under the impression that work on Doc had screeched to a halt. I've heard Boing has shut down or scaled back operation in Kansas. The Doc website has been gone for a long time. Any updates?

This web site has the most recent updates. http://www.360wichita.com/Attractions/D ... ation.html

Just did an google and found an article about Doc "Boeing rep Dick Ziegler heads up the B-29 DOC restoration project and contacted Gary to do a special display for the 2005 winter ICAS convention. Velasco re-constructed a 22x9 foot section of a B-29 fuselage topped by a replica panel of the DOC nose art. "I never had the opportunity to be at an ICAS convention. It was fun and a worthwlile experience meeting all the industry people and impressed on how well they knew of me and my work" Velasco said. The complete restoration will be the second worlds only flying B-29. It should be back in the air (hopefully) later this year or early 07 for the airshow season."

We'll see...

I am a bit confused, who owns the aircraft? Will it be on display at the museum in Ohio or in Kansas?

Hey Steve, hope to see you guys one day in the next few weeks. Concerning Fifi, there will be a major meeting in the next few days concerning the engines. Jeff Abbott, Gary, Nelson, and one of the guys from ACT. They will be meeting in Midland. The re-engining of Fifi will be a major, major expense, not counting the time and learning curve. My prayer and hope is that a workable solution is found. Alan

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Just call me Al.

Okay, here's the deal. We will indeed be having a "high octane" meeting tomorrow morning concerning the direction we're going to go with FIFI's re-engineing project. I am sorry that I have not given any timely updates, but I've been on the road with Diamond Lil.

Hopefully, I will be able to give all of you who are interested an accurate update either this weekend or Monday concerning what we're going to do.

Thanks for your patience,
Gary Austin
Crew Chief, B-29/B-24 Squadron
Commemorative Air Force

I saw Diamond Lil last week in Reading. If I had known you were with her I would have looked for ya. D'oh.

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

Well, I met one of the WIXers there, but didn't get to meet as many as I had hoped to. Maybe next time.

GA

Gary
I'm surprised no one else made there way over to introduce themselves. I'm starting to find it a lot of fun to be able to meet up with more and more folks at the shows. It is very nice to get a feel for those who post here; it also makes airshow much less painful for the wife, which makes them better for me also.

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

I saw some really current pics a few weeks ago. Doc is looking great. I've said this before, but I'll go ahead and say it again since it seems to have been forgotten: Dick Ziegler is no longer on the project. He was the driving force behind it and the volunteers miss him. (indirect quote from a volunteer I talked with) He was the webmaster, and with him gone, so is the website.

Seriously, they'd really like to get back in contact with Ziegler, but

Good news is that I'll be able to get back to working on Doc again, as they're going to be moving it back to the old hangar, which means I'll have permission to go back. That should mean pictures for ya'll as well.

Patience is a virtue. I can't guarantee I'll get some before the early fall, but I will try my hardest.

Talking to some volunteers recently, they said not to expect any flight dates for Doc until they get the engines. So...don't look at that date as too reliable (unless someone's willing to donate enough for six engines and all the fuel cells...)

Although I can't claim to have much experience in restoration, I think they've done an incredible job. Also, my dad who worked with me is highly skilled in machining/metalworking, and he didn't seem to have any problems with their quality of work (the people who shipped it out didn't do a good job of shipping it, as they somehow twisted the wing; the guys out at Boeing did a fantastic job of fixing it).

Sorry I haven't been on much, I was busy graduating and stuff.

If they get a the facility built, Doc should be based here in Wichita.

As I've said before: Boeing sold the commercial division. Doc was on the military side, so it remains unaffected in that sense. However, since Dick Ziegler no longer works at Boeing, the push is so much less. I'd like to see what I can do about getting the city of Wichita to donate some money to get Doc airborne/hangared. If anybody's done something like this before, I'd appreciate hearing how it was done and how to go about doing it.

I mean no offense by this next statement:

Or in other words: the situation hasn't changed much, other than Doc is steadily progressing but will never fly until it gets engines. You can pm me about it whenever you like, and I'll do my best to get the info you need as quickly as I can.

Two, actually, but we'd met at MAF. (Unless I was the one?)

Great to see you again Gary, hope you got a chance to take a look at our "super BT" BT-13 on Sunday.

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Regards,

Jase
www.b26marauder.com
"I'm having a BLAST!!" 2007 CAF Wing Staff Conference

RIP Gary Austin..always in our hearts