Dad in the Lil Buzzard

I’ve started setting aside one day a week to help dad get his plane back in the air. A few years back he built the Lil Buzzard for keeping close to the house instead of flying the Musketeer. I really think that he prefers flying the smaller planes because he started out there with my uncle all them years ago..

Tornado Wreckage

He got about a year of flying around the patch in the Buzzard when the ‘tornado’ hit.. The tornado pretty much trashed the local grass strip airport. It took out a lot of old planes, and ruined quite a few good planes that were still flying.. I think the pile of scrap in front of what is left of dad’s hanger was Andy’s plane.. It was in dad’s hanger and on top of the Lil Buzzard.

2 Stroke

As you can see, there isn’t a lot left of the hanger either.. I have no idea how the plane didn’t get more damage than it did.. Since the plane needed a total strip and recover to look for bent metal tubing dad decided to beef up the engine a bit. It was running this small 2 stroke engine that was fine for taking him and one of my ‘small’ cousins around the field, it had no power and was just ‘slow’.. The obvious solution was to go with a larger Continental engine.

First Cut.. Bad Idea..

The weight isn’t an issue, but the new size is.. It has left us with a cowling that is far too narrow and cuts back too steeply from the front.. We are going to be building a new cowling for the plane, but we need a starting point.. So out with the jig saw and we split the cowling in half and section it about 3″ wider..

Sectioned Cowling

We didn’t get too much farther than this today.. It was 2pm and tummies were grumbling and food needed to be found.. Next weekend I think we will be sealing off the nose with thin sheet aluminum or cardboard and then making a foam shell to serve as a base for a new fiberglass cowling.. The original plan was to use a C140 or C150 nose to work from, but even junked ones are far more money than we are willing to spend what what is essentially a template that we are planning to throw away when we are done..

Just to round things out, here are a few more pics from the tornado damage at the airport.

What Hanger?

Collapsed Gear

I’m not entirely convinced that we can call these things “planes” given the fact that they don’t actually fly.. To travel they rely on ground effect forces that allowed them to “fly” a few meters off the ground at serious speeds and while carrying enormous loads.

My favorite has always been the Caspian Monster. Everything about it just looks lean and fast. With 8 jet engines up front it actually reminds me of the jet trains and how they were pulled along the rails.

Designed to carry over 100 tons of cargo at speeds of 250 miles per hour, they were intended to be used on the Caspian and Black Seas as military transports. But what really amazes me is that as late as 1985 these things were still being funded. Originally 120 planes were planned, but in the end only 4 were operational (3 A-90 Orlyonok and 1 Lun-class) when funding was pulled..

Aluminum Overcast

Our local EAA Chapter has had the honor of hosting the B-17, Aluminum Overcast, for a couple of days. It is a magnificent aircraft with a long history of serving our country, and I love it.

I was able to get away from work today for a few hours to volunteer and shoot a few pictures. You can see them over at my flickr account. As cool as this plane is, the best part is the people we get to meet.

Yesterday we had several original B-17 pilots and crew come out to see the plane, and take a ride in the ship that saw many of them through some of the greatest deeds in history. I may sound a bit melodramatic, but I don’t think it can ever be overstated just how important that generation was to our country and the world. And getting to stand there with them and listen to their stories of courage and fear is inspiring.

If you get a chance to see the Aluminum Overcast, do so.. Plan to spend some time going through the plane and listening to the stories. If your local EAA chapter is as good as ours you might even get a free meal out of the deal.

B-17 Aluminum Overcast : Official Site

This is so cool.. But it makes me wonder just how much money and time was spent building this thing..