Something for airplane geeks

[Morecowbell]

The chiming of the cash register was never far from my mind during this project! Some of the components were just stupid expensive...but again, it was good to be able to split everything between five guys. Here's a list that I've taken from some invoices: oil filter kit, $1500; battery conversion kit, $1460; carburetor overhaul, $5700; prop governor overhaul, $1400; prop AD inspection/overhaul, $6200; fuel bladder repairs, $5020; a fuel valve t-fitting, $660; rudder actuator rod and two prop control cables, $300; Garmin GPS repair and VFR transponder check, $570; and then there was $14000 paid to the original mechanic for various parts and inspections that had to be done. Nose gear fork x-ray, oxygen/nitrogen/fire bottle hydrostat tests, stuff like that. And then there's the labor bills for the two mechanics. I don't even want to think about it. But Pete got the thing flying in only 18 working days. Granted, those 18 days spanned over about 4 months...but we still got it finished up way earlier than the original guy could have ever done. One of the cheapest fixes? The altitude encoder. The avionics guy hooked me up with a fix, $40 cash, no paperwork. That was awesome. Money well spent.

I'm not sure if there's a published overhaul interval on these old engines. This R-1820 has 488 hours on it since major overhaul in 1994. That's fairly low in operating time, but a long time on the calendar! I've read that if treated right, they should run for about 1000 hours before they need to be overhauled. So we might have about 500 hours to go...but there are no guarantees in warbirds. We should probably start building up an engine overhaul fund in addition to the normal maintenance fund.

But at least now the airplane was flyable! On the morning of the 24th, we did another careful preflight and towed the ship outside. The weather was a lot better than the previous week!


It was time for the third test flight, and initially I wanted to ride in the back seat...but with as much work as Pete did, and as much as he loves old airplanes, I figured he should get the first ride. He declined at first, but on the second offer he accepted.


They took off and circled the field for almost an hour. Pete did most of the flying from the back seat. The engine was running beautifully. After landing, we did the usual leak check and screen check. Pete's comment on the screen was, "it doesn't get any better than this." That's what we really wanted to hear...we were really concerned about the health of that engine after sitting for so long. And then it was time for another short test flight...and again, I let another guy take the back seat. Ben was a mechanic for the general aviation shop a few hangars down, and he helped us with minor errands here and there over two years. The guy that owned the hangar space that we were using also owned that shop, and he wasn't charging us any hangar rent at all. He only asked that we give one of his guys a ride. That's a fair deal...four months rent would have been around $2000!

Finally, on the third flight of the day, I got a ride in the back seat. I had a helmet on with thick ear cups for noise attenuation, but I still wasn't ready for the amount of noise that thing makes at takeoff power. It's loud! After the power reduction, it was much more reasonable. We circled over the field for a few minutes...


I sent my father-in-law a text as we taxied out...he flew T-28s as a USAF Cadet back in the '50s. I told him that we were taking off shortly and we'd widen out the pattern a bit to fly over his house. It was only 7 miles west of the field. I took the controls and headed west...following the streets I was able to find the house. We flew overhead in a turn at around 1500' and I could see him and my mother-in-law standing out back by the pool. I racked the beast back around in the other direction and made another turning pass over them. He told my wife later that he had tears in his eyes as we flew over. He loves that round-engine noise. After that, it was time to head back and land after about 20 minutes of flying.




The airplane was running beautifully...screen checks were good, no fuel or oil leaks. Pete gave us his blessing to take the airplane back to Texas! I started loading up my car with all the crap in the hangar. Two tow-bars, cases of engine oil, spare parts, logbooks and manuals...the back of my little VW was stuffed full. We planned to take the airplane to Thermal CA, just south of Palm Springs for the night. We could depart there early the next morning and head for TX. I hit the road for the two hour drive to TRM, while John finished up a few small details with Pete. He launched, flew north, then east through the Banning Pass and then south to TRM. He landed while I still had an hour left to drive. He had the ship parked by the palm trees with the tail back over the putting green by the time I got there. Of course, the beast decided to drip some oil from the breather tube onto the green. I felt awful about that and offered to pay the FBO for cleaning, but they weren't too worried about it. But John and I were beyond thrilled to have the airplane AWAY from Ramona. That two year ordeal was over and the fun could begin. We spent about an hour getting all the crap loaded into the cargo compartment. Luckily I had plenty of tie-down straps. You can cram a lot of stuff back there...that's the advantage of the T-28. Don't try carrying much of anything in a fighter!


One of the best parts for me...no more driving to Ramona! In two years, I made the trip 26 times in the VW, and 14 times on the motorcycles. That's about 8800 miles of running back and forth. It's a fun and scenic ride, but it's not as much fun in the car.

More to follow later...

 

[Panman]

Great read, thanks for jogging my old brain.

 

[Morecowbell]

The next morning, my riding buddy Pete picked John and I up at my house around 0700. He was kind enough to drive us the 25 miles to TRM and drop us off at the airport...that way, I didn't have to come back later to retrieve my car. What a guy! The first thing to do before every morning start is to run the extension cord and plug in the oil tank heater...and we had also been plugging in the battery charger every morning as well. The tank holds almost 9 gallons of oil, and the temp got down into the low-40s that night. Since cold oil doesn't flow very well, we preheat for as long as we can before it's time to start the engine. There's also a preoil pump that we run before starting to build up oil pressure to fill the oil galleries and lubricate the Master Rod Bearing. The MRB is the most important bearing in the airplane...if you don't take care of it, you're gonna have a bad time. After preoiling, it's time to bump the starter to turn the engine a few blades at a time...maybe six blades. This is to check for hydraulic lock in any of the lower cylinders. If there's a full cylinder, the starter clutch will disengage before you bend a connecting rod. That's the theory anyway. The preoil pump and starter motor use a lot of juice, so that's why we also carry a charger.

While the oil warmed and the battery charged, we loaded our duffle bags into the cargo bay. It was a tight fit in there with all the crap we were carrying. We also spent a lot of time answering questions from people walking by wanting to take a look. This is not an airplane that stays incognito...it tends to attract attention at every fuel stop. That can be good and bad. I also tried to pay the FBO guy for overnight parking and the ground power unit that we requested for engine start. He said there was no charge for parking, and no charge for the GPU. That's unheard of these days for many FBOs. I finally got the guy to accept a $20 tip for helping us out. Really nice people. We got strapped in and fired up just after 0900. We taxied past the high-dollar bizjets and turboprops, and I was thinking how this airplane was way more bad ass. And if you're wondering if that's the Rogue Dead Guy on the back of the helmet...it is.



We launched to the south and did a 270 degree right turn to cross over the field heading east. We wanted to give Pete a wing-rock to say thanks for the ride. Our original plan was to head for the El Paso area on the first leg...Santa Teresa NM, to be exact. That would be a 2.5 hour flight, landing with just about an hour of fuel remaining. But Mechanic Pete had a better idea. Make the first leg a short one...about 1.5 hours to Marana AZ. There was a restaurant on the field for lunch, and a warbird mechanic buddy of his that could help us if we had any issues. That was a splendid idea, since we really didn't know the fuel burn rate of this engine yet. As we descended into Marana Regional (AVQ), we flew right past Pinal Airpark (MZJ). The irony here is that this airplane was based at MZJ from March 1954 to April 1955 when it was the Marana Army Air Base, with the 3307th Pilot Training Squadron. Also ironic was that AVQ was formerly an outlying training field for the Army base. So this plane has been to both airports, somewhere around 64 years ago.



After we landed and shut down, a guy drove up in a pickup truck before we had even jumped off the wing. It was Pete's buddy checking to see if we needed anything. Well sure we do...how about an oil screen check? Not a problem, Mike said. He'd get right on it. How does an hour of labor sound, maybe $60? Done deal. John and I had planned to do the check ourselves, but this guy would get it done much faster. It also gave us time to grab some lunch! After chowing down, we topped the tanks and figured a burn rate of 45 gallons per hour. That's pretty much what the performance charts predicted. I think we also added a half gallon of oil. Not a bad burn rate there, either.



After two hours on the ground at Marana, we departed and continued eastward...towards an overnight stop somewhere in West Texas. We initially thought about Pecos, but the hotel rates were outrageous. There is some serious price-gouging going on there with the oil industry and traffic on Interstate 10. We figured Ozona would be a good place to stop. Fuel was a bit more expensive, but the hotels were WAY cheaper. We climbed up to 11500 feet and picked up a good tailwind. We took turns flying since there's no autopilot. Got my SPOT tracker running so people could keep track of us.



Look at those dorks! Normally I mock anyone taking a selfie...but when flying an old airplane, maybe it's not so lame?



While John had my camera up front, he took a shot of the panel...groundspeed on the GPS is 235 knots. Nice! There's something weird going on with the attitude indicator...it leans a bit more than it should. We'll have that looked at later.



West Texas is pretty desolate between El Paso and...well, until Hill Country. That road below the left wing doesn't have much to offer. Pete and I rode that on the FJRs on our Fall '16 ride, returning from the Ozarks. It's tough to stay awake on that stretch.



We flew right over downtown Ozona and entered the pattern to land just a bit before sunset.



The airport manager helped us get the thing parked and secured for the night. A good ol'Texas boy from Richardson, where John and I were born. We knew some of the same people from the small Dallas-area airports back in the mid-80s. Aviation is a small world. The courtesy car was already loaned out for the night, but the guy tossed us the keys to his Jeep and told us the only place in town for a beer was the steakhouse. Yup, we had already found that on Google Maps! We checked into a motel and made the required phone calls, and then walked about 10 minutes to the steakhouse. I put away a HUGE slab of beef and a few tasty beers. It had been a good day of flying. We weren't sure what would happen the following day due to the crappy weather forecast for West Texas all the way to Houston.

The next morning, we woke up to low clouds and generally crappy weather all the way to the Gulf Coast. Wonderful. Well, I still had two more days to kill, so let's wait it out and see what happens. We drove around a bit in search of breakfast, and then headed out to the airport. Might as well plug in the oil tank heater while we wait for the ceiling to lift.



Several hours later things started to improve. The clouds burned off at Ozona, and it looked decent as far east as Burnet. Everything in the Austin area and from I35 east were still socked in. John fired the plane up and taxied it to the fuel pumps to add a few gallons. Then we waited a bit more for the latest weather reports to the east. While waiting, a photo-survey Cessna 206 crew wanted to check out the airplane. The girl on the wing was the pilot (nice boots!), and the one in the cockpit was the camera operator. Even chicks dig T-28s!



I tried paying the airport manager for overnight parking. He wouldn't take it. I tried paying for the Dr Pepper I grabbed from the 'fridge. He wouldn't take it. Super nice guy, said he was happy to have us stop in for a visit. We finally got airborne and headed east again. It was only an hour enroute to Burnet, and at that point we would do another weather check. But if Burnet was as far as we could get that day, it would have to do. While enroute, we texted our buddy that works at the Marble Falls PD, just down the road from Burnet. I saw him on the Fall '16 ride when Pete and I spent the night there, and John had flown over from Conroe in his RV-8. He dropped what he was doing and headed for the airport. It was great to see him again...and of course he had to check out the new toy.



The weather to the east was still crappy, so Burnet was it for the night. John had a contact at the local Commemorative Air Force wing and inquired about borrowing some hangar space for the night. They had plenty of room. That wing used to have a C-47 in the hangar, but sadly it crashed and burned taking off for Oshkosh last summer. Everyone got out, but the plane was a total loss. All they have now is two non-airworthy Navions and a PT-19 being worked on. The local guy came out and put the airplane away for us, and then we sat around talking about CAF stuff for quite a while. And then we were off to the hotel and burgers and beers.



The next morning we woke up to more crappy weather. Visibility was about 1/4 mile in fog, with pretty much the same crap all the way to Houston. We were so close, yet so far. We headed out to the airport again to plug in the tank heater and wait for the clouds to lift. It was a work day for the CAF wing, and all the old guys were in the office. They were surprised to walk in and see our plane in the hangar. I think they were really happy to actually have an airworthy plane stop in for a while. The forecast had a small time frame where we might be able to sneak into Houston, so we planned to be ready to go at that time. And then the forecast was revised and that time frame vanished. John was making plans to leave the plane in the CAF hangar for the week and pick it up later, when I saw the latest reports that the clouds along the route were lifting. Time to get gas and get going! We topped off the tanks and strapped in. We had a pretty good sized crowd watching us from the hangar. We launched and headed east, staying pretty low; maybe 1500-2000 feet. My job was to watch the chart for airspace and towers, and other traffic of course. After 45 minutes, we finally made it. The two year adventure had finally paid off and we got the airplane to its new home at West Houston Airport.



Two of the three other partners met us at the airport. They were excited to see the new toy and climb around on it. After owning it for two years, John and I were the only ones to actually see it and touch it. The other guys just saw pics of it in various update emails. Good things come to those who wait, I guess?



Now that we finally have a flyable airplane, I need to start studying the flight manual and getting ready for flight training and a checkride. At least I'm pretty darn familiar with all the systems with all the work we did to it...that's gotta count for something. And that's all for now. I should have some more to add after I get checked out and start flying it myself...wandering around in search of the $500 airport hamburger.

 

[mcatrophy]

Thanks for taking us along.

Don't forget that attitude indicator, you may find yourself without a real horizon one day!

Flying small aircraft is something of a surrogate interest of mine. Although I never had a PPL, I have have taken control of Chipmunks many moons ago when they were RAF training planes, also of Brother's (hired) planes. A bit like motorcycling, but in three dimensions.

Brother and Brother-in-law both had PPLs, regrettably both have had to give up piloting for health reasons.

Brother pre-flight checking a Cherokee (September 2000).
(Click on image for larger view)

 

[wnyfjr]

Awesome story! I got my private at Carlsbad, CA back in the early 90's and did quite a few bounce-and-go's at Ramona (as well as my solo!), so it was fun to see that airport play such a big part of it. Thanks to you and your partners for keeping that bird flying!!

 

[Hudson]

What a great read! Ive flown in a small plane with a friend years ago, and I can clearly see the appeal. But owning an old war bird is a huge commitment and with your story I have a much better sense of the folks that keep these flying, and their passion.

Im sticking with air cooled cars which are cheaper (but not by too much from your read). If you ever need some extra ballast however...

 

[Uncle Hud]

Fabulous read and equally fab photos! Damn fine job and a real ADVENTURE. Who else wants to fly a plane that's been on the ground, disassembled, for years?

 

[RichDoyle]

Whenever I land from flying without my wife with me, we have a ritual: I text her "CDA" which stands for "Cheated Death Again." I was already a middling-time pilot with my own humble Cherokee when we met decades ago, so she's perfectly comfortable with our flying. Just gallows humor.

But the bucks a warbird would soak up? More power to you.

My Diamond does enough of that

 

[1911]

What an awesome adventure!

I watched dad crunch numbers as he considered buying into a Mooney partnership. End the end he just kept renting by the hour. I can say I have flown an ex-USAF T41 or two.

A share of a warbird is mindblowing.

 

[QuebexicanFJR]

Awesome read and pics. Keep sending them and congrats on a really cool project.

 

[HotRodZilla]

WOW!! That is awesome stuff. Congratulations on getting it all done and having an awesome plane!!

So, will you guys just own it and fly it around for fun, or will you do any air shows or anything with it?

 

[Morecowbell]

Although I never had a PPL, I have have taken control of Chipmunks many moons ago when they were RAF training planes, also of Brother's (hired) planes.

I would love to fly/ride in a Chipmunk! Those are such cool little machines.

If you ever need some extra ballast however...

You're way up there in the Pacific Northwest, but it you see ever make a trip to Oshkosh or Houston...a bit of extra ballast never hurt.

But the bucks a warbird would soak up? More power to you. My Diamond does enough of that

The Diamond definitely has the advantage on fuel burn and other operating expenses!

So, will you guys just own it and fly it around for fun, or will you do any air shows or anything with it?

I think most of my flying will be for fun/proficiency work, but I also hope to take it to a few nearby airshows. I live so far away it might be difficult to schedule, but I'll at least try. I know that John and one other partner will definitely take it to airshows when they're not busy flying the CAF airplanes. They've got two gun pods that need to be repainted to hang under the wing, and two pylons with dummy rockets attached. They're not authentic French armament, but the average airshow attendee would never notice the difference. They just like to see bombs, guns, and rockets.

A couple of weeks ago I got my first front seat flight with John in the back keeping me out of trouble. I don't think I scared him too much.







I'm glad I had a few hours in the back seat as an introduction. That helped avoid a full blown helmet fire on my first takeoff. Flying the plane is actually pretty easy. Cold starting an R-1820 is the intimidating part. But with a freshly overhauled and well rigged carburetor, the engine lit off quite easily with just a few tickles of the primer button. That was so cool doing it by myself! There's a lot going on during the takeoff...max power is 52" of manifold pressure and 2700 RPM, but we only pull 44" to take it easy on the engine. Even with reduced power, it accelerates quickly and is ready to fly before you know it. Right rudder during the roll to counteract torque; rotate, gear up, accelerate to 140 knots climb speed, reduce right rudder a bit, check oil pressure/temp/chip light, power back to 36"/2400 RPM for climb, watch for traffic, start the crosswind turn, check oil pressure/temp/chip light, etc. There's a LOT going on. It'll get easier as I get a bit more experience.

We climbed up to altitude and did some airwork; slow flight, clean and dirty stalls, go-arounds, etc. It was fun. The wing really buffets as you approach the stall, so you'd have to be asleep at the wheel to stall by accident. When the stall breaks, lower the nose, rudder it straight, add power and the wing is flying again. Good fun. I got four landings in. The weren't great. I got a few decent landings in the A model several years ago, but I seem to have forgotten how to do it. But these were in the touchdown zone and I always kept the nosewheel off the deck and rode the wheelie for a little bit. Pounding the nosewheel on landing is just not cool. I need more practice.

I'm heading to Houston this weekend...hopefully I'll get another training flight or two knocked out. Maybe a checkride next month.

 

[natehawk750]

Man that's Awesome! I've been in Aviation for the past 15 years now and I've always loved those old war birds.

Being a fellow Airman I Have to ask...

How much for an incentive flight as I don't live far from Houston. Lol.

Or at least an up close and personal look at that bad boy sometime when your in town.

 

[drc32-0]

Thanks for posting and bringing us up to date.I missed this on your original post so I just read the whole adventure from the beginning.To be honest I'm glad I missed it the first time it was posted because it was such a great story to read about all of the setbacks,hard work and hours spent,and then hearing that engine for the first time!!!That must have been an incredible feeling!And then to fly it!!!Definately the stuff of dreams.Enjoy!

Reading that made my day,thanks.

 

[Morecowbell]

Being a fellow Airman I Have to ask...How much for an incentive flight as I don't live far from Houston. Lol.

Or at least an up close and personal look at that bad boy sometime when your in town.

Well since we don't have an approved Ride program set up, we can't sell rides in this thing. But we can always share expenses! If you wanted to split the cost of fuel, something can usually be worked out. This weekend is the Houston Wing open house, so everything will be out and on display. Weather permitting, of course. The forecast isn't good for Saturday, so I doubt much flying will be done. Sunday looks to be a bit better, and I'm hoping to get in a training flight. You're welcome to climb up and check out the airplane(s) if you happen to be nearby.

 

[CAJW]

Wow! So glad I found this thread as it was a great read and thanks much for taking the time to detail the progress of the efforts to get the old girl back in the air. Although I can only count about a hundred of my 4500+ hours in fixed wing ( the balance is fling wing) I can certainly appreciate the long hours working in confined areas and sometimes by “ Braille ” when doing aircraft restoration. I’ve spent many hours doing the same on a war surplus OH-6A and learned the finer art of bucking rivets putting that “ Warbird” back together.

Your cross country trip brought back fond memories of my ferry flights taking helos from LFT (Lafayette, La) to Phx (Photo) and landing at out of the way places. You really haven’t lived until you RON ( remain over night) in Van Horn, TX! The desk clerk at the local hotel we tried to get a ride to from that airport told us “ but sir, we don’t have an airport here in Van Horn” and it only got better from there.

Again, really great story and the descriptive of you FIL having tears in his eyes during the flyover makes all the expense worth it, right?

 

[dcarver]

This is the best non-moto thread on this forum EVER!

 

[garyahouse]

Glad you chose to post this. Took a while to read, but enjoyed every word: a great post. A veteran of the US Army Air Corps, Dad turned 18 in the summer of '42. He's been gone now for 9 years, but I enjoyed every one of his war stories as I was growing up.

I've shared this before on the forum, but thought I'd mention it again here. Dad worked in ordinance and was stationed on the east coast of Italy during WW2. His job was to transport, load, and arm the bombs before each flight. He often spoke of the different types of bombs with the various fuses they used. He also talked about "Liberators." Guess he loaded these planes more often. On one occasion the soldiers took a taxi to the areas they'd bombed recently. He didn't want to talk about what he saw, only that it was extremely uncomfortable for him and that it was "hard to see this." Toward the end of his deployment in Italy, and just before his squadron headed north following the invasion at Normandy, a B-17 became available but had no crew. The brass asked if there were any volunteers to make up a crew to staff the plane for combat. Dad volunteered and became a tail gunner in that plane for perhaps 4-6 missions; I forget now. But it was during one of those missions that another one of the gunners asked dad for a favor. He was the gunner that operated the ball turret under the belly of the plane. Apparently he was sick to his stomach that day, and asked to trade places with dad. Dad agreed. But during that mission, the tail end of that plane got shot up, and that soldier died that day. Dad survived that mission, and needless to say I might not be writing this had events turned out differently. Dad came home after the war, married the girl he met in Boston during a furlough, and of course I came along 10 years later. He spoke often of his experiences in WW2, and needless to say, I miss him a great deal. Sad that it seems there are very few WW2 vets around any more.

I was at Pearl Harbor last month and spoke to a tour guide onboard the battleship Missouri. He said that it was sad that last year for the first time ever, none of the surviving sailors from the USS Arizona were able to attend during the official remembrance ceremony on Dec. 7 there in Hawaii. Only 5 are still alive, and all are in their 90's. Another thing I learned that day: the Arizona, which sits at the bottom of the bay just in front of the Missouri docked there, leaks about 9 quarts of diesel fuel every day. You can see the trail of oil as it makes its way across the surface of the water. I was told that some say this "trail" is thought of as the tears of the hundreds of seamen entombed there. Here's what I found interesting: when asked if they could seal up the leak or drain the tanks somehow, the guide replied that they would NOT touch the ship until every Pearl Harbor vet was gone. They consider that ship to be sort of a holy ground, and nobody is allowed to touch it. No matter how much oil it leaks, he said, nobody will touch that ship until every veteran stationed at Pearl Harbor that fateful day in 1941... is gone. There are videos of the ceremonies that were held onboard the Missouri in years gone by. One such video is here

. Note how they honor the one surviving USS Arizona vet that day beginning at 10:00 minutes into the video.It's an amazing sight whenever one of these old veterans is honored onboard the ship. They are treated as absolute heroes and it's a moving experience to see it. It was a real honor for me to visit Pearl Harbor and tour this amazing ship.

 

[Knifemaker]

Well on a somewhat off topic bit of news... I just learned from my daughter that her husband just got his pilots license

So, he doesn't own a plane, but he can fly one.

 

[Morecowbell]

You really haven’t lived until you RON ( remain over night) in Van Horn, TX! The desk clerk at the local hotel we tried to get a ride to from that airport told us “ but sir, we don’t have an airport here in Van Horn” and it only got better from there.

That's classic! I stopped for fuel once in Van Horn on the FJR while headed east to the Ozarks. My buddy and I were heading into the Big Bend area the next day, and I wanted to head south to Marfa to spend the night. The Marfa hotel rooms were quite expensive for such a small town in West Texas, and my buddy wasn't too happy about it. But we were running out of daylight, and I told him our choices were high-priced Marfa, or the chain-hotels along I10 in Van Horn. He looked around and mulled that over for about 30 seconds before he agreed to press on to Marfa for the night. Life is too short to go cheap when on vacation.

Dad volunteered and became a tail gunner in that plane for perhaps 4-6 missions; I forget now. But it was during one of those missions that another one of the gunners asked dad for a favor. He was the gunner that operated the ball turret under the belly of the plane. Apparently he was sick to his stomach that day, and asked to trade places with dad. Dad agreed. But during that mission, the tail end of that plane got shot up, and that soldier died that day. Dad survived that mission, and needless to say I might not be writing this had events turned out differently. Dad came home after the war, married the girl he met in Boston during a furlough, and of course I came along 10 years later. He spoke often of his experiences in WW2, and needless to say, I miss him a great deal. Sad that it seems there are very few WW2 vets around any more.

Thanks for telling that story. It certainly illustrates how much dumb luck and chance can play a huge role in how events turn out. It's sad for the the tail gunner that was killed, but at least your Dad survived to eventually meet your Mom. And the rest is history.

Now for an update on the T-28 saga. I had the one training flight with my brother, and then four flights with the instructor/partner. Flying that thing is fun, but even in April/May/June, it's really hot and sweaty work. Gulf Coast humidity sucks. Preflighting and pulling it out of the hangar takes a while. After landing and debriefing, the ship has to be fueled and put back into the hangar. The borrowed tug has to be brought over and taken back. And then, the cleanup begins. There's usually some oil on the gear doors and belly, and the exhaust stains on the fuselage have to be wiped up. I chug lots of water and Gatorade while all that is going on. But don't get me wrong, it's still fun! (Most of the time)

On one flight it was so hot/humid doing pattern work and landings, I had sweat running down from inside my helmet and dripping onto my glasses and inside the visor. I started carrying a rag in a pocket to wipe the sweat off my face from time to time. We took a break and parked at the FBO to refill our water bottles and cool off in their lobby for a bit. The girl behind the counter wanted to see the airplane, so of course we let her climb up on it. She wanted to pose for her friend to take her pic, and being the dirty old man that I am, I had to take a pic as well.



And then there's the dollar signs in my head as we add fuel to the tanks.

With five flights and 7.6 hours in the front seat, Instructor John signed me off for a check ride. The local FAA Designated Examiners weren't available, so I contacted a guy in Birmingham. He was available on the days I had off, so he flew over to Houston for my check ride. I had to pay his examiner fee, plus a travel day to fly out the day prior, plus his airline ticket/hotel/rental car expenses. Then of course there was fuel burned and the Maintenance Fund charge. It was NOT a cheap day for me, but it had to be done. The check ride went well and I only made a few minor mistakes. And I learned how to do a barrel roll! The Examiner wrote up a temporary certificate for me, and now I have my Authorized Experimental Aircraft N-T28 rating.

I was so sweaty and tired after the ride, I thought I would just put the plane away and call it a day. But after debriefing and cooling off a bit, I figured that it would be a good time to take the ship out for a "first solo". Actually, my first solo was in 1985...but a first in the T-28 would be almost as cool! So I decided to head to the airport cafe at Angleton/Gulf Coast Regional Airport for lunch. Strapping in and starting up was weird...I didn't have anyone in the back seat to keep me out of trouble. But the engine fired right up and off I went. As mentioned earlier in the thread, I think selfies are pretty silly...but sometimes you have to take one as proof. Yep, that **** really happened. So here it is.



The previous day on the way into the airport, I stopped at the FBO and bought an actual paper Sectional navigation chart. Not many people use those anymore, since the advent of the iPad with ForeFlight or Garmin Pilot installed on them. Everyone is going digital these days. But enroute to Angleton, the iPad strapped to my leg over heated and shut down. It's a damn good thing I had a backup! So there I was, paper chart in my lap as I navigated Old Skool. Somehow I found my way (it was a 25 minute flight) and landed. I tend to forget how big the T-28 is until it's parked next to another airplane. The Grumman Tiger looks kinda small in comparison.



Then it was time to chow down on a catfish po'boy and a supertanker-sized Dr Pepper. I know, I know...food porn!



After my well deserved feast, I launched and headed back to home base. Then the work began. Call the fuel truck over, pump the fuel, then fetch the tug and put the plane in the hangar, stack the other planes in front of it, park the tug at the other hangar, and then grab the rags and start wiping. When the day ended, I was thoroughly worn out. But...it's fun, right?

Next month, John and I will fly the ship up to Oshkosh for the big airshow. This year is the 70th anniversary of the T-28's first flight. The North American Trainer Association is trying to get as many T-28s as possible to attend. On the second day of the show, the NATA is featuring the T-28 for the daily Warbirds in Review event. For display during the Review, they want a USAF trainer model, a USN trainer model, and a combat painted and configured model. We're going to hang the gun pods under the wing and the NATA will use our airplane as the combat model. How cool is that? That should be a fun trip.

I also have my first airshow assignment for mid-September. The CAF unit at Burnet TX (where we hangared the ship on the trip home) is having their annual airshow, and they want us to bring the T-28. Well, John Cotter(instructor/partner) will be busy with the B-17 at the Midland airshow the same weekend, and my brother John will be flying the CAF Beech 18 to the Burnet show. That leaves me to take the T-28. I've never flown an airshow before, and I really have no idea what to do. I don't have a formation card, but I can fly in-trail with whatever flight they put me in. I just can't fly formation. We actually have a contract...they'll provide a hotel room, rental car (John and I would share, obviously), 125 gallons of fuel, and 2 gallons of engine oil. That's pretty cool! I guess I'll have to buy my own dinner and beer, dammit. It'll be fun flying as a two-ship with John in the Beech 18 to and from Burnet.

Here's the Twin Beech...it's assigned to the same unit that operates the B-17 Texas Raiders. They call the Beech Little Raider. This photo flight was back in April with John flying the Beech and me in the right seat enjoying the view.



Note...I'm really sorry about the posted photos being so HUGE. I can't figure out how to adjust the image size with Photobucket, and I haven't changed any settings since posting so many photos earlier in the thread. I just can't figure it out.