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  • #31
    Liking carriers also mean liking Navy planes. Ran across this one celebrating 100 years of naval aviation with some great shots of great planes.



    Last edited by TopHatter; 16 Dec 11,, 21:58.

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    • #32
      Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post
      Obviously I still don't know how to embed the photo. Well I tried the video link anyway.
      The "new" method of embedding videos is a little tricky, I had to "cheat" a little to get them in (which means I pulled Tarek's embeds from Post 1 and used them as a template for these )
      “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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      • #33
        Finally was able to finish painting the roof over Pri-Fly. A couple of very cold mornings and then wet days kept me from getting paint down from rust converter to tie coat to polyurethane white.
        Attached Files

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        • #34
          continued to paint. Where next up in the air. There is still O11 and the area around the windows of Pri-Fly. When the sun goes down and it gets cold I head into O10 trunk level to prep for paint during the evening.
          Attached Files

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          • #35
            These pictures and the restoration job you're doing is nothing short of astonishing!
            And I can't stop looking at the before-and-after of that 21MC...it's mesmerizing lol
            “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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            • #36
              Thanks.

              I got to go down today, Sunday. My wife said she was going to go to her Church, then women's bible study and then food after. Being Filipina this is a big deal and lasts about 7 hours. She would take the 3 year old with her. Asks what I am going to do because she knows I never set foot in Church and have a hard time being around 40 tagalog jabbering Filipinos. I say "oh, I don't know maybe down to the ship." Yeah, baby! I know Tom is there on Sunday and can find out what happened up at the Reserve Fleet.

              Tom tells me we got all the phone system parts off the Nereus in the nick of time. The Comet and Meteor were stripped clean so there was almost nothing of any value except some welding rods and machine tools. The Commodore, nickname for a old Army volunteer, walks into the machine shop. Before long we are talking about what needs to be done in the areas being worked on such as Scullery and Gedunk. What is interesting here is that the Administration is not involved in any of this. We walk through the area, look it over, and then make decisions on what to do and how to do it. The work I do in the Island is not supervised by anybody but me. The Head of Volunteers knows I am up there and leaves it at that. Nothing needs to be passed by him or anybody else as all I need to do is work my magic. If I need help then that comes in the form of Tom who is the true magician when it comes to fabrication, machining, welding and knowing what went where a long time ago. This is the part I truly love as we walk through areas trying to figure out what was there 42 years ago and can we replace it. The camaraderie of a couple of volunteers who really love this ship is hard to describe. The only drawback I can see is that, at 58, I am one of the youngest Ship volunteers while the Air Group has some in their 30-40's.

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              • #37
                Took a look at the FM-2 Wildcat to see what has happened. While they could done a slightly better job of putting in rivets that no one would ever see they have do some amazing things. This plane smacked into Lake Michigan which caved in the lower right side of the fuselage among other things. Not to mention all the dirt inside courtesy of Pensacola where it seems they pulled the plane and then put it in a warehouse.
                Attached Files
                Last edited by tbm3fan; 06 Feb 12,, 05:02.

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                • #38
                  tbm3fan, thank you for your good works on the Sabbath on the old carrier.

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                  • #39
                    Looks like I spoke too soon about the FM-2. That last shot of the body showing the access panel apparently the placement was very wrong. On top of it the two working on it tried to make it work despite the fact that the Zues fittings would hit a stringer inside. This was spotted by another of our longer term aircraft guys who pointed it out to them and showed them the assembly book and the pictures taken. I've been told they were ex-Navy A&P mechanics. Anyway they refused to redo the whole area. At that point they were relieved and had to leave the ship. The picture below is the whole area cut out as others try to repair the metal work and place the access door in the correct location.
                    Attached Files

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                    • #40
                      Interesting item here. This is why Zeros blew up in ball of flames while our planes didn't. The self sealing bladder from the Wildcat.
                      Attached Files

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                      • #41
                        tbm, where does this fuel bladder go? Due to it's symmetric shape, I'm guessing either under the cockpit or in the wing center-section (or both?).
                        "There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not there any more." -Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge

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                        • #42
                          It does not look that large. How many gallons? Are there multiple tanks?

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                          • #43
                            Tank states 115 usable ?

                            Originally posted by Ken_NJ View Post
                            It does not look that large. How many gallons? Are there multiple tanks?
                            Interesting, "The F4F-7 was a photoreconnaissance variant, with armor and armament removed. It had non-folding "wet" wings that carried an additional 555 gal (2,101 L) of fuel for a total of about 700 gal (2,650 L), increasing its range to 3,700 mi (5,955 km). A total of 21 were built."

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                            • #44
                              Originally posted by Ken_NJ View Post
                              It does not look that large. How many gallons? Are there multiple tanks?
                              The early model FM-2 had only 117 gallons internal, or 130 gallons with out the liner, and 116 gallons external. The late model FM-2 had 136 gallons internal and 116 external in drop tanks. Here is an exercise: try to find a shot of a Wildcat with the external drop tanks in place. Almost never in the Pacific as the pilots didn't like the performance with the tanks on. Maybe in the Atlantic where the Wildcat was used with the Avenger as a hunter-killer group looking for U-boats.

                              Here is the actual tank the liner came out of. Placement under the pilot and behind firewall.
                              Attached Files

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                              • #45
                                Only on models.....

                                Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post
                                The early model FM-2 had only 117 gallons internal, or 130 gallons with out the liner, and 116 gallons external. The late model FM-2 had 136 gallons internal and 116 external in drop tanks. Here is an exercise: try to find a shot of a Wildcat with the external drop tanks in place. Almost never in the Pacific as the pilots didn't like the performance with the tanks on. Maybe in the Atlantic where the Wildcat was used with the Avenger as a hunter-killer group looking for U-boats.

                                Here is the actual tank the liner came out of. Placement under the pilot and behind firewall.
                                My first model airplane built in the early 60's was a Revell F4F Wildcat with folding wings and it had the drop fuel tanks. ( Did I mention the model cost $0.50 cents plus the glue.)

                                But you have offered a challenge, I have never seen a Grumman Wildcat or a variant produced by another company photographed in the air with drop tanks.
                                If anyone has such, please post. ;)

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