Category Archives: CAF

March 4, 2015 · 20:49

‘Fifi’ Panoramas

Out on our (“our” = Commemorative Air Force Southern California Wing at Camarillo Airport) ramp this evening:

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This picture is the “serious” version. From left to right:

  • The tip of the tail of our SNJ4
  • The tip of the tail of our PBJ (Marine Corp version of the B-25)
  • Our SNJ5, the yellow plane)
  • “Fifi,” the honkin’ big, silver, four-engine B-29 Stratofortress
  • “Bucket Of Bolts,” a C-45 Expeditor, the military version of the Beech 18 (brown with yellow wings)
  • “China Doll,” our C-46 Commando
  • The B-29 Squadron’s setup for selling rides, hats, T-shirts, patches, toys, and so on

[[LATE EDIT — Remember, click on any picture to see the full-sized version]]

Now for the “not-so-serious” version:

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When you take a panorama photo on the iPhone, you pan left to right with a little arrow following a yellow line to make sure that you keep the camera level and the panorama looking all professional. I was wondering what happens when you ignore the little arrow and the yellow line…

This looks like something fun to play with in the near future.

 

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March 3, 2015 · 22:22

‘Fifi’ Arrives At CMA

Today it was “clear & a million,” so ‘Fifi’ made her arrival at Camarillo. She’ll be here through Sunday if you want to see her. If you’re not in this area, watch for her to come to someplace closer to you.IMG_7399

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March 2, 2015 · 22:22

Weather 1, ‘Fifi’ 0

The plan was for the CAF’s ‘Fifi’, the world’s only flying B-29, to fly from Phoenix (where it spent the weekend) to Camarillo today.

Aren’t plans wonderful? Do you hear the gods laughing?

IMG_7382Since airlines were grounding their modern, new, advance tech commercial jets in Phoenix this morning, it didn’t seem wise to try to take off in an irreplaceable 70-year-old WWII bomber. Aside from all of those CAF rules and all of that, there’s common sense to consider.

IMG_7383Even if Phoenix had been clear, they would have had to somehow get through all of these dark green and yellow and pink splotches to get to the big blue dot on the far left. Again, flying anything into a thunderstorm is contraindicated, and it’s contraindicated^10 for B-29s. (I think it’s phrased exactly that way in the original B-29 user’s manual.)

IMG_7385Meanwhile, about the time that we were expecting ‘Fifi’ in Camarillo, the clouds were broken directly overhead, but getting darker.

IMG_7391Two hours later it was still ugly over the mountains and getting worse, with that blotch at the bottom heading for us with hail, strong winds, and heavy rain. (Google for pictures of the pier in Huntington Beach covered in hail today, covered to the point where it looks like they got a couple inches of snow.) There were also some heavy rains back over our house.

IMG_7396Looking off toward all of those big, dark green blotches, it was again not a good sky to be flying through.

Discretion being the better part of valor, ‘Fifi’ and her crew stayed in Phoenix and will come out to Camarillo tomorrow. The forecast for the whole area looks beautiful. It will be great to see ‘Fifi’ flying in again with some of our fighters providing the escort.

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February 28, 2015 · 23:23

How Fast Can You Install A P-51 Engine?

Last Saturday I posted pictures from the installation (“hanging”) of a new Rolls Royce engine in “Man Of War,” the P-51 operated by the Southern California Wing of the Commemorative Air Force. (Full disclosure, again – I’m the Finance Officer for the CAF SoCal Wing so there’s no impartiality at all here!)

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If you’re as mechanically-minded and skillful as I am (that’s humor – I have changed the oil, installed new batteries, and changed the wiper blades on my cars, beyond that I’m clueless) you might wonder how long it takes to get a huge, powerful, intricate piece of machinery like this up and running after it’s hung in the aircraft frame.

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After all, you have to reattach tanks, coolers, radiators, hoses, electronics, instrumentation, fuel lines, controls, the propeller…

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Not to mention, as long as you’re spending all this time tearing the plane down to nuts and bolts, you might as well check everything else and put on new brakes and so on…

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A month? Six weeks? Eight? At least three weeks, right?

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Try one week. Seven days. This is the engine late this afternoon ready for its first test start.

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Not only our our members (I was going to say “guys” in the generic sense, but we have some fantastic women mechanics as well) devoted and dedicated, but they’re pretty stinkin’ good as well!

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So how did the test go? Started on the first try. With luck, in the next day or two, after further testing and correcting any problems that pop up (plus, of course, putting all of the cowlings back on), we’ll start flight testing to get her recertified. Ten minutes at first, then an hour, then a couple hours, checking for problems after every flight, before she’s ready to hit the airshow circuit and start taking passengers up for the ride of their lives.

I did mention that you can buy a ride, didn’t I? For about what you would pay for a family of four to go to Disneyland (okay, that’s a cheap shot, but it’s not that inaccurate) you can have a fantasy ride. It’s a LOT cheaper than learning to fly, building up all the hours and ratings needed, and then spending $3M+ on your own P-51! Trust me, I’ve flown in her, it’s way better than any “E-ticket” ride you’ve ever been on!

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February 24, 2015 · 22:47

Gonzo Is As Gonzo Does

A little “heads up!” here — the next two weeks or so will be a bit gonzo at this end. Pickings here might occasionally be on the thinnish side.

“Fifi,” the world’s only flying B-29, restored, flown, and operated by the Commemorative Air Force, will be at my Southern California Wing of the CAF from next Monday to the following Sunday. We expect to see a lot of interest, large crowds, and a ton of work for the CAF SoCal members and staff.

On the good side, you’re likely to get a LOT of pictures of “Fifi” from just about every angle possible. I doubt that I’ll get a chance to go up and fly in her (this time, at least) but other than that I’m expecting some great images to share.

In addition, we’re trying to finalize a complete redesign of our CAF SoCal website, and get it live by the end of this week. (It’s going to look great!)

And my annual audit by the CAF HQ financial staff and their auditors will be next week, while all of this is going on.

Between A, B, and C, I expect to be pulling some long hours.

Gonzo.

For an example of what I consider to be “gonzo” content, consider this:

Tonight we had a lovely quarter moon and it was finally clear as a bell in Los Angeles. The moon was quite bright, directly overhead through the trees when I took Jessie out in the back yard for her “evening constitutional.”

Jessie finished peeing in her chosen spot deep in the shadows, then wandered into the bushes to sniff for squirrels, bunnies, skunks, and raccoon. I chose to admire the stars peeking through the pine trees and pray that Jessie didn’t find any squirrels, bunnies, skunks, or raccoon. (She didn’t, although someone in the neighborhood very nearby obviously met a skunk. WHEW!!)

When I looked back down at the yard, I was struck by how I could see the puddle where Jessie had peed. The outline of the puddle was very bright and clear as it reflected the moonlight perfectly. The whole yard was dark, but I could clearly see that one spot lit up. It was almost like I was seeing sunlight glinting off of the seas of Titan, visible through the methane haze. As the fluid soaked into the ground, the vision faded.

“Reflections On A Pee Puddle.” Gonzo.

 

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Filed under CAF, Critters, Dogs, Space, Uncategorized

February 21, 2015 · 22:40

How Do You Install A New Engine In A P-51 Mustang?

Very, very, very carefully!

Since the plane is worth multiple millions of dollars, the engine is worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the engine weighs many hundreds of pounds and is an incredibly tight fit into an airframe that’s tilted up into the sky and six or seven feet above you, this is not a trivial endeavour.

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You start with a sort of engine-shaped hole in the front of your P-51, maybe some new cables and wiring.

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You need a brand new, ready-to-go Rolls-Royce engine. Zillions of horses are carefully contained within.

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You get a big crane. You can try it with a fork-lift or a winch, but given the monetary sums and risks involved, let’s not and say we did, okay? Go with the big crane.

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After hours of preparation, you get the engine airborne.

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You move it very slowly and gently over the nose of the aircraft.

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Line it up.

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Start to lower it.

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Move it and lower it very, very, very, very, very, very slowly, constantly checking to make sure that all of those hoses and wires are still where they’re supposed to be when they get hooked up next week. Everything on the engine has to line up correctly on the engine mount pins.

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One last check as tension starts to come off the hoist.

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Two months or more of preparation pays off with a perfect job. Now to hook everything up and get her flying again! We’re not there yet, but today we passed a major milestone.

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Kudos to Trace Eubanks, our P-51 crew chief, his crew, and all of the other mechanics at the Southern California Wing of the Commemorative Air Force who put so much time, effort, sweat, and care into taking care of these precious and wonderful machines!!

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February 20, 2015 · 22:29

Flat Surf

Long day, many dragons slain, but still, a long day. Long night, the annual Habitat For Humanity Builder’s Ball. (You may recall that The Long-Suffering Wife is on the board.) Got to shake the hand of a “Congress critter,” to use Jerry Pournelle’s old term. Early meeting and long day tomorrow with the monthly CAF staff meeting and two more meetings after that.

Have some beach pictures! The surf was not up on this day, “breakers” of one foot or less. But it was very sunny, warm, and peaceful. The sandpipers loved it.

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January 27, 2015 · 22:05

Panoramas: Spring Is Coming

Lest all of my friends in Boston and Massachusetts (Hi, Peter! Hi, Debbie!) despair of ever finding the bottom of the snow drifts that have them marooned in their own homes, so that they don’t all think that Eddard Stark was the one true prophet, here’s a picture from today at Camarillo Airport following yesterday’s “relentless drizzle”:

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SPRING IS COMING!

By the way, have I mentioned how much I like the “pano” feature on the new iPhones? It’s fast, easy, intuitive, and you save all the time of having to stitch together individual photo frames. You can then immediately email it, post it, or upload it.

The only negative I’ve found so far is that you can’t do a full 360° panorama. Plus, stitching together a ton of high-resolution individual photo frames will give you a MUCH more detailed panorama.

However, the trade-off for speed and ease is worth it. Plus, of course, I also had my “good” camera with me and took the frames I need for that full-sized panorama.

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iPhone panorama (top) is 6816 x 1479 (10.1 megapixels). This version is slightly “smoother”, for example, if you look at the far edge of the taxiway in front of me.

Panorama from nine frames of 3888 x 2592 (10.0 megapixels) each combine to an image of 13,386 x 2,290 (30.6 megapixels).  This version has much better dynamic range (items in shadow show up much better) and viewed full-sized (click on either image) it’s a much more detailed picture.

Both are great for what they do and what their strong points are. Neither is perfect.

But the bottom picture does have that fantastic Socata TBM 700 taxiing by at the far left. (And the resolution to be able to read the N-number!)  NICE plane!

Chin up, Southern New England!

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Filed under CAF, Panorama, Photography, Weather

January 24, 2015 · 23:20

Wind

The Santa Ana winds are blowing.

Anyone who has lived in Southern California know what that means. High pressure over Nevada, strong offshore winds, adiabatic heating, and the wind funneling through canyons and mountain passes speeds up as it’s squeezed through.

It was starting to kick up when I left for the CAF hanger this morning.

Out in Camarillo, near the ocean, near the edge of a large plain to the south of many of those aforementioned canyons and mountain passes, it was blowing a steady 20 to 30 knots, occasionally getting up to 35 knots steady, with gusts on and off to 50+ knots. Many of us there (most of us pilots) thought that might be a low value for some of the more severe gusts.

Planes have a tendency to blow about in such winds, but we made it through the day with just a couple of worrisome moments, no actual emergencies or damage. But it kept everyone hopping. The rides we had scheduled for the day got re-scheduled, obviously. Gusts of 20 to 25 knots are “exciting” in a small plane. Gusts of 40 to 50 knots can be downright dangerous. Let the business jets and commercial airliners have the skies today.

It also turns the huge hangers (like where I spend most of my days) into drums as the thin metal siding rattles and vibrates. Even more attention-getting, when you get a gust that REALLY howls past, some of the little holes in the structure (around doors, where wiring and pipes enter the building, etc) can act like wind instruments, giving off some truly ungodly howls.

Jessie loves it when it blows like this.

We suspect that it’s because there are so many new and interesting smells coming from far away. To us it just means allergies and sandpaper dry skin — to her it’s a cornucopia of sensations that we can’t even imagine. Her nose twitches a mile a minute, her head swivels to listen to the wind in the trees and catch the next exotic scent. For a few minutes, she’s a puppy again and the whole world is hers to explore.

The Santa Ana winds are blowing.

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December 15, 2014 · 21:43

On The Other Hand, Forty (And Seventy) Years Ago Today

Yesterday was serious and melancholy which turned to pissed off when I accidentally exposed myself to weapons-grade stupidity – and now for a couple of somethings completely different.

Forty years ago, on December 15, 1974, “Young Frankenstein” opened in theaters.

Sooooo many quotes good for sooooo many occasions.

I’m a huge fan of Mel Brook’s work. “Young Frankenstein” is a cinematic treasure in my book. The cast was perfect, the stupid, double entendre jokes were perfect, the homage to classic B&W horror films was perfect.

If you haven’t seen it, well, what the hell are you waiting for?

Ditto for “Blazing Saddles,” which came out February 7, 1974. How did 1974 get to be so freaking amazing for classic comedy films?! Both films are incredibly funny, rude, stupid in a very intelligent way, and classic.

Seventy years ago, on December 15, 1944, Glenn Miller was killed when his plane was lost over the English Channel. The band leader was a Major in the Army Air Corps at the time, entertaining the troops in England and Europe in person and entertaining the world via radio.

My introduction to swing music came in by sophomore year of high school, when our band leader, Mr. Rowell, experimented with starting a small, after school, extracurricular swing band. I was playing French horn in the regular band, because they needed French horns. I had originally learned to play trumpet, but everyone plays trumpet, so rather than be seventeenth seat (of eighteen or nineteen) in the trumpet section, I was second or third seat (of three or four) in the French horn section.

But I still liked playing trumpet, so I joined the swing band. The first thing we learned was “American Patrol” and it was a whole new musical world opening up for me. Still just love that song! (That YouTube video has a lot of great warbird pictures, including the CAF’s own “Fifi” at about 2:30. She’s the only remaining flight-worthy B-29 in the world.)

The Springfield High School Swing Band never went very far that I remember, but the music remains great. So in memory of Glenn Miller, play a little bit of “In The Mood,” “String Of Pearls,” “Moonlight Serenade,” “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” or even “Little Brown Jug.”

That last song was portrayed as one he hated in the classic movie with Jimmy Stewart, June Allyson, and Harry Morgan. His dislike for the song is a plot device and “literary license,” but I won’t give away the ending for those who haven’t seen the film. Yet another classic film!

(Because you will, of course, go see it immediately, won’t you? Oh, and see it in black & white, the way it was made and meant to be seen, not in the vile and disgusting abomination that is “colorized” black & white, created as a gimmick because Hollywood and Wall Street think we’re too ignorant or unrefined to watch anything that’s not in color. Don’t get me started! Wait, too late…)

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