VNugget
suck squeeze bang blow
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Amazing shot of Mustang bellylanding
- Thread starter VNugget
- Start date
- Watchers 8
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THE Flying Ace
I'm freaking out man
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Duke Elegant
Well-known member
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Dragonbravo
Chicks dig beta.
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- Jan 21, 2002
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Sad, but not the end. We had a warbird restoration shop at my home airport. What an art! A collection in corroded parts comes in and a Oshkosh winner goes out. The belly landing, while painful to witness, is childs play to the people with the talent to bring the old birds back to life. I bet it's flying again within a matter of months.
EagleRJ
Are we there yet?
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- Nov 27, 2001
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True- they can pull a corroding hulk out of the jungle and restore it to flying condition. Usually though, very few of the original parts make it onto the "restoration".
Hopefully this mishap didn't bend or crack the crankshaft. Merlin parts aren't FAA/PMA'd to be made by anyone as far as I know. The existing stock is all that is left.
The rest of the plane shouldn't be too hard to fix. A little sheet metal work on the scoop, the wingtips, and the tailcone. If the engine is fine, the owner may even get it back into the air for under six figures.
Hopefully this mishap didn't bend or crack the crankshaft. Merlin parts aren't FAA/PMA'd to be made by anyone as far as I know. The existing stock is all that is left.
The rest of the plane shouldn't be too hard to fix. A little sheet metal work on the scoop, the wingtips, and the tailcone. If the engine is fine, the owner may even get it back into the air for under six figures.
VNugget
suck squeeze bang blow
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- Dec 4, 2002
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Whoa.
Once again I am fooled by some hobbyist's amazing talent.
I guess now that you bring it up, the couple of blades of grass in front of the radiator give away that the camera is "too" low. That tand ther's no N or serial numbers (I dunno, do they paint them on both sides?)
What gave it away to you?
Once again I am fooled by some hobbyist's amazing talent.
I guess now that you bring it up, the couple of blades of grass in front of the radiator give away that the camera is "too" low. That tand ther's no N or serial numbers (I dunno, do they paint them on both sides?)
What gave it away to you?
Thats not RC. Thats the real thing. The top blade and the blade facing out (horizontal) are Q-tipped. You can also see a faint puff of smoke behind the prop on the ground where the last blade hit. Also some "cement" smoke trailing the scoop. The antennae aft of the scoop is also modern. Any scale detail RC modeler would not put a modern antennae on his bird. Everything else can be reproduced to scale.
Q200_FO
What, No booze?!?
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- Jan 25, 2003
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- 220
Typhoon1244
Member in Good Standing
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- Jul 29, 2002
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Probably not...but the reason he's just sitting there looking forward is that the airplane's still moving.Q200_FO said:
If it were sitting still, you'd have to assume that the C.G. was approximately where the scoop is, and that wouldn't even make sense on a R.C. Mustang!
And guys, look closely: all the blade tips are bent. (Well, all the ones we can see, that is.)
Q200_FO said:
Definately not an RC plane. The tips are barely curled, and the scoop isn't crushed at all. At that point, he has probably barely realized anything is wrong. Probably just tenths of a second after prop impact.
I had more pictures of the accident, including pictures of the plane being loaded on a trailer. Not sure where I saved them now.
http://www.aero-news.net/news/sport...5253662-6d6a-45f7-9bed-9f617417f3cc&Dynamic=1
http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/survivors/pages/44-74878.shtml
http://www.warbirdalley.com/news.htm
Dan CFI/CFII
I'm a dippidy doer
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2001
- Posts
- 347
I used to work for a restoration shop (and yeah, we had a few Mustangs)...
The doghouse (or the "scoop") can be a real pain depending on what the owner wants and what gets damaged. The lip of the inlet isn't simple sheet metal, and those are getting real hard to come by. If the owner is a real stickler for authenticity, you've got to rebuild the doghouse with exploding rivets. Now, exploding rivets are a very old blind rivet, and even in WW2 only about 3/4 of them worked out of the bag. Now, since all that remain are leftovers from the manufactiring of that era--it's real time consuming if you try to use the original exploding rivets.
It it were my plane, I'd repair it with Cherry and be done with it.
As to engines and engine parts: these really aren't all THAT bad to find. There are still people holding onto preserved, never run Merlins. Just waiting for the "right project" to come along. But for the most part, a decent machinist can fabricate most of the parts like cranks and cams. That, and these were also made for Merlins used in larger, multiengine airplanes--so they may not have the "mystique" of being fighter parts, but the engines last longer with the Transport parts in them.
From what I remember, valves were starting to become hard to come by, as were D model props. There should still be a good number of K model props, but how many people want to own a P-51K? The P-51D just sounds cooler, don't you think?
From the looks of that, that airplane should be flying within a year, easily. Just remember, in restoration: if it got bent, we can bend it back. But if it got lost, we can't lose it back.
Dan
The doghouse (or the "scoop") can be a real pain depending on what the owner wants and what gets damaged. The lip of the inlet isn't simple sheet metal, and those are getting real hard to come by. If the owner is a real stickler for authenticity, you've got to rebuild the doghouse with exploding rivets. Now, exploding rivets are a very old blind rivet, and even in WW2 only about 3/4 of them worked out of the bag. Now, since all that remain are leftovers from the manufactiring of that era--it's real time consuming if you try to use the original exploding rivets.
It it were my plane, I'd repair it with Cherry and be done with it.
As to engines and engine parts: these really aren't all THAT bad to find. There are still people holding onto preserved, never run Merlins. Just waiting for the "right project" to come along. But for the most part, a decent machinist can fabricate most of the parts like cranks and cams. That, and these were also made for Merlins used in larger, multiengine airplanes--so they may not have the "mystique" of being fighter parts, but the engines last longer with the Transport parts in them.
From what I remember, valves were starting to become hard to come by, as were D model props. There should still be a good number of K model props, but how many people want to own a P-51K? The P-51D just sounds cooler, don't you think?
From the looks of that, that airplane should be flying within a year, easily. Just remember, in restoration: if it got bent, we can bend it back. But if it got lost, we can't lose it back.
Dan
EagleRJ
Are we there yet?
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2001
- Posts
- 1,490
Can a Normal catagory aircraft use a crankshaft that was made from scratch by a machine shop? I thought that would make the engine (and the plane) Experimental. I know a lot of warbirds are operated in Restricted category- maybe that allows use of scratchbuilt parts.
How many multi-engine aircraft besides the Lancaster and Mosquito were Merlin powered?
How many multi-engine aircraft besides the Lancaster and Mosquito were Merlin powered?
THE Flying Ace
I'm freaking out man
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
- Posts
- 164
The is a shop in Wahpeton, MN (Tri State Aviation) that rebuilds new warbirds including P-51's. They have the blue prints and jigs that allow them to build a practacally new P51. Last time I was there, they were completing a Japenese Zero. Very cool place to visit if you ever fly to Wahpeton.
You can walk around in the hangers and see B25's, Corsair's, etc. They all kinds of engines laying around and somebody usually will give you the tour and show you all of their presses and the sort.
You can walk around in the hangers and see B25's, Corsair's, etc. They all kinds of engines laying around and somebody usually will give you the tour and show you all of their presses and the sort.
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