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PeteJ

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Everything posted by PeteJ

  1. Surprising how many Tanker toads are out there. I always thought SAC procedures were standardized but I guess not, but then that wasn't a flight crew issue for the most part. I suspect the use of the MD-3 was a function of use of the APU on the aircraft. I remember there were intermittent warnings about fires on board. I hated that piece of equipment. For those who can't understand that, think of using a fire prone piece of equipment on top of about 180,000 pounds of jet fuel. Burning water. I will try to post a photo I took on a calm morning at Fairchild. I think most will love it. All smoke and noise. I also remember the crackle of the ol J-57's at 30 below zero, both in Michigan and Alaska. Takeoff at subzero was a lot less challenging than at a 95 degrees at U-Tapao. That old bird had a lot of different personalities from aggressive high performance to a ground hugging pig. A lot of thought went into flying it. Thanks for sharing!
  2. I would bet money that one of them is a relief tube. ;)
  3. It's great to hook up with another Tanker Toad! I remember the bungee cords on the engine covers. For a while the first pilot to the aircraft did the engine start, the second person cleared the engine covers and when up the hatch unless it was the boom. The boom did crew chief duties during start. If the copilot did the start, the they switched positions and ran the rest of the alert. Switching positions was never an easy task. In spite of appearances, the cockpit of a 135 is not that big and getting into and out of the pilot seats in a hurry was a challenge. After a couple of mishaps they stopped letting the copilots fire the engines and the AC had to do the job. It was safer and really didn't save enough time to make any difference. For us, on normal operations the pitot covers went under the chin like you described. I don't know who's idea it was to run them cross cockpit on alert, but it really made it easier especially in winter when you had to open the sliders to get the windscreen cover off. One pilot would grab the end of the cover and pull it in and the other would wind up the cord on the pitot covers and toss them to the back. Worst injury I ever had was the notorious waffle head. It happened on about the 5th or 6th alert. You only did it once, then you made damn sure that the hatch was secured before you stuck your head up. That hatch was heavy and hit like a ton of bricks. I remember the booms helping out with water heating during the winter. That was a real thankless job. They did use APUs for heating water. They were yellow at both Wurtsmith and Fairchild. I know they would use the internal APU if they were short of carts. I remember that the Solar APUs use to scare the heck out of me when I had to start them. Never had a mishap but I really didn't like starting them. I guess I was in during a time of a little more unrest. I can't say why but we had a couple of instances where the message was not a practice. The pucker factor went up real fast. I was also at Fairchild doing survival during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The whole base when on alert. I wasn't qualified at the time(hadn't been Castle yet) but they had anyone with wings helping out. As a newly minted butter bar it was really quite exciting..
  4. You are right about the positioning of the fire bottle. The memory dims a bit. My last alert was in September of 1981 at Fairchild AFB. Undoubtedly you have to choose the time and place for a diorama. I recall that there were compressors about also but they were there in the event of a failed cart start. I suspect that the photo you have seen may be from the ORI. The aircraft remained in a cocked configuration prior to flying the inspection route but did not do cartridge starts for the mission. If the IG was on the ground, you very may have all the normal starting equipment in place, but the aircraft were no longer on alert per se. During active alert the only time it would be see such things was during maintenance, when you were swapping out of an aircraft or crew change over. Crew changeover would probably be the busiest time. There were two crews at the aircraft. The oncoming crew would be loading up their gear and the retiring crew would be off loading theirs. Maintenance would be on site and the APU would be hooked up so the oncoming crew could complete the preflight and sign off on the aircraft. Thursday mornings were very busy in that respect. There was a lot of activity around the birds. SIOP had several different stages of alert from normal to airborne. Each was designed for a different threat level. There were several higher levels which required the crew be in the cockpit engines off or engines running. In the engines off mode the internal APU provided power. In this case the intake and exhaust APU ports on the aft left side would be open. Also during very cold weather there would be a heater with the tube stuffed up the crew hatch. I remember hating cockpit alert in the winter. I was at Wurtsmith in Michigan and it could get bitter cold. If the crew was in the cockpit, there would be a Dodge crew cab pickup parked off the right wing. That was crew transportation. It had a four sided yellow sign on the roof that said "Alert Crew" and a yellow strobe light on top. All traffic on base had to yield to those trucks if the strobe was on. The highest stage of alert before actual launch for airborne alert was with the #1 aircraft on the runway and the rest holding short behind it. The most terrifying and dangerous part of alert was a MITO-minimum interval take off. As I recall(and my memory dims a bit) the aircraft rolled at 10 second intervals. At Wurtsmith we had water wagons as tankers and Buffs both. As soon as the water injection kicked in, the space behind went IFR. Rolling down the runway into a cloud of black smoke in a 292,000 pound Molotov cocktail shot the pucker factor through the roof. Hope this gives you some ideas.
  5. It's been a long time(30+ years) but the memories of the kalxon blaring and crews running are as fresh as if it was yesturday. They come back really strong if there is the smell of burnt JP 4 in the air.
  6. On alert the aircraft were flight ready with no power carts or other exterior attachments. The engine covers were always in place front only. Each cover was attached to the next one by a cord. The covers where in tandem. On the 135 there is a duct at the wing root that has a cover as well. The pitot covers were in place and tied together with a cord that ran through the cockpit windows so the pilot and co-pilot could remove them when from the cockpit. Every thing was buttoned up. In the winter there was a canvas snow cover that went across the front windscreen and was held in place by the closed side windows. All alert aircraft had rollover wheel chocks which were very flat and placed between the trucks on the 135. The only auxiliary equipment were large fire bottles with side wheels behind the aircraft. Remember that these birds were set up to get airborne as quickly as possible. The first person to the aircraft pulled the engine covers and tossed them behind the bird. The pilot, co and nav went up the crew entry to fire up the bird and the boom maned the fire bottle and got on the intercom for the cartridge start. Once the engines fired, he went up the hatch and buttoned it up. Nav copied and authenticated the launch message and the pilots got ready to roll. Nothing but armpits and elbows getting the bird in the air.
  7. Acrylics over enamels should be fine. The easy way to remember what goes over what, is the relative strength of the solvents. Cooler or less aggressive solvents are generally OK over hotter solvent based paints. So the order would be(hotter to cooler) lacquer thinner or acetone, enamel thinner, alcohol, and then water base paints. If you put a more aggressive thinner over a less aggressive, the problem becomes that the hotter thinner dissolves the cooler paint and it expands and you get an alligator skin effect. Cracking the the opposite problem. Cracking comes from different shrink rates. Although paints may be dry to the touch and hard enough to polish, they continue to shrink for much longer. If the top coat is shrinking faster than the lower coat, then you get cracks. So when you are mixing types of paint the longer you can wait between coats, the less likely you are of getting cracking. When spraying similar type of paint, you have two choices, either spray with little time in between coat or give it time to cure as completely as possible. Now these are generalities and each paint you have will react differently depending upon the chemical makeup. Unfortunately although types of paint are generally the same, every manufacture has it's own mix, so composition is different and reactions are different. The only way you can be sure to get consistent results is to experiment and keep a log. The log should include, temperature, humidity, dilution rates(thinner to unmixed paint), and air brush pressures as a minimum. If you can describe your technique(distance from and speed across the target) these will give you an edge in getting a good paint job. Good luck.
  8. I know the box I showed is a bit more complex, but the advantage is that it is very versatile and being build of wood, it is quite durable. If you transport models frequently by air or car, it can be reconfigured very easily. I have a couple which I use for local transport. I use different pieces of foam to reconfigure the interior to handle several different models. Might be worth it in the long run, but only you would know that.
  9. The answer is very carefully! ;) Actually the best thing to do is to get the carry on luggage maximum dimensions from your carrier and build a box to at least 1" smaller in all dimensions and then plan on putting it under the seat. Sending it through as baggage will result in you having an all night rebuild session. I have seen the way Tamiya ships completed models and they hold them in place with 3/4" wide ribbon over the top to hold them down. I have copied their techniques with great success. Here is a box I completed to carry a model which will be transported a lot. It is 1/2" birch plywood and the bottom is lined with foam tool cabinet liner that I get at Sears. Very dense and stable. I made cutouts so the model is not resting on the wheels. The body sits flush on the foam. This way the model has a good stable surface to sit on. Hope this helps.
  10. Oh, yea it takes some work to get a really good one, especially if you have an old one with the pilot molded in half with each half of the fuselage. But they are still quick builds and with a little painting magic and a decent base can look pretty nice.
  11. Here is a web site that is guaranteed to make you chuckle. No rivet counters need apply. I met Milto through another internet friend, who shares my appreciation of these strange little models from Hasegawa. Milto is an Austrian who has taken this art form to an entirely new level. He was kind enough to post a couple of my creations under the guest section. Enjoy the site. http://www.eggstrememachines.net/ PS He has a section for other peoples builds on the "guest" button. Right now I am the only one with posts there. Check out the P-38.
  12. Heck, life in California has been shown to cause cancer! Just about anything with any solvent of any kind has that label when sold here. Typical case of gross over reaction in a highly litigious society.
  13. Weld-on can be purchased at any commercial plastics fabricator. Just google "Plexiglas" and your city and you should come up with a local sales point. Worst case try the yellow pages. This stuff is used to make clear displays of all kinds. I actually prefer Weld-on 3. It sets a little faster. It sells for about $15 a pint. I have a small 4oz can that I use on the bench. If you leave the lid off it evaporates very quickly, and sometimes I forget to cap it. Better a couple of oz. gone that a pint. By the way, it is not legal in all areas. LA, San Bernardino, and Orange counties won't let you buy it. Check your local zoning VOC codes. Having said that, it is really as good as Tenax and at $15 a pint, a whole lot cheaper. A pint should last for years.
  14. Mark, Thanks for the complements. The"piece of Junk" comment was intended with a note of sarcasm. Lumpus has encouraged me through the entire build on another board. Actually, after 3 years it was good to be done and now I can move on to other projects, like building another one, done correctly this time. :lol: In all truth, this was the second one and I am getting better. I actually have three more sets to build with, but I am going to let it rest for a while before I tackle the next one. Thanks again to you and all the other modelers who found this to be one of my better builds.
  15. I know what you mean. About half way through the build I purchased a Sherline lathe. This is the first of may pieces I did. Unfortunately, like many of the parts only I know what I did. You can't tell it is metal by looking at it.
  16. Chris - Thank you for the complement. You have a lot of very pleasurable hours ahead of you. I don't know if you have the Scale Motorsport Super Detail set or not, but that contributed a great deal to this build. They are becoming a bit rare as there were only 507 kits made. They do come up from time to time on eBay and are a bit pricey. If you don't want to go for the set, SMS sells the "Up Close and Mechanical" CD for about $15. It has just about all the detail photos you could ever want to build an accurate recreation of this car. I wish you good luck with the build and if you have questions, I will be here.
  17. Here are some photos of a Tamiya 935 1:12 that I built over the last 3 years. It has a ton of extras, most of it from Scale Motorsport, but also a fair amount of scratch built stuff. Enjoy.
  18. Ok, Porsche it is! New thread " Porsche 935 1:12"
  19. Lumpy - they don't want to see that old piece of junk ;)
  20. The Gillespie show is always a fun show. It would be my pleasure to meet you there. Last year I judged the car catagories and had a lot of fun doing it. Pete
  21. Thank you to all who have taken the time to welcome me. I look forward to sharing our common interest(and some not so common interests as well) with you. Thanks again.
  22. Mark Thank you for the invitation! I know that you have a very strong club, with some very talented modelers. Thanks to IPMS/SDMCC V.P. Skip Samples, I get your news letter monthly and it always has a number of interesting articles. It is a bit of a drive from San Diego and perhaps in the near future I could make the trip, but my better half would not be pleased if I were to add another club meeting to my monthly agenda. Thanks again for the invitation.
  23. Yes, that was mine. Here are all that I have left of it. Several photos. 5 years ago, some one broke into my garage on Easter morning and stole it along with several other models and R/C cars. Interestingly, the garage was full of valuable tools and they left all of those. Enjoy the photos.
  24. Hello from Southern California. I suspect that many of you know me from other forums or from local clubs. I build mostly cars, but enjoy forays into aircraft(use to be a KC-135 driver) and wierd stuff like egg planes and cars. On the wierd side I have a photoetched Eiffel Tower in 1/1000 scale on the work bench. I have been building since I was a kid and now that I am 60 I finally got into upgrading my skills. I use to compete in a lot of local contest, but backed way off 10 years ago when I won a trip to Japan courtesy of Tamiya/con, with a really crazy Dodge Ram/Ferrari TestaRossa cross build. Since then, I build more of what interests me. Last two major builds were 1:12 scale Tamiya 935's with Scale Motorsports unltimate detail set. I do a little bit of customer work, but don't make a living at it by any means. I just see it as a self supporting hobby. I really enjoy helping other modelers with their questions, so ask away. I belive in helping modelers with parts, if I have them availible, with the stipulation that they "pay it forward". I've been helped buy others so anything I can do to encourage you to help the next person, I'm down with that. Thanks for having me and I look forward to the new friends I will make here.
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