Hi Everyone,
Well Wanaka 2004 has been and gone. A fantastic show and it was great to catch up with many of you.
Since our last newsletter in February there have been lots of movements in the shop.
The Hawk 75 wings were completed in March, and were shipped to California where the fuse has now been fitted and final detailing is underway. Hopefully we’ll have photos in the next newsletter.
Judy’s fuse on the F Model P-40 has now been mounted on the wings ( another perfect fit – we must be getting to know how to build these Curtiss wings – 8 sets have now come out of the shop).
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| Judy's P-40F on its wings - complete "Mit Merlin" |
The Porter is pretty much finished, all it needs now is the engine & prop installed, plus finishing the electrics. Most of the wiring is completed, just needs the engine to finish it off. It is having a 4 bladed prop installed and this is currently away at the prop shop being overhauled. The new composite doors have been certified and the installation has turned out real nice.
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| Porter on wheels |
The first of Rob Mackley’s Lockhead 10 wings is finished and the second wing is up in the jig and the skins are coming off.
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| Finished wing with next wing in the fixture |
Ray Hanna’s Yak 3 is progressing rapidly. The engine is fitted and plumbing and wiring is progressing, as is the final fitting of cowls. The wings have the fuel tanks installed, with the gear being final assembled and installed.
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| Yak fuse with engine fitted | Underside of Yak 3 wings |
Of significantly more interest is Ray Hanna’s P-40E. After Wanaka this returned north to our shop for conversation to the Pioneer developed 2 seat configuration. This is the same conversation as used in the Darby Hogan P-40N1, Tony Banta’s P-40E and Jerry Yagens P-40E. This time however we are going a step further and fitting controls in the rear. This has involved moving the rear seat back about 6” so it is hard against station 8. This gives enough leg room for rudder pedals to be comfortably useable. Also included is a stick, throttle and prop control and some degree of instrumentation the degree of which has not yet been finalised. This is going to be neat and I might add that we are once again not drilling any extra holes or changing anything of the original components structurally. We’ve keep all the parts removed in an unmodified condition and these can be refitted at any time to revert back to single seat original status.
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| P-40E 2-seat conversion underway |
Work on our ‘in house’ project ( P-40N1 42-104827 ) “Come in Suckers” has been stepped up with one guy on ongoing components overhaul, another building control surfaces ( flaps almost finished ) and another working on the fuse components. Target is to have a fuse completed and all components overhauled by Xmas this year.
The Fairy Gordon project is on hold mode while an evaluation is done on the engines we have available to see if something can be resurrected. Anyone know of the location of Armstrong Siddeley Jaquer IV or Panther II engines or parts?
To finish up this month:
Jerry Yagens P40-E won the “Grand Champion WWII” at Sun-n-Fun.
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| Jerry & Elaine after winning the Trophy | Grand Champion Trophy WWII |
This is the second award where aircraft that has come out Pioneers fixtures has been recognised, the first being the Golden Wrench award at Oshkosh for the restoration of Dick Thurman’s P-40K.
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And how about this likely bunch. The Pioneer Aero folks are caught in the front of the La-9 at Wanaka with the Breitling Fighter Team pilots, the La-9 undoubtedly being the star of the show.
Ciao
Garth