I haven't updated this thread in quite some time. I tried adding some pics a few weeks ago, but Photobucket was having none of it that day. It seems to be working again, at least for now.
I mentioned earlier about the Warbird Weekend held back in April at the West Houston Airport. I recently found some photos taken by a visitor. He got a few good shots of the airplane.
Later that afternoon I went up for a training flight with our instructor/partner, John...the photographer got a pretty good shot here with the moon in the background, with John waving at the crowd. I had my hands full up front, no waving for me.
He also got a shot of us on the landing roll. It's so hot in that cockpit that we open the canopy ASAP after landing. The breeze is most welcome.
The next big event was taking the airplane to Oshkosh in late July for the big EAA Airventure show. John & John had already spent a day working on the airplane doing an oil change, which is a big job on an R-1820. During the oil change, one of the guys noticed an exhaust stack that had a large crack where the clamp holds it to the cylinder. That's a no-go item right there. Luckily, our mechanic buddy in SoCal found a replacement stack and shipped it overnight to Houston. I got to the hangar on Friday morning and we got to work. We installed the new stack and then replaced some crush gaskets on the front sump. Then it was time to put the cowling back into place. The three of us spent several hours fighting with the lower left cowl panel. We got it bolted into place but the pins on the other cowl panels just weren't lining up. We pulled it off and tried again, same result. Finally, in the evening, we gave up. Driving back to my brother's house, we were planning to leave the T-28 and just take his RV-8 to OSH instead. But during the drive, I racked my brain trying to figure out what was different from when we installed the cowls back in February. Then it hit me. COWL FLAPS! In Feb the cowl flaps had been closed. This time we were doing it with them open. It was a shot in the dark, but the only thing I could think of.
The next morning, we went back to try again. We closed the cowl flaps, and BINGO, the lower left panel bolted into place and the other panel pins lined up as they should. The problem was some interference with the oil cooler door (in the photo above, just above the nose gear door), which moves in conjunction with the cowl flaps mounted higher up on the cowling. We were quite relieved to get that problem sorted. We spent the rest of the day doing some small items, and then it was time to pull her out for an actual bath. Who knows how many years it had been since this thing has seen a hose and bucket. It was a lot of work, but with one guy on the brush and one on the spray nozzle, we got it done in about an hour. After that, John took it up for a short flight just to make sure everything was working properly.
Sunday morning, we pulled her back out of the hangar, topped off the fuel tanks, and launched around 0900 heading north. John took the front seat for the first leg. It was already warm and sticky on the ramp, so we climbed up to 11500 feet where it was nice and cool.
We had both spent a lot of time on the computer researching the best places to stop with cheap fuel and possibly chow nearby. We decided on Harrison AR. There wasn't much to choose from chow-wise, but we couldn't pass up the fuel price. At $3.49 per gallon, it was easily $.30-$.50 cheaper than anywhere else along the route. The biggest drawback with the T-28 at airports with self-service fuel (as opposed to a fuel truck) is that it takes up a lot of space near the pumps, and you can't push it out of the way for the next airplane in line. It requires another startup/shutdown/oil scavenge routine that is just a pain in the ass. Luckily the other pilots let us help them push their planes while we saved a start cycle.
Oh yeah? Well mine is bigger than yours!
I took the front seat for the next leg, heading for Watertown WI. Our plan was to overnight in Watertown and fly the remaining 50 miles to OSH early on Monday morning. Watertown had a Holiday Inn Express a short walk from the FBO, and a brewery about a 10 minute walk up the street. It was a perfect plan. Until it wasn't. When we flew the overhead break to land, we saw that the ramp was almost full of airplanes, with not a lot of parking space left over. As luck would have it, OSH had been getting dumped on with heavy rains from several passing storms. Because the grass was so wet, any airplanes planning on parking on the grass weren't being allowed to land. All of the airports surrounding OSH were jam-packed with airplanes that were just waiting for the grass-parking areas to open up. So we landed (and I got quite a shitty landing, thank you very much) and taxied to the pumps. We topped off the tanks and pondered our next move.
We chowed down at the Taco Bell by the hotel as John made some calls. Airplanes parking on pavement at OSH were still being allowed in. The T-28s get special prima-donna treatment, only the finest paved parking. Should we press on and try to land and beat the Monday morning pandemonium? What about a place to sleep? The Hol Inn Exp said we could cancel with no penalties (they had a ton of dudes beating down their door for a room), and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh dorms could get us in one night earlier than we planned. So that decided it...we suited up for the last 50 miles. As we taxied out, I told John that I wanted one quick trip around the pattern for another landing, and he readily agreed. I didn't want my first-ever landing at OSH to be as shitty as the one I had just done. Big crowds, lots of eyes and cameras. No pressure at all.
My second landing at Watertown was much better, and John didn't laugh at me. We then headed north towards Fond du Lac, Lake Winnebago, and the Gates of Hell that is the VFR arrival into OSH. I've been in the back seat of John's RV on the Fisk Arrival into OSH a few times, but this was my first time ever actually flying in. I sure was glad to have John in the back seat with the Arrival NOTAM in hand and calling out frequencies for me to use. But another prima-donna feature of the T-28 is that it's a warbird...and that means we get to use the Warbird Arrival, which is (in theory) much easier than the Fisk. We flew past FLD and continued up the shoreline while listening to the controllers. Normally you'd report over Warbird Island and they'd clear you in to a right base to land on 36. John was listening and picked up on the fact that the controllers were currently doing the Fond du Lac Diversion Procedure, which I was unaware of. It was a zoo...so many airplanes trying to get into 36, and one small guy slow to clear the runway causing the B-29 "Fifi" to go-around. I switched to another tower freq and held over Warbird Island for a few turns with a fighter of some sort already holding. I got a word in to the controller and was told to proceed up the shoreline, enter a left base for 27, follow that C-47 crossing the shoreline. Holy shit, it was really happening. I had to do some s-turns on final to make the controller happy with spacing, and he cleared me to land on the Orange Dot. I actually got a pretty good landing and it was almost on the assigned dot. John got a shot of my noggin while on short final.
Man, that was fun. The taxi in to parking took quite a while, but I didn't mind. Everyone either waved or pointed a camera at us; kinda makes you feel like a rock star while waving back at the crowd. We finally got to the T-28 parking area and I put it right on the line where the marshaller wanted it. I was happy with that. After shutting down and climbing out, I was so stoked. I gave John a big hug and thanked him for giving me the opportunity. Then I handed my phone to the nearest marshaller to take a shot...for Mom, of course. She loves stuff like that.
We put the plane to bed and headed for the beer tent. I think we deserved a few cold ones after a good day of T-28 flying. The next morning, we arrived to find our plane having been rearranged on the parking line. No big deal, since ours is easy to spot. It's the Cow Plane, after all. We broke out the cleaning supplies and spent a couple of hours wiping the oil and exhaust stains on the fuselage. Gotta make it look pretty for the crowd, don't ya know.
This year was the 70th anniversary of the T-28s first flight. The North American Trainer Association was having a special event in commemoration. They were going to park 8 T-28s on the ramp of Warbird Alley, along with 8 Beech T-34s (also celebrating it's 70th anniversary). They wanted at least one of every T-28 variant on display, and we had the only camo painted Fennec. On Monday evening it was towed over to join the flock.
In a strange coincidence, the red/silver unit parked behind the Cow Plane is the one previously owned by John and the other partners.
The airplanes spent most of Tuesday parked at Warbird Alley, being moved back to the regular parking line later in the afternoon. The orange-topped tower had a web-cam allowing a pretty cool view of the whole display.
On Wednesday evening, all was quiet on the warbird ramp. Even the Cow Plane looks pretty good in the waning daylight.
On Thursday morning, it was time to head back to Texas. I figured that since I flew the plane in, it was John's turn to fly it out. But he actually told me to take the front seat. To get the whole Oshkosh Experience, he said, you have to fly both the landing AND the takeoff. What a helluva nice guy! A passing photographer got a shot of me strapping in, with John on the left wing about to climb aboard.
After about 5 minutes of idling to allow the oil to warm up, we started taxiing, but quickly got caught behind a line of RVs waiting to get into the homebuilt parking area. That took a while, but at least the oil was plenty warm when we got to the runway!
John got another shot of my noggin while we taxied out. Still felt like a rock star waving back at anyone that waved at us. As we approached the Aeroshell T-6 Aerobatic Team parked along the taxiway further south, I saw a familiar guy beside the taxiway waving at us. It was Mark, the Designated Examiner who gave me the AEA rating back in June. He's one of the Aeroshell pilots. It was cool to see him again and return a salute.
After takeoff (always a thrill in a T-28, but even more so in front of the OSH crowd. Don't do anything stupid!) we headed southeast for a few miles to clear the airspace and avoid the inbound traffic; we then climbed up overhead into uncontrolled airspace and took one final departing shot. That is a whole LOT of people and airplanes down there!
We headed south for the cheap avgas in Harrison AR again. We saw a few other planes there fueling up at the same time, all heading to or from OSH. The FBO manager lowers the fuel price quite a bit during the week of OSH, knowing that what he loses in price per gallon will be made up in volume pumped. Pilots are notoriously cheap bastards, much like FJR owners. Once we got back to West Houston, it was back to the usual routine of fuel/tug/hangar/wipe, wipe, wipe. It was a really great trip.
That's all for now. Now that Photobucket seems to be working, I have a few more pics to post. I took the ship to the small airshow in Burnet TX, followed by a small EAA chapter fly-in for a buddy in Granbury TX, followed by the big Houston airshow last weekend.
