Sunday, April 3, 2022

Imagine the specialized skill you'd need to keep that running

 


18 comments:

  1. Imagine the money it takes to keep that running...... While there aren't as many radial engine mechanics as there used to be there are still quite a few just to keep all the old cargo aircraft operational.

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    1. I’m one of ‘em. Looks complicated, isn’t really. It works pretty much like the one in your car, just a few different parts & their arrangement’s different. Other than that, it’s a basic 4-stroke engine.

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  2. When those planes were originally designed the engineers said they would never go over 400 MPH. Hold my beer......

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    1. and watch this!!!!!!!!
      'Been to RENO lately????
      skybill

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  3. See how all of the exhaust pipes dump into that opening in the fuselage? They actually get added thrust from the exhaust that way. Sit down. Shut up. Hang on......

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  4. firing sequence is learned with math. can't remember it though.

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  5. I would imagine the job would be well suited for a nit-pickin' perfectionist who pays meticulous attention to detail and triple checks his work twice before he puts something on the ready line.

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    1. Understand everyone in the aviation industry needs to have that mindset. Everything you do to that aircraft during your workday could easily have a direct on not just the pilots, but anyone else in the aircraft at the time, to the folks on the ground under it IF it comes down anywhere other than where it's supposed to. It's a career I wish I'd stayed in, but life had other ideas.

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    2. I teach exactly that in my classes! No one, no matter how experienced, has had these words directed at them before and it is often stunning to the student to hear it:
      "These damned things are trying to kill you. They are not cute, they are not romantic, and they are not forgiving. They are trying to kill you".

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  6. Looks to be a Curtis Wright R3350. Had my hands all over 'em.

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  7. It's enough to imagine the mind that created the first one, but to figure a way to modify it for more performance must be genius.

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  8. It's beyond me,but it's got tits !

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  9. I believe the plane is "Rare Bear", a Grumman F8F.

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  10. Here is an awesome video of the Bear at Reno 2013.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CQLpByAbns

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  11. Hi All....,
    Rare Bear, Miss America, Dago Red, Dreadnaught, "White Lightning," Strega, Voodoo and I can go on!!!!
    Seen 'em all Fly!!!!
    "GO FAST>>>>>>>>>TURN LEFT!!!!
    skybill

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  12. Every summer in Mount Vernon, Ohio, there is a meeting of people with old Wacos, lovingly restored. All of them, of course, powered by radials.

    Until jets came along, radials generally gave the best power to weight ratios.

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