Originally Posted by
kram
Darned things always have that invisible expiration date stamped on them, don't they??
One of Rich's G-38's quit on him the first time he got it in the air, went into a death spiral before he could shout "Hallelujah!" His wife still refers sarcastically to it as his "$1,000 per lap" plane, which is mathematically correct, but still hurtful.
My Yellow flew sparingly for 4 seasons, maybe 30 flights total, including one engine-out that I was able to nurse back for a gear-damaging landing on the runway. In late 2005, I put it up for the 3rd flight of the day and the 3W24's were really starting to purr. At high altitude and a long way from me on the far side of the oval, it suddenly flipped into an inverted Death Spiral that I managed to convert into a flat spin before it hit the corn stubble. Because the gear was up and I cut the throttles, both engines and the gear were fine, but structural damage was so extensive, I didn't rebuild it. Besides, I was working on "the next generation" by then
I suspected an engine-out, but it was so far away from me I didn't hear it happen and couldn't reconcile that to how fabulously they were running. About the10th flight of that engine on a little Gee-Bee, I experienced sudden engine-out several times due to faulty solder joint on the ignition switch. EXCELLENT example if how a tiny hidden flaw that was little more than a diagnostic annoyance on a single engine plane, spelled disaster for a P-38!
Last picture shows me with the Yellow and my growing collection/obsession in 2004. All the others were built/bought from somebody else
Kram, painful stories...
The yellow looks better than the one I'm rebuilding! What happened to it?
In the end, they are really no different than any other big dollar, heavily loaded warbird, or jet for that matter,
except one big thing......they are totally unforgiving if you loose an engine!. You remember the old ducted fan days, everything had to be perfect, and things still went wrong....its kinda like that.
After restoring a couple cars, I am enjoying a smaller challenge, that isn't breaking the bank! I think I'm going keep it 10 footer, as adding lots of details, and making it perfect is only going add weight....anyways I really just want to see how it does with electric power! I'll give it a nice paint job, airbrush panel lines and streaking (lightly), some of Chads rivet decals and weather it, so it will look good, just not "put it on a table and show it off" good
I bought the gear from Jon, the guy flying in the video. He was nice enough to box up the carnage and put it on a bus. They did a great job of gathering almost all the pieces, so it is pretty straightforward putting it back together, just like a puzzle...with lots and lots of measuring. Since I had to split all the seams and jig everything up, I'm taking advantage of the "opportunity" to lighten it up wherever it makes sense. I know I'm putting weight into the repairs, so hopefully I will break even in the end. The big Christmas vacation push was to get the elevator build/install done, boom repairs complete, and re-seamed...which is done.
Now I'm working on the motor mounts. Building lightweight motor boxes which will tie into the front spar and pickup the fiberglass fuse right at the old firewall area. This will take a lot of the bending loads out of the firewall area fiberglass, and will be much lighter than the old 1/4" firewalls. The motor boxes will also give me a place for one set of batteries right behind each motor, with lots of cooling air passing thru.
Plan is for the guns doors to open for additional batteries in the nose as well as switches and air servicing ports. There was about three pounds of lead in the nose with the DA50s., so I am imaging I am going to need weight up there again
The biggest problem I am having now is that after 12 years of no planes, or planes sharing the garage, I once again have a dedicated shop just for planes! The down side is it is in the basement, so I have to plan all my layups and take it out outside which really slows progress!
The link below is has a few videos and pix, including a video of the flight, the crash, and the aftermath. The heart breaker is, I think this might have been the maiden
Mike
https://www.google.com/search?source...=Al+Ayler+p-38
