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The Organ

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Posted
On 9/14/2018 at 10:26 AM, RA1 said:

Fifi has made numerous tours over the years offering rides for a few hundred dollars per passenger.  It really is as complicated as it seems in the video.  Bob Wilson, owner of Wilson Air Center in Memphis, is the guy in the nose in the blue shirt taking cell phone pix.  

Amazing aircraft.  Thanks for the video.

Best regards,

RA1

Another performance.

 

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Posted

Thanks for the vid.  Did you notice that before starting they motored each engine through about 8 blades?  That is because round engines had top, side and bottom cylinders.  The bottom cylinders can collect oil in them if various seals are not perfect.  That will cause a hydraulic lock in that cylinder and cause it to become separated from the main engine.  Not good.  On large round engines there is a clutch to disengage the starter if there is a hydraulic lock and that is why they motor the engine.  Smaller engines like on the DC-3 do not have this clutch and a smart crew will do this "motoring" by hand before entering the aircraft.

Next and before the actual start they motor the engine while fuel is available but not ignition.  This charges each cylinder with fuel so that when ignition (the magnetos) are engaged, the engine will start. Again they count the blades (meaning counting each prop blade as it advances) before ignition.

Old airplanes are lots of fun but lots of work.  :)

 

Best regards,

RA1

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Posted

Thanks for teaching me something new today,  RA1. Details like this are fascinating, especially when received from someone in whom you can have a high level of confidence.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted
7 hours ago, RA1 said:

Thanks for the vid.  Did you notice that before starting they motored each engine through about 8 blades?  That is because round engines had top, side and bottom cylinders.  The bottom cylinders can collect oil in them if various seals are not perfect.  That will cause a hydraulic lock in that cylinder and cause it to become separated from the main engine.  Not good.  On large round engines there is a clutch to disengage the starter if there is a hydraulic lock and that is why they motor the engine.  Smaller engines like on the DC-3 do not have this clutch and a smart crew will do this "motoring" by hand before entering the aircraft.

Next and before the actual start they motor the engine while fuel is available but not ignition.  This charges each cylinder with fuel so that when ignition (the magnetos) are engaged, the engine will start. Again they count the blades (meaning counting each prop blade as it advances) before ignition.

Old airplanes are lots of fun but lots of work.  :)

 

Best regards,

RA1

Fascinating!

I knew nothing of those complexities. So it was not usually the magneto thing I mentioned above that caused fairly numerous crashes off Tinian, but the engine things you describe.

Many thanks. Again, fascinating to know.

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Posted
57 minutes ago, AdamSmith said:

Fascinating!

I knew nothing of those complexities. So it was not usually the magneto thing I mentioned above that caused fairly numerous crashes off Tinian, but the engine things you describe.

Many thanks. Again, fascinating to know.

More than likely it was low time pilots and heavy loads which left little to no room for error in flying the aircraft.  

Best regards,

RA1

Posted

One Art

 
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
 
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
 
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
 
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
 
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
 
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
 
Elizabeth Bishop, “One Art” from The Complete Poems 1926-1979. Copyright © 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC.
Source: The Complete Poems 1926-1979 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983)
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