The Old Avengers

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

I was walking across the ramp at Carson, and noticed that our local Avenger was sitting on the ramp.  I knew it had recently come back from somewhere (Texas?) and that it had been flying a lot lately so I wandered over to get a closer look.

 

Handy for torpedoing enemy shipping, setting yourself up to become a President or a race car driver/actor/salad dressing mogul or just getting away from it all with 13 of your squadron mates in the Bermuda Triangle for a few decades (too soon?), the Avenger is pretty iconic.

 

 

First off, the thing is huge (for a single engine, carrier borne WW2 aircraft at least). It completely dwarfs the Saber behind it. I have seen lots of pictures of these where, by themselves, there is no sense of scale.

 

 

The wingtip is well above my head. I could walk under the wing without ducking just outboard of the landing gear. I am 6'2".

 

 

In just a few decades, the USAF will also have a centennial

 

 

Everything about the airplane is beefy and solid, well suited for slamming into carrier decks and being jerked to a stop by arresting gear. One reason for the physical size is that the torpedo was carried internally, or a 2,000 pound bomb, or 4 500s.

 

The control surfaces were all fabric covered, which kind of surprised me. I wonder if it made control pressures lighter. 

 

 

Fully loaded it weighed about 18,000 pounds. The wingspan is 52 feet, the prop is 13 feet in diameter. All controls are run manually.  There was the pilot in the front, of course, and the gunner in the rear turret all the way in the back of the canopy.  Originally all the space in between was full of radios, because 1940s....  Now it is a very roomy seat.

 

 

The tailhook looks kind of light but apparently got the job done. "TBM" here indicates this plane was built by General Motors. I guess they built things to last back then which is a design philosophy that changed sometime before my wife's car was built. I am interested in that hole that says "LIFT" over it.  It looks just like the sort of similarly labeled hole that you would stick a pipe or a rod through on a smaller taildragger to help maneuver the tail around by hand.  I suspect the purpose here is the same, which makes me wonder what the tail weighs and the scale of the pipe.  On the taildraggers I am used to working around, the pipes are long enough to get two hands on.  Looking at how the plane is tied down though, they clearly didn't want the tail swinging around on its own, and I am sure that could happen with the winds we get in Nevada.  

 

 

These are the rudder trim tabs.  I don't know why, but there are two of them, and they work independently of one another. I know the bottom one is the trim tab controlled from the cockpit.  The upper one is much larger, and I wonder if it had something to do with dynamic balance.  I have read that the rudder on the Avenger was not especially effective at low speed or in a slip, and in fact could "reverse" if the airplane was slipped too much, too slowly.  The POH recommends stopping the slip as soon as rudder effectiveness starts to decrease.

 

 

Not sure about this post either. it reminded me of a mechanical gear position indicator common on some aircraft, but those are usually near the gear - this is well aft of the gear and much larger than it needs to be for that purpose. It is directly over the flaps though and just behind the .50, so I suspect it was a mechanical indicator to show flap position.

 

 

This guy landed right after me, blew the right main and closed the airport for 30 minutes.  That is a CAP 182, and from the ramp I could hear the pilot on the runway loudly explaining to everyone that it was a beautiful landing.  I wonder if it was; I didn't see it.  It would have to be a very unbeautiful landing to blow a tire in good condition just from the impact of landing, but I have heard landing with the brakes on can create problems. I am glad I wasn't late getting home.

[6./ZG26_5tuka]

Nice pictures. The Avenger is an amazing warbird and you can be very lucky to have it on your local airfield

2014-11-08 12.31.54.jpg

 

Not sure about this post either. it reminded me of a mechanical gear position indicator common on some aircraft, but those are usually near the gear - this is well aft of the gear and much larger than it needs to be for that purpose. It is directly over the flaps though and just behind the .50, so I suspect it was a mechanical indicator to show flap position.

Not sure but oculd it be the tail hook indicator? Strange though as it is extendet, maybe it's not functional or indeed the gear indicator.

 

Probably as huge as the Skyraider, can't wait to see one at an air show 

Edited November 9, 2014 by [Jg26]5tuka

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

Nice pictures. The Avenger is an amazing warbird and you can be very lucky to have it on your local airfield

Not sure but oculd it be the tail hook indicator? Strange though as it is extendet, maybe it's not functional or indeed the gear indicator.

 

Probably as huge as the Skyraider, can't wait to see one at an air show 

 

 

Oh yeah!  The Skyraider is a very interesting airplane too.  There are two that I know of at Carson:

 

http://skyraider.org/skyassn/skywarb/132683/132683.htm

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/a1registry/a1-126959.html#thumb

 

The story behind the first one - as I understand it - is that when the US was pulling out of Vietnam, a South Vietnamese pilot decided to take his family on vacation with him to Thailand in the Skyraider.  I heard it was a fairly large family as well, and everybody was carried inside the plane, not as external stores.

 

I don't think any pilots in the world got as much time in the Skyraider as the South Vietnamese guys, flying most every day they could in combat.

 

The reason I suspect it is a flap indicator was that it wouldn't have fit inside the wing unless it went in at an angle or something or the flaps were moved out of the way.  That being said, I don't know one way or the other for sure and your guess is as good as mine!

[Feathered_IV]

Ah. I was expecting pictures of Diana Rigg in her prime...

[Cybermat47]

Ah. I was expecting pictures of Diana Rigg in her prime...

I was expecting that too, as well as pictures of Tony Stark and Thor from the 60's.

Edited November 9, 2014 by Cybermat47

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

I am sure I was not intentionally misleading in the subject line at all!

[FlatSpinMan]

The Avenger is just massive, isn't it?! Saw one in Christchurch at the Airforce museum.

I love this plane.

 

Actually, just by the by, I was biking around today and spotted one of these things scooting across the water. Never knew people still used seaplanes? Flying boats? (What's the proper word?)http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/row/us-1.htm

[I/JG27_Rollo]

Considering how large the Avenger is, it can be surprisingly nimble, too.

I saw it 1-2 times at an air show and it performed low-alt tight turns that I would have attributed to a biplane rather than that thing.

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

The Avenger is just massive, isn't it?! Saw one in Christchurch at the Airforce museum.

I love this plane.

 

Actually, just by the by, I was biking around today and spotted one of these things scooting across the water. Never knew people still used seaplanes? Flying boats? (What's the proper word?)http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/row/us-1.htm

 

That is pretty cool!  I tend to say "sea plane" or "amphibian" (if it can land on the ground as well).

 

At the same airport is home to a maintenance facility that specializes in Grumman amphibians, mostly Widgeons, but the also work on Albatrosses, and you'll see the occasional Goose around.

 

Considering the area is land locked, there are a bunch of amphibians on the field, including a Corvette powered SeaBee (wow that thing is loud!) that flies a lot, some SeaReys and similar light Amphibians,  and an Otter that spends part of its time on floats and the usual suspects of Carbon and Super Cubs on floats..  About once a quarter there is a splash-in at Lake Tahoe, and things get very busy with guys coming and going.

 

The Albatross on the field (there were three, one is for sale but I don't know if it is gone yet) are used for golf tournaments a lot.  They will back onto a beach and unload catering for dozens.  It is pretty amazing.

 

There is some video of them on Lake Tahoe:

 

 In related news - Tahoe is a BIG lake.

 

Kermit Weeks was just saying that he got approval to built new facilities up to 800 million square feet -- he sis going to do an art deco style Pan Am Clipper base.

 

Incidentally if you didn't know it, he is building a replica of the first airliner.  It ran in 1914 from St. Petersburg, FL to Tampa and back until WW1 grounded it, and had a perfect safety record.

 

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

Sorry, it is 800,000 square feet, not 800 million.  

[79_vRAF_Friendly_flyer]

Ah. I was expecting pictures of Diana Rigg in her prime...

 

We aim to please:

 

Kermit Weeks was just saying that he got approval to built new facilities up to 800 million square feet -- he sis going to do an art deco style Pan Am Clipper base.

 

Now, that is cool!