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Post by agile on Jan 20, 2020 11:46:47 GMT 12
Great progress! Mike, on the off chance that you need the plugs for the front of the IFF control panel in the top right of the second to last shot, a couple turned up here over Christmas and I think we have some other spare ones too - maybe even enough for a whole set.
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Post by kiwi285 on Jan 20, 2020 16:09:51 GMT 12
Great progress! Mike, on the off chance that you need the plugs for the front of the IFF control panel in the top right of the second to last shot, a couple turned up here over Christmas and I think we have some other spare ones too - maybe even enough for a whole set. Yes we definately do needs those plugs for the IFF unit. I have exhausted my contact without any success and we had decided to leave it as is and see what comes along. Anything that you could find would be very much appreciated.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 20, 2020 16:54:52 GMT 12
Woohoo! Good stuff Alex!
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Post by kiwi285 on Jan 22, 2020 15:23:56 GMT 12
I was away on Friday but I see this morning that they have assembled the prop and today they managed to mount it on the Avenger. We are getting there slowly. I see the Dave T has been spraying etch primer and undercoat on the aircraft so it is moving along. 220120 by Mike Feisst, on Flickr The brains trust discussing whether the need to time the mags again.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 22, 2020 19:58:51 GMT 12
Great stuff!
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Post by ZacYates on Jan 22, 2020 23:52:23 GMT 12
Hear hear! A great sight to see!
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Post by kiwi285 on Jan 25, 2020 15:48:41 GMT 12
Here is another photo of the Avenger sporting its new prop. some of the team have started cleaning off the accumulated dust and giving it a quick sand ready for some paint. Here is a question that hopefully some one will know the answer to. Bob showed me a lamp that looks like a formation light or ID light and we are wondering what it is and where it goes. We know that some aircraft had formation lights under the wings and sometimes a set of 3 lights under the rear fuselage. The item is about 100 mm in diameter. It is a blue light but the lens has misted up and needs a good clean. Can anyone give us some ideas as to where this might go. Politely of course !! 240120 (2) by Mike Feisst, on Flickr 240120 (4) by Mike Feisst, on Flickr 240120 (5) by Mike Feisst, on Flickr
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Post by emron on Jan 25, 2020 18:09:11 GMT 12
Mike I think that's a Corsair formation light. The TBF identification lights are a similar size and shape but have red, green or amber lens. The set of three TBF ones are mounted on the rear fuselage behind the bomb bay doors and are accessed from beneath the floor in the rear compartment.
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Post by kiwi285 on Jan 25, 2020 18:33:50 GMT 12
Thanks for the info - really appreciate your input. We will have to keep looking.
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Post by emron on Jan 25, 2020 19:01:42 GMT 12
Your search is for Grimes Recognition lights; AN3096-4 (amber), AN3096-5 (red) and AN3096-6 (green).
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Post by markrogers on Jan 26, 2020 8:43:28 GMT 12
The Corsair had a blue formation light on the top of both the wings near the wingtips and above the ailerons. The other lights, red amber and green,these were Identification lights and were underneath the wings, On some aircraft like the TBF or Ventura they were on the fuselage underside.
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Post by tbf25o4 on Jan 26, 2020 9:11:17 GMT 12
The colours on the light are also a good indication that it is an upper light rather than a under fuselage or wing light which would have been grey for the TBF
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Post by kiwi285 on Jan 29, 2020 14:12:59 GMT 12
Bob found this item that has come down from Auckland supposedly for the Avenger but we think it is off another aircraft possibly the Ventura. It is an Antenna Relay unit type CBY-29125. It was released from the factory in January 1943 and appears to be new and unused. On the front face someone has written in white ink what looks like GF ? ?V-1. Any of our resident experts able to ID which aircraft this item may have been used on. 290120 (3) by Mike Feisst, on Flickr 290120 (1) by Mike Feisst, on Flickr 290120 (2) by Mike Feisst, on Flickr
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Post by tbf25o4 on Jan 29, 2020 15:34:44 GMT 12
The bottom two photos indicate that the box was a test unit mounted within the aircraft radio installation to check current levels on the transmit and receive antenna (TR = transmit, REC = receiver) The local/remote switch allowed the antenna to be terminated at that box or through the whole system back to the main units. Similar units were used by us in the tactical ground comms environment in the 1960s
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Post by denysjones on Jan 29, 2020 18:20:34 GMT 12
Hi Mike,
As the name plate says it is part of the ATA system that being the (T)ransmitter side of the US Navy ARA/ATA system dating from 1940 and which was eventually superceded by AN/ARC-5.
The unit is the MF/HF antenna relay and if all things are as they should be the mounting tray it's on should be CBY-29126 (or so says Wikipedia's article on ARC-5).
cheers
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Post by davidd on Jan 29, 2020 20:08:17 GMT 12
ARC-5 radios were fitted to our F4U-1 and -1D Corsairs, and some FG-1Ds (remaining FG-1Ds had ARC-4s I believe). I think some of our Harvards were also fitted with ARC-5s, but that would have been postwar. David D
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Post by davidd on Jan 30, 2020 14:52:02 GMT 12
I decided, after posting above message, to check out something that has been preying on my mind - what was the USAAF variant of the AN/ARC-5 radio equipment (if such an equivalent existed of course). And would you believe it, such an equivalent did indeed exist - the SCR-274N! Yes, the original radio fitted in most P-40s, P-39s, etc. Also, prior to the introduction of the "AN" system of designations, the ARC-5 was known to the US Navy as the ARA/ATA as noted above. I think that the AN system for radios (as well as thousands of other hardware items) came into general use in perhaps the latter half of 1943. A quick Google should locate the Wikipedia article using "AN/ARC-5", see what you think. Information on the ARC-4 is a bit more difficult to locate, so keep looking! It is there! The USAAF SCR-522 sets (which replaced the SCR-274Ns in most RNZAF P-40s, probably also in USAAF) was a mass-produced American copy of a British VHF command set, the TR 1143. David D
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Post by kiwi285 on Feb 19, 2020 14:05:13 GMT 12
Great news fans - the old girl coughed into life this morning for the first time. Good timing on my part. As you might expect of an ex WW II round engine that hasn't made noises for at least 30 years there was heaps of smoke but that soon cleaned up. We had a lot less trouble getting this one started than the engine in 2505. Really feels like we are getting to the end of the project. 190220 (4) by Mike Feisst, on Flickr
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 19, 2020 14:57:43 GMT 12
That is absolutely fantastic! Congrats and well done team!!
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Post by kiwi285 on Feb 19, 2020 15:13:26 GMT 12
Here is another video, this time of the very first start. We were all standing round hoping the old girl would fire up but not really sure if it would. Like all old machinery that hasn't run for numerous years. 190220 (1) by Mike Feisst, on Flickr
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