Usually , after flying the Budworm Profect , we would fly the Avengers Westbound back across Canada to British Columbia for the rest of the fire season. The TBM Avenger , although a tough and powerful airplane, was no match for the Douglas A26 Invader.
Here is another story cut and pasted from the Avcanada thread.
(By the way, Danny Fyne suggested I do this when we met at the pprune bash in Vancouver)
Posted: 2003-01-27 20:10
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I came out of the briefing with a much clearer idea of the target.
I was impatient to go and bomb the f**k out of it.
With CHEMO that is......
Well at least the doc told me how big the tumour is....just a little ******..about an inch by an inch and a half.
At least I'm still as good looking as I tell people I am....and healthy too!
Mid Eightees...not many fires around except in the NW corner of Alberta. In fact we left High Level under low cloud to bomb some fires around Steen River.We hated Steen airstrip because it was some grass, some sand, a few holes and some horses darting around. They don't hear too many Douglas Invaders around there.
Easy bombing out in the flat country and four A26's contained the lightning strikes with ease. Orders were to return to High Level empty and hold.
NOW GET THIS!
A four thousand horsepower WW2 attack bomber, empty. A half hour to get to High Level, A HUGE ego,and a highway cleared on both sides
just enough.....
I reckon I was slow cruising at 210 knots when I pulled up and half rolled her till I was pointing straight at the ground....aligned with the highway.
Speed builds up quick in the A26 and the controls get heavy so you have to tug lots to
get her level and the three hundred fify knots bleeds off to 210.....below the tree line...she fits ..trust me.
HELL! The landscape just bluurs by on the side but looking ahead is where the thrill is. OOOOhhhhHHHHHH! At first I though it was premature ejaculation.....but it wasn't.
The props going out of sync was the first sign...then the trembling and a big yaw>Nothing makes sense..I see the left engine shows a decrease in RPM....maybe failing...maybe I can save it so I pull back on the throttle. Looks like it is feathering...can't be. I haven't touched anything.Then a big scream as the prop goes flat and the forward speed of the airplane makes it overspeed...BIGTIME!
The governer failed to catch it and might I hint that the noise of an overspeed is incredible..and then another big shudder...it seems coarser..why?
Then a whiff of smoke gets my attention. It came in through the wing root.
Another YAW and BANG>>the engine fails and leaves me to deal with it...bloody well windmilling. The drag was fantastic...all of the trims never dealt with it so I rassled it hard over.
Up out of the trees only got me into the cloud layer above me....I have a problem!
More to follow .....OVER
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phillyfan
Joined: May 08, 2002
Posts: 641 Posted: 2003-01-27 20:31
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I can't wait!!!
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bohica2000
Joined: Aug 20, 2002
Posts: 49 Posted: 2003-01-27 21:13
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keep em coming!!!!
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Duke Elegant
Joined: Nov 28, 2002
Posts: 259 Posted: 2003-01-28 00:50
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The United States Airforce manual for the A26 states that you need 170 MPH on final with one windmilling if you intend to put the gear down.
Anyhow, I'm scorching down the highway low level scud running just above the highway.... all trims maxed out and still have to use most of the aileron into the discing prop.
I didn't want to do much turning this close to the ground so I elected to approach and land straight in. The quatering 20 knot tailwind never helped neither.
I braked the Invader heavilly and noticed out of the left side canopy that the prop was stopped.
"Well" thinks I, "no big deal..probably my third engine failure in a Twenty Six."
It's what happened three days later that pissed me off. The engineers had found that the left prop decided on it's own to go into feather and they showed me the feathering solenoid that had welded itself shut and ran the feathering pump till it burned out. I had mistaken the reducing RPM for an engine failure and what convinced me most was the shuddering as the pump worked hard against cruise power. I am lucky it never caught fire but the paint had cooked off. The engine came out of feather and it oversped and blew up OK? This had never happened to anybody before that we knew over fifteen years.
So anyhow, we were coming out to base three days later when Bhudda, the group manager, came up with the answer. "Why didn't you shut off the master switch therby isol...."..."
That's about all he got out. I was on him like ugly on an ape.
There are lots of times when things go for a **** and you are on your own. If you don't know what you are dealing with its harder to come up with a solution and then take the appropriate action.
I guess I was mad at him because I had come up with the solution already.
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Howey
Joined: Jan 19, 2003
Posts: 8
From: NWO
Posted: 2003-01-28 06:44
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Awesome stories!! Keep em coming.
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operator
Joined: Jan 29, 2003
Posts: 1 Posted: 2003-01-29 00:28
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Duke - you're ****in' best !
keep 'em stories coming, the whole crew down here in Africa loves them and loves you.
We know that if anybody is gonna kick the **** out of this 'c' thing its gonna be you.
Cheers, mate
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a300guy
Joined: Sep 30, 2002
Posts: 81 Posted: 2003-01-29 08:09
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Maybe the "Johnny-come-lately" with all the answers didn't know his systems very well. If the A-26 is like the DC-3, the feathering pumps are connected directly to the batteries. No circuit breakers, not connected through the master switch at all. Just hot wired directly to the batteries. If the feathering button welds closed the only way to stop a feathering pump is to land and disconnect the batteries! Or wait for the feathering pump to burn out!
Great stories!
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Duke Elegant
Joined: Nov 28, 2002
Posts: 259 Posted: 2003-01-29 11:59
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a300 Guy.
The twenty six is only slightly different.
We found out later that the fx pump doesn't go through the master switch . You have to turn off the generators. WHOODA THOUGHT?
(Scud running down the road with lots of loud **** goin' on...and I hadn't touched the button)
Then, how the hell do I get the electric flaps down?
Try doing a flapless in a twenty six one day.
Nose high and slightly faster. We practised them all the time in the spring for the ride.
But not with one windmilling in **** weather.
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