My project is currently on hold due to a couple roadblocks of my own making.
First, I made a vacuum formed canopy, which came out OK, but triggered the need for a pilot. Since the model is 1/20, the normal Williams Brothers 1/12 unit is way too big. Based on advice from this forum, I was able to order what I need from Peter's Pilots in England. The price is bit spendy, but they offer a lot of sizes other than the usual 1/12, 1/8, 1/6, 1/5, etc.
The other unexpected problem was the basic Navy/USAF stars and bars decals. I was a bit disappointed that none of the three surviving hobby shop in the metro area have them. Back in the day, they would have been a basic over-the-counter item. Solution: the usual Brodak E-order.
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I did SAC alert for three years. I never gave the SKY COPS a chance to demo their takedown maneuver.
On one of my early orientation flights, I flew (as a passenger) from Orlando Florida to Goose Bay Labrador to pick up a couple of our alert crews. They were a 7-day rotation. While we there, we got re-tasked to take a detachment of SKY COPS back to Shreveport. There were about 40 men and 5 attack dogs (who weren't all that well-trained and didn't like the engine noise). En route home we found that they had been deployed to Goose for a 30-day tour of duty, but had not been relieved for 60 days. Their CO put up a stink to get them home without further delay.
Crew Duty Day is capital offense in the air force. This business of picking up the passengers and dropping them off at Shreveport would have run the AC out of flying time, so he went in back and went to sleep along with the air police and let me fly the plane. I thought, it just can't get any better! I haven't even had Lesson 1 in this aircraft and I'm at FL 310 over Canada with 60 men and 5 dogs on board.