Somewhat off topic perhaps but.... How's bout that PT-17 of the series?
Heavy Danger: War story in coming.
While I was building the D-VII mentioned above, a fellow flying buddy (Ken House...you still out there Ken?) was building the PT-17 that his father had bought. It was to be painted in the scheme of a PT-17 his dad had seen (and had pictures of) in the Colorado Springs area some years before. Btw, this is all taking place at RAF Wethersfield in the U.K. (Former USAF Brat here, ladies and germs). The color scheme was to be overall silver dope with a few splashes of black and yellow. When complete the silver did not really live up to the photo and Ken wished he could have done it in a more traditional overall Strearman yellow scheme, ala the box art. His dad, having been the purchaser of the kit, insisted that the model stay as per the photo. Try as Ken might he could not produce a good finish in the silver Humbrol dope he was using. After a full winter of building he finally convinced his father that the yellow would be a better choice and dad finally caved. Of course by the time it was done there was a lot of paint on it so the weight was up (but what did we know about that?....nutting that's what, ha ha. He also used small gauge piano wire for the lead-out material and for some reason the controls were rather stiff and not all that free moving. I had mentioned this to him during the build but he believed it was going to be o.k. Well come spring time, it was time to fly. I think I crashed the D-VII in short order and within a few weekends Ken was ready with the PT-17. McCoy .29 red head in the nose. Well it was as if history was to repeat in a fashion. The PT did a beautiful takeoff roll out and took the air and made a fantastic scene as it past me on the first lap. Extremel cool! But then things began to amiss. By the way, Ken's dad was present for the maiden flight also. The model went into a series of climbs and dives with each cycle getting larger and larger in amplitude. It was very sad, the longer it flew the worse the cycle got until the it was basicly doing wing overs at one point and the it went almost straight in. I remember that Ken was devastated, but I'm not sure it was because of the crash or because his dad was watching the crash of "his" model plane. His dad did not say much in the way of condolences to sooth Ken's state of mind, but he did say, "Pick up every piece of that thing and bring it home. Your going to rebuild it." Ken did just that. There weren't much left but tooth picks and tissue paper. True to his dads word, he began the rebuild of the model. The law had been laid down. He could not start on another model until the basket case of a Stearman was back together. I'm rather sure Ken grew to hate that model. He did give it the best attempt at rebuilding it (with all the original wood mind you) but as I watched the results were extremely poor. He worked at it for weeks on end. In time his father relented and the PT-17 was resigned to the garbage. Ken started on a Nobler I think.
T.
Topic: Sterling Nieuport 28 and Fokker DVII 34" (Read 3776 times)
