So anyway, I've been involved on this restoration project since early 2001. I've been absent a for a couple of periods that stretched into months. Basically, I was contributing very little to the project, though the people who I work with thank me for my help.

In recent months, I've been tasked with installing the pulley brackets that are located within the aft fuselage. Pulley brackets, you ask? See, before we became more reliant on computers (or before computers existed), controlling planes meant having cables that physically connect between controls (control stick/yoke, throttles, etc.) to the systems they control, such as flaps, ailerons, and so on.

The same holds true for the B-29. There are cables for each system, and they may stretch from one end of the plane to the other (picture cables running from the control yoke in the cockpit, sets for both pilot and copilot, that control each aileron, elevator, and the rudder (including their tabs), going from one end of the plane to the other, or even into the wings/stabilizers).

So why am I complaining? This is why:



I *cannot* find this bracket, except in drawings and technical orders. There's a trailer sitting in the hangar that holds parts waiting to be installed in the plane. It's not in there. Nor is it in the parts crib, where a lot of parts that need to be refurbished/replaced are kept.

Every bracket in the 44B section (the section of fuselage between the rear pressurized compartment and the tail gunner's compartment) is bolted in place. Every bracket, that is, except that one.

So, to summarize: argh.


-Fox

EDIT: ARGH.

[This message has been edited by Firefox (edited April 06, 2004).]

Yeah well, I'm not really aircraft savvy, but I'll argh with you.

ARGH.

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* Seb goes around singing "I'm too sexy for my body"
* Wolfy goes around singing "I'm too sexy for Seb's body"
* Cave_Demon steals Seb's underwear (underwear stolen: 39)

Sounds to me like you're going to have to shoot somebody. Bummer.

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Do you have stairs in your house?

[This message has been edited by Correction (edited April 06, 2004).]

Isn't B-29 the one that dropped the atom bombs?

Oh, and ARGH.

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Bliss is ignorance.

So, what do you do now? Is there any way to have that part manufactured or salvaged?

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I have a signature.

It probably exists somewhere, except that someone misplaced it. If not, I'll have to have a new one built, or salvage one from another Superfortress.

The photo was taken from inside Fifi, by the way.



She's going to fly, so no can do.


-Fox

[This message has been edited by Firefox (edited April 06, 2004).]

Assuming that it's never gonna be flown I'm sure you could get away with bodging it
Otherwise you'll need to machine a new part, if it's a simple shape it shouldn't be a big problem

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Fight like a Warlord

ARGH!

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Yeah, how's this for odd? My parents haven't been the least bit interested in my love-life my entire life, and now that prom is soon my Dad all of a sudden seems concerned that if I don't find a date and go it will mean I'm a social failure.
I don't get it... I accepted that fact a long time ago, why is he just now realizing it?
- Correction

WRAA!!

I mean, ARGH!

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http://www.sporkaudio.com

There's just one word that says it all...ARGH!
ARGH! when I'm happy,
ARGH! when I'm sad,
ARGH! when I'm good or bad.
ARGH!

On a more serious note: Is the thing your responsibility to keep track of? Isn't there someone you can ask about it?
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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right." -Isaac Asimov

[This message has been edited by Bobbert006 (edited April 06, 2004).]

Sucks that you're missing the parts you need

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

I've already asked other members who are higher in the chain than I, and they're perplexed as well. One hypothesis is that it's somewhere in the chain from removal to refurbishment to back in the hangar, ready for installation.

One thing I should note: Doc is a standard B-29, that is, not a B-29A or any of the proceeding designations. Each version of the aircraft carries different design features, some meant to streamline the systems. While the photo I showed in the original post was from a B-29A, I know for a fact that that bracket exists for Doc, since a: it's in the official technical orders, and b: there are bolt holes that line up where it's located.

Meanwhile, tomorrow I plan on trying to install a couple of larger, hinged brackets just ahead of the tail gunner's compartment (for the elevator control cables). I couldn't install them last week, but I'm hoping I'll have someone to help me.


-Fox

Go ARGH! someone else, would you? -.-

Hmm, ARGH.

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<landfish> FastGamerr > Satan

GHAR! er... HRAG!!... RAHG!

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Do you have stairs in your house?

ARGH

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IMPORTANT NOTICE PLEASE READ

Employees dying on the job are faling to fall down. THIS PRACTICE MUST STOP as it becmes impossible to distinguish between death and the natural movement of he staf.

Any employee found dead in an upright position will be dropped from the payroll.

It sounds like a room full of Howard Dean impersonators in here.

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You're entering a world of pain.
http://darkestspiral.greentinted.com

Don't you have another B29 you pull bits off for parts? kinda like the way people have cars without wheels in their back yards?(note: wheel-less bombs in frontyards="I can't be bothered moving this", wheel-less bombs in backyards="spare parts")

oh and ARGH.

They're not as common as you would think. Thousands were produced during the war, but only a handful are left today (the tail we're using was nicked from a museum piece. Doc's original tail had been chainsawed off, and couldn't have been made flightworthy.) We *are* using scrap materials from other Superfortresses, but unfortunately, not every component is available.


-Fox