Just now feeding the dogs and I heard radial engines ...

by JimT, Texas, Saturday, September 23, 2023, 09:18 (362 days ago)

loud ... powerful ... got out from under the oak tree and scanned for it there it was! A B-25 climbing out of the Georgetown Airport. We are 5 or 6 miles from the airport and when the wind is out of the east the pattern is just North of us.

It was a beautiful sight!

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Now that is a blessing

by Dave B @, Alamogordo New Mexico, Saturday, September 23, 2023, 10:23 (362 days ago) @ JimT

Great way to start the day!

Now that is a blessing

by A K Church, Saturday, September 23, 2023, 17:40 (362 days ago) @ Dave B

Cleaned freight planes for a while in the 80s. Outfit out of Tennessee used some Convair 440s and 660s, vintage even then.

Heard them start up many times. P&W R2800s. Gives me a chill to this day-listen to videos of R2800s on YouTube. Glorious stuff.

The only radial I ever worked on was the R985 Wasp Jr.

by JimT, Texas, Saturday, September 23, 2023, 17:53 (362 days ago) @ A K Church

by Pratt & Whitney. They were in the De Havilland Beavers. Had some interesting times with them. The Beaver has a crank on the left side by the cockpit door, that if the battery is dead, you get the crank, wind up this heavy flywheel and once it is going the Pilot pulls a handle and that engages the flywheel and turns the engine over. We were getting ready to go someplace in Korea and the battery was dead. I told the Pilot I would get out and crank it and he said not to bother. He had me stand on the brakes, make sure the magnetos were off, and he pulled the engine through 3 or 4 times. Then he told me to turn the magnetos on and stand on the brakes and he hand propped that big old Hamilton Standard prop like it was a J3 Cub! And he was a little guy .. no more than 5' 8" and not heavy.

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

The only radial I ever worked on was the R985 Wasp Jr.

by A K Church, Sunday, September 24, 2023, 07:39 (361 days ago) @ JimT
edited by A K Church, Sunday, September 24, 2023, 13:25

The R985 had some popularity in the day as the biggest motor you could somewhat practically stuff into a Stearman. This only with a lot of ballast in the tail, but it was done.

The Stearman was a pretty "dirty" airframe, aerodynamics-wise. Biplanes just are. So the 600 horse motor didn't increase the top speed as much as you'd think. It increased the CLIMB rate just a whole lot. There was a Stearman at the downtown airport for years, and it could shoot up like a geyser.

The first airplane I ever rode in was a Cessna 195

by JimT, Texas, Sunday, September 24, 2023, 09:36 (361 days ago) @ A K Church

that had a R985 engine sandwiched in it. There are still a few conversions of that around. I read about a couple that flew into Oshkosh a few years ago.

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Just now feeding the dogs and I heard radial engines ...

by Catoosa, Monday, September 25, 2023, 11:23 (360 days ago) @ JimT

I get to hear the round sound pretty often. There are a couple of Stearmans around, and several local guys have Chinese Yak trainers that they do formation work with on weekends. One memorable experience was seeing the two P-47s based over in Sevierville flying in formation over my house a while back.

My wife is always curious when I suddenly stop what I'm doing and run out to the yard looking up. Radial engines have a distinctive sound, but it's what they are usually bolted to that grabs my attention.

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