Saturday, July 30, 2011

July 30 B-17 "City of Savannah" Work

Spent some time at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum today to start documenting some of the power distribution wiring and such on the B-17.  We plan to have a manual that shows the installation of all of our equipment and the power up and operating procedures of the compartment.  I'll be writing a "preflight checklist" as well.  Folks will need to be checked out on how to bring everything up and how to operate the radios.  This is gonna be fun.

We also have recieved and installed an original FT-154 shock mount for the BC-348 reciever that is on the radio operators table.  They are alot more rare than the actual radios themselves.  Thanks to Tommy Garcia who found, purchased, and donated it to the project. 

I also talked with Jerry and Dave about our next couple of operating events.  We plan to operate on Sept 17 to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the US Air Force and again on Nov 11 and 12 for Veterans Day. 


Terminal block in radio compartment for 12vdc and 24vdc power distribution
Terminal block under radio operators table
Temporary power distribution switch panel to left of pilot in cockpit
Power distribution switch panel.  Original panel is out being restored.
Closeup of power distribution panel.  Note 12vdc for amateur radio equipment and 24vdc for original radio equipment.
RF Antenna Switch to allow new radio and original radio to share a common antenna.  Also note the BC-348 receiver to the right sitting in it's new FT-154 shock mount.