Charlie looking GOOD!

Charlie has a bit of a split personalilty, as we have decided to paint one half in Army drab, and the other half in Marine Corps green.

We have had an incredible week! Charlie is coming along great! We have a few people who have taken charge of critical projects, and WE HAVE PAINT on the fuselage!

My brother Cal Collier, U.S. Air Force veteran, has been visiting and he has taken control of the painting of Charlie, and the old dawg is looking good!

Here is the Army side of Charlie, complete with banner about the project.  It says, in part:
"To help or donate, call Bill Collier, 208-597-0622"   see another picture for a better view of the banner.
Speaking of which, we could stand to have a few more donations.  As with any project, there are always lots of little unexpected things that eat into the budget,  we are over budget a bit on this project.  Help, please.
 
If you would like to donate a few bucks, please send tax deductible donations made out to:
V.V.A. chapter 890, Sandpoint, ID 
Send to:  Bill Collier, 402 Sandpoint Ave. No. 224, Sandpoint, ID 83864. 
All help will be greatly appreciated.

Here is Cal standing in front of the USMC side of Charlie.

Cal was an Air Force  missile guidance technician in Korea during the cold war; 

he guided missiles that would have nuked No. Korea if need had come up.

We missed our goal of having Charlie in the "Lost in 50's" parade because we did not get wheel axel nuts made up in time;  since then, Roger King (another Air Force vet) has made a supreme effort to create new nuts for us.  After five tries with his magical and mechanical computerized milling machine, he has matched the diameter and threads of the axel.  We should have axel nets very soon, and ....wheels on!. Everett Wood, Commandant of out local Marine Corps League, took charge of the tires and rims last week and got tubes into the tires, got the split rims back together, and got the wheels ready to install on the axels.  

Roger also took the entire tail wheel assembly and bracket home to work on!  What a great guy!

see an earlier post where Roger took WW2 vet Marilyn Hales for an airplane ride in his 1946 Aronce Chief.

Former USMC H-34 crew chief John Pugh (No relation to Jess Pugh, he says) has taken charge of the sheet metal work, as Charlie received a bit of "fork lift rash" during her decades in captivity.  We are hoping John will make those wounds disappear.

Another former USMC crew chief, Bob Morely stopped by today to offer his assistance and expertise. It looks like we may be putting together a crew for the old beastie.

Last week I got assurance that we are covered by out V.V. A. insurance, so it looks good for having Charlie at our local Veterans Standown on Saturday June 18th. After that....the 4th of July parade!

Army veteran Barry Gage appeared to help today and has taken charge of replicating tail rotor blades for this project.  He is an former U. S. Army helicopter crew chief who grew up to be an aeronautical engineer;  welcome aboard Barry.  He also is talking about how he thinks we can free up the frozen gear boxes after decades of their sitting in the desert without oil in them.  We can use all the help we can get.

Today we mhad a very military moment.  I was standing talking to former Master Sergeant Bob Moreley and his visiting friend.  Three of us shooting the bull bside the helicopter, and one fellow (Cal) actually doing any work.  seems like old times.

I neglected to add to the previous post, but in our last work party last Wednesday former Army soldier Russ Fankell did a superb job on installing one of the fuel cell filler caps.  it was a tricky job with lots of bolts that needed three hands to hold and twist from both sides.