Aircraft Quirks

Dac · May 29, 2006

Even some of the best aircraft of WW II had their quirks. The P-38 was either loved or hated by the men who flew it because of the attention it demanded. Even the P-51 had it's flaws after it was modified for long range escort. The 90 gallon fuel tank that helped give the plane such a long range also upset the trim and pilots had to be careful when flying with it full. Bud Anderson described how he swapped ends while yawing a Mustang in one of his first operational flights and felt lucky not to have crashed. He was later instructed that he needed to run the fuselage tank down to 45 gallons before doing any agressive maneouvers.

I be interested in hearing about other aircraft with quirks that were otherwise sound machines.

Jabberwocky · May 29, 2006

Whenever you started up a Tempest or a Typhoon it was advisable to have a fire-extinguisher near-by.

DerAdlerIstGelandet · May 29, 2006

That advisable for any aircraft on engine start up.

cheddar cheese · May 29, 2006

Whenever the crew of a 1930's french bomber walked out to their plane, they were blindfolded by the ground crew so that they wouldnt lose all confidence when they saw how ugly and wrong the plane looked...

DerAdlerIstGelandet · May 29, 2006

Now that I can believe.

paaln · May 29, 2006

Time for a song:

Don't give me a P-38 with props that counter-rotate
They'll loop, roll and spin but they'll soon auger in
Don't give me a P-38!

CHORUS: Just make me Operations
Way out on some lonely atoll
For I am too young to die
I just want to go home.*

Don't give me a P-39 with an engine that's mounted behind
It will tumble and roll and dig a big hole
Don't give me a P-39.

Don't give me an old Thunderbolt. It gave many pilots a jolt
It looks like a jug and it flies like a tug
Don't give me an old Thunderbolt!

Don't give me a Peter Four Oh, a hell of an airplane, I know
A ground loopin' *******. You're sure to get plastered
Don't give me a Peter Four Oh.

Don't give me a P-51, it was all right for fighting the hun
But with coolant tank dry. you'll run out of sky
Don't give me a P-51.

Don't give me a P-61, for night flying is no fun
They say it's a lark. but I'm scared of the dark
Don't give me a P-61.

DerAdlerIstGelandet · May 29, 2006

thats not bad.

Twitch · May 30, 2006

Dac- yeah my Dad spent some time in P-51s and mentioned how tough it was to take off and get trimmed with a full fuel load. Very dicey stuff with the stick hauled back into your gut!

Dac · May 30, 2006

Twitch said:
Dac- yeah my Dad spent some time in P-51s and mentioned how tough it was to take off and get trimmed with a full fuel load. Very dicey stuff with the stick hauled back into your gut!

If the Luftwaffe had flown inderdiction missions over England they could have caught the P-51s when they were vulnerable. But then they would have come into range of British fighters.

FLYBOYJ · May 30, 2006

WW2 - the P-38's heating system...

Post war stuff;

Soviet and East Block aircraft do not have toe brakes - they use a bicycle type hand brake on the stick and use differential braking for steering, aircraft with a nose landing gear have a castering nose gear. The brake systems are pneumatic. I know this system exist on AN-2, Mig-15, 17, 19, and 21 aircraft as well as L-29, 39 and the Iskra. Learing how to use this system could be harder than actually flying the aircraft...

syscom3 · May 30, 2006

In the PTO and CBI, the P38's heating system was never an issue.

FLYBOYJ · May 30, 2006

syscom3 said:
In the PTO and CBI, the P38's heating system was never an issue.

Yea, no kidding! The guys in the background just took off their outter flight gear!

pbfoot · May 30, 2006

At lower levels heater would not be factor but at upper levels it certainly would it was known that some aircrew would take water up to altitude let it freeze so they would have ice to cool there beverages or for ice cubes

syscom3 · May 30, 2006

It must have been miserable for the ground crews for all the combatants that had to work on their arcraft in the hot climates.

Touch a piece of metal and burn your hands!

FLYBOYJ · May 30, 2006

syscom3 said:
It must have been miserable for the ground crews for all the combatants that had to work on their arcraft in the hot climates.

Touch a piece of metal and burn your hands!

Sunburn must of been hell!

Back to subject - the B-24 and it's fuel system...

"But the B-24, because of some unfortunate habits and characteristics it had, required somewhat more crew training than most multi-place planes. With its archaic fuel system the B-24 was subject to fuel leaks, and it was a wise "Lib" pilot who flew with this bomb bay door cracked partially open to dissipate the potentially explosive fumes that collected throughout the the airplane.

Lin never permitted smoking on his B-24 even though he was a smoker himself. The radio and various electrical motors throughout the bird were potential spark starters, and the pilot of a B-24 was prudent to shut off everything electrical that was possible during fuel transfer operations."

http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/requiem.htm

syscom3 · May 30, 2006

"A Marauder A day In Tampa Bay"

The B26's had an alarming tendency to torque roll when an engine failed or prop went to flat pitch.

Even with training, on takeoff, that could have been the end of many a pilots career.

pbfoot · May 30, 2006

How about the solenoids on the Avro Manchester switching the pitch on the props from course to fine and back by themselves with no indication to the pilots

FLYBOYJ · May 30, 2006

syscom3 said:
"A Marauder A day In Tampa Bay"

The B26's had an alarming tendency to torque roll when an engine failed or prop went to flat pitch.

Even with training, on takeoff, that could have been the end of many a pilots career.

That's typical for any twin, especially one with a small wing span when compared to fuselage length. Having electric propellers just made a bad situation worse. What this showed was the need for extensive training when flying a twin-engine aircraft...

Twitch · Jun 1, 2006

Flyboy- not only the P-38 heater was poor but the defroster was lousy too. Imagine not being able to see well out of the canopy. "Are those P-51s or 109s? Hmmm?" The Allisons were never set up properly for high altitude cold performance either producing many failures and aborts.

V-1710 · Jun 5, 2006

I was told once that you couldn't open the side windows on a P-38 during flight because it would cause severe buffeting. Firing the cannon on early P-39's would throw the sights of the nose machine guns off. If a P-47 had a fuel leak, a wise pilot would point the nose down and bail out. The fuel tanks could leak into the bottom of the fuselage, and the gasoline would run back to the hot turbocharger, with unhappy results. Never ditch a P-51 in the water, the radiator air scoop cause the plane to sink very fast.

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