One of the highlights of my life, was that I got to fly a B-26.
I delivered a B-26, T-105, to the CAF (Confederate Air Force) in Lubbock Texas on May 31 1980.
The B-26 was an attack/bomber used in WW2, Korea, Bay of Pigs, VietNam and Biafra. It was usually either fitted with 8 machine guns in the nose, and 4 in the wing, or it was a bomber with a plexiglass nose and a bombadiers place in the nose. It could be converted between the two types.
Some B-26s had been converted to air tankers (fire bombers) as had T-105.
After 3 years of co-piloting air tankers for Hawkins & Powers (PB4Y-2s and C-119s), I wanted to try something new. Flying a B-26 had always a dream of mine, so in early May 1980, I went to see Bill Dempsey in Maricopa Arizona. At that time he was only operating DC-4s, and had no B-26s in use. However, he did have a contract to deliver a B-26 that had been sitting for a few years. It needed a new engine, and lots of maintenance. I agreed to work on the aircraft in return for a VFR type rating in the B-26.
On May 11 1980 I got checked out as co-pilot on a DC-4. We did the training in Tanker 146 at Maricopa.
On May 14 we flew a DC-4, Tanker 150, to Olathe Kansas with a spare engine for the B-26.
Myself and another mechanic drove to Rantoul Kansas where the B-26 was located.
The aircraft was a TB-26C and had the registration of N9682C. We always used the radio call “Tanker 105” instead of the registration number.
The T designation in TB-26C, was for “Trainer”, because it had dual controls. Almost all B-26s had single controls.
The “C” at the end, designated the bomber version versus a “B” for the gun version.
The tires were flat, and the one main gear strut was flat. We put in new batteries, changed the oils, and prelubed the engines.
The left one started and ran, but the right engine had no oil pressure. It turned out that the diaphragm on the oil pressure sensor was bad. The right engine also had metal in the oil strainers.
It had on a pretty mangled gun nose, so we put on an available bombardier nose. Air Tankers operators prefered the gun nose, because it was much lighter than the bomber nose
After 2 weeks, we got it ready to ferry to Olathe from Rantoul.
Bill flew it to from Rantoul to Olathe, and there we removed the right engine, and replaced it with the engine that we had brought up from Maricopa.
The Dual controls were great for me learning to fly this machine.
The Dual controls were great for me learning to fly this machine.
I did my B-26 type rating on the ferry flight from Olathe Kansas to Enid Oklahoma on 31 May 1980.
The airspeed was measured in MPH and the red line was at 425.
On this leg we went low level and with a slight dive we got the indicated airspeed up to 400MPH.
We then celebrated a bit. :-)
While at Enid, we did a few more training flights with take offs and landings. This also gave us a
chance to do some last minute maintenance. Bill signed me off for the type rating.
I then delivered T-105 to the CAF at Lubbock, while Bill flew there in a Cessna-310.
I then flew the 310 to El Paso with Bill, and he continued on to Maricopa alone.
The CAF flew the B-26. This picture was from 2013. They have done some work on the nose.
They renamed T-105 to “Lady Liberty”.
The CAF has now put on a gun nose and redesignated it as an A-26B.
