Post by LOU on Feb 24th, 2011 at 5:10pm
Folks,
The North American AT-6 was one of the nicest planes to fly. It was just a big Cub. The "G" model had a P-51 tail wheel which made it very civilized on the ground, but it still wanted to show you who was boss every once in a while. The wing on the T-6 was a scaled down version of the DC-3. In military dress it weighed in around 6,500 pounds, but in civilian use it slimmed down to around 4,400 pounds. That made for a very nice short field plane. There were three of us in the area with T-6's and we would do the air show rounds in the summers. We had a smoke system on the plane and one of the guys had fake guns in the wing that shot a gas and oxygen mix that was very loud.
During an air show they would provide a special oil for the smoke. It was some "non" polluting type oil and was kept in a ten gallon tank under the rear seat. We would often have some left over after the show. This day I was returning home from the show and had quite a bit left in the tank. It was a beautiful clear day, so as I headed home I asked ATC if they had time to make a call for me. I gave them the number and told them to tell the lady who answered that there was a message in the sky for her. Now as you remember the T-6 excelled in converting avgas directly into noise. If you were not careful on takeoff the prop tip would go supersonic and make a very loud noise so you would bring the propeller back just a bit to avoid this. On the way back from the show I flew right over my house at around 4,000 feet and ran the prop up to full RPM. My wife was in the basement of the house and told me later it was very loud indeed. As she left the house to look up in the sky she grabbed the camera and shot this photo...
I was just finishing my message as you can see. 4,000 feet was a bit low to do sky writing since the air gets too roughed up and the smoke gets torn away, but I just made it! 8-)
Lou
The North American AT-6 was one of the nicest planes to fly. It was just a big Cub. The "G" model had a P-51 tail wheel which made it very civilized on the ground, but it still wanted to show you who was boss every once in a while. The wing on the T-6 was a scaled down version of the DC-3. In military dress it weighed in around 6,500 pounds, but in civilian use it slimmed down to around 4,400 pounds. That made for a very nice short field plane. There were three of us in the area with T-6's and we would do the air show rounds in the summers. We had a smoke system on the plane and one of the guys had fake guns in the wing that shot a gas and oxygen mix that was very loud.
During an air show they would provide a special oil for the smoke. It was some "non" polluting type oil and was kept in a ten gallon tank under the rear seat. We would often have some left over after the show. This day I was returning home from the show and had quite a bit left in the tank. It was a beautiful clear day, so as I headed home I asked ATC if they had time to make a call for me. I gave them the number and told them to tell the lady who answered that there was a message in the sky for her. Now as you remember the T-6 excelled in converting avgas directly into noise. If you were not careful on takeoff the prop tip would go supersonic and make a very loud noise so you would bring the propeller back just a bit to avoid this. On the way back from the show I flew right over my house at around 4,000 feet and ran the prop up to full RPM. My wife was in the basement of the house and told me later it was very loud indeed. As she left the house to look up in the sky she grabbed the camera and shot this photo...
I was just finishing my message as you can see. 4,000 feet was a bit low to do sky writing since the air gets too roughed up and the smoke gets torn away, but I just made it! 8-)
Lou