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Sept 20, 2010: Growing Old Gracefully
A friend emailed me some snapshots of Jim O'Hara, his wife Mitzi, and their plane. I Googled them to find the the real story, as emails tend to be misleading if not down right bullshit. Guess what, it's twue, it's twue. 
From the email;
| Jim O’Hara is a member of EAA chapter 493 in San Angelo. He is a retired college professor (I believe in Aeronautical Engineering) who learned to fly when he was about 60 years old. He's now 81 years old. 15 years ago, he began construction of a 2/3 scale P-38. Using information he obtained from various sources about the P-38, he drew up a set of plans using a computer aided design program. Jim and his wife Mitzi built the entire aircraft by themselves. I've been fortunate enough to know Jim for almost the entire 15 years that he's been working on his "project." He first flew his plane in July of last year, and has just completed flying off the time (I believe it was 50 hours). He designed the plane to have a small jump seat behind the pilot for his wife. She's tiny, and it's a good thing; the jump seat doesn't have much room. |
Bet he isn't sitting on the porch of the control tower snarling, get off my runway ya whippersnappers!
That's what I call growing old gracefully.
Link
gvidas Monday Sep 20 04:29 AM
What does "flying off the time" refer to? How long it took to make vs. how long he's spent flying it?
SPUCK Monday Sep 20 05:32 AM
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Originally Posted by gvidas
What does "flying off the time" refer to? How long it took to make vs. how long he's spent flying it?
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No, I believe you have to fly an "experimental" plane for 50 hours before you can use it like any other private plane. For those first 50 hrs you are only allowed to fly it within a certain distance of its home port and you can't take it into certain commercial airports, carry a passenger, etc., etc.
That's a really nice scale model. I wonder if it's safer to fly than the original.
Twin engine planes have one engine that is a "critical" engine, in that if it's the only one running the plane is very treacherous to fly. Something like the rotational direction of the air leaving the propeller hitting certain flight surfaces. This makes the controls behave poorly. It allows one to make a small mistake and find themselves in a flat spin or some other often fatal configuration. The original P38 was designed so BOTH engines were critical. If either one quits the other is nasty to continue with.
Hence, I wonder if that aspect was designed out on this one.
I also wonder what the engines are.
According to a story in the San Angelo Standard-Times, his engine selection was described as particularly tricky. “He tried pre-war inverted inline engines, but parts were scarce. He settled on horizontally opposed engines (220 hp Continental 360s) from a scrapped Seneca that landed with its wheels up.”
monster Monday Sep 20 10:03 AM
This story reminds me of Nirvana's BIL 
Cool plane/project, though.
footfootfoot Monday Sep 20 01:02 PM
The P-38 is the most coolest plane ever.
Now he needs that Korean dentist to make him some scale machine guns.
BrianR Friday Sep 24 06:11 PM
Spuck, I have to take exception to what you said about the P-38's single engine characteristics.
It was a nice airplane even on one engine, you just had to know how to handle it. see here.
xoxoxoBruce Friday Sep 24 06:18 PM
| * Flakitis - A serious and sometime fatal disease commonly found in engines returning from enemy lines. Loss of manifold and oil pressures, followed by spasmodic coughing,wheezing, are general symptoms. |
footfootfoot Sunday Sep 26 07:15 PM
I seem to remember that the props turned in opposite directions to balance the torque, not sure what the has to do the this conversation other than you are not allowed to say anything negative about the most coolest plane ever
xoxoxoBruce Sunday Sep 26 08:47 PM
Yes, counter rotating props but the engines were the same. The GM Allisons just had to change the firing order to run the opposite way.
Oh, and it won the Pacific war, so it's got that going for it. 
Griff Monday Sep 27 09:30 PM
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Originally Posted by footfootfoot
... you are not allowed to say anything negative about the most coolest plane ever
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spudcon Tuesday Sep 28 12:02 AM
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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce
Yes, counter rotating props but the engines were the same. The GM Allisons just had to change the firing order to run the opposite way.
Oh, and it won the Pacific war, so it's got that going for it. |
xoxoxoBruce Tuesday Sep 28 12:14 AM
How do to think the Enola Gay, or any of those Superfortresses, got any further than Midway?
spudcon Tuesday Sep 28 03:07 AM
Subway?
Pete Zicato Tuesday Sep 28 06:38 PM
No way!
Happy Monkey Tuesday Sep 28 06:42 PM
Is there a sundial around here?
Sheldonrs Tuesday Sep 28 06:56 PM
4th dimension. Oh, wait. That's a different plane altogether.
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