Flightpath - May 2018

FLIGHTPATH|41

sociation’sAirVentureinOshkosh,Wiscon-
sin. Other flights were made to a number of
air shows and fly-ins and, importantly, vet-
erans were taken aloft during several spe-
cialholidayevents,butin2016,whileonthe
wayhomefromanairshowinthehighSier-
ras,theleftengine’soiltemperaturebegan
to climb. Not being over an area where he
couldshutitdown,Rameyhadtokeep
pushingituntiltheywereoutofwhatwe
call the ‘rockpile’. At that point the engine
wasshutdownandtheaircraftmadeit
homesafely.Theengineshadaboutninety
hours total time (close to seventy hours
with Ramey) on them at this point. Ramey
wasabletolocateanotherengine,andwhile
planshadalreadybeeninthemakingto
taketheenginesandhavethemserviced,
this forced his hand, and he was able to get
both engines, and a spare, overhauled by
Ray Anderson at Anderson Aeromotive.
They’ve been running great ever since. The
Harpoonwasdownforlessthanfourmonths
whileeverythingwascleanedout,replaced,
and/orrebuilt.Lookingatthehistoryofthe
left engine found that several operators had
previously had issues with metal on that
sideandthattheoiltankshadpossiblynev-
er been cleaned out properly, allowing metal
tocatchintheripplesoftherubberself-
sealing tanks.
Workhasneverstoppedon’062.Ithas
hadapairof165gallon(625litres)drop
tanksmountedunderthewingsalongwith
eight five-inch (127 millimetres) HVAR
rockets(fourperwing)builtfromsomeau-
thenticHVARcomponents.Besideshaving
two 1000-pound (454 kilograms) bombs

addedtothebombbay,theaircraft’scare-

taker, the Stockton Field Aviation Museum,

iscurrentlyrestoringa1943Mark13aerial

torpedo.ThebombbayonthePV-2wasde-

signed to carry this torpedo enclosed, while

thePV-1hadtokeepthedoorsopen.

If you’ve seen the movieUSS Indianapo-

lis - Men of Courage,‘062wasusedinthis

movietorepresentthePV-1Ventura,flown

by Lieutenant Gwinn and his crew, that

helped locate the survivors of the ship after

it was torpedoed. Unfortunately, the movie

waslowbudgetandalotoffilmwastossed

for Computer-generated Imagery.

Thetopturretnowhastwogas-operated

guns in place that sound really impressive

when fired. The nose will soon have (hope-

fullybythetimethesewordsareread)eight

replicagas-operatedmachinegunsinstalled,

along with ammunition boxes, feed chutes,

andallofthehardwarethatgoeswiththem.

These custom-built steel replicas have a fir-

The author would like to thank pilots Jerry

Andersonand Mike DeCastro for lying the

Beech 18s during the air-to-air sorties.

ingrateof650roundsperminuteeach(pro-

pane and oxygen are computer controlled for

mixture, rate and overtemp). Imagine all

eightgunsfiringatthesametime,notto

mention the top two in the turret.

One of the many goals that Taigh Ramey

hassetforthisprojecthasbeentotake

W.W. I I H a r p o on vet er a n s up for a r ide a nd

record their stories. This ongoing project

couldn’t have been done without his desire

tosavetheaircraftandthemanyvolunteers

that have helped with the restoration or do-

natedpartsandfunding.Ifyou’reinnorth-

ernCalifornia,puttheStocktonFieldAvia-

tion Museum on your list of places to visit to

seetheHarpoonandthemany gun turrets

and artifacts on display.