Warbirds of North America

Keeping The History Of Freedom

Project History

Oh, the fun began way before we ever got to Pearland, TX!  Ernesto had included the use of his long flat bed trailer and custom made fixtures to hold the fuselage and wings to transport the T-28 home.  We just had to find a heavy duty truck that would accommodate a gooseneck trailer...not quite as easy as it may sound.  But with the help of the internet, we soon found a company in Houston that rents such trucks.  Next, we just had to clear our schedules, load up the truck with tools and snacks and away we went.

 

We left home (northwest Chicago) for Pearland, TX on Saturday, August 27, 2005. The weather was concerning because we were not sure exactly where Katrina was going to hit. We headed South through Illinois and had a decision to make in Missouri. Do we continue South into Louisiana or go through Arkansas into North Texas. We decided to go through Arkansas because of the news reports. Everyone was leaving New Orleans and the interstates were parking lots. Luckily, we had reservations at a local hotel through the end of the week. The hotel was booked with people fleeing Katrina's path. We needed to stay focused because we only has enough time to take the plane apart, put it on a trailer and get home.

 

The weather was unbearable. The temperature was over 100 degrees each day. We were on a marathon each day. We worked from 8:00 am until 8:00 pm. At 6:00 we stopped the disassembly process and collected all loose parts at various airports. It was interesting because we got to see some unique aircraft and lots of parts. We were fortunate that we received some of the better parts that were available. Wednesday morning the crane came to perform the final act of disassembly. We were about to separate the fuselage from the wings. We rented a 25 ton crane and it handled the job easily. It did not take much to get the bird separated. We were very careful to get the fuselage in position and on the trailer in one attempt. The next critical part was separating the wings and collapsing the landing gear. This worked very easily since there was no wind.

 

Both trucks are full of fuel, the trailer is loaded (we estimated the weight to be about 10,000 pounds and the height to be about 14 feet), the crane has departed, and we are ready to leave on Wednesday evening.  What a day...about a 100° F with afternoon rain storms, so after a very quick shower, we were ready to start on our way home in Houston rush-hour traffic. 

 

Oh boy! The commuters had to love us that night.  We crawled through Houston in about two hours.  Our first little mishap occurred soon thereafter.  Our "watch" truck that followed the trailer had eased back from our near tailgating position when the 50 gallon barrel of water that had been used to weigh down the front of the fuselage (since the engine had been removed in the cocooning process) while tied down jiggled loose from the old ropes holding it in place.  What a spectacular crash!  Luckily no one was in the adjacent lane so the barrel rolled away unchecked after a few sparking bounces.  After our hearts finally slowed down to a normal rhythm, we settled back in the truck seats and watched the miles roll by...until the sparks started flying again.  This time a rear trailer tire had blown.  (Now what psychic could have possibly known that tires sitting in the same place under the Houston sun for ten years would have had a problem?)  Fortunately we had a spare tire.  It was about 11:30 PM and we were only about an hour south of Dallas.  The state trooper who stopped to check on us recommended a nearby truck stop where we might be able to have the tire repaired.  Well, the truck stop was open 24 hours -- you should meet some of the people who hang out at truck stops in the middle of the night -- then again, don't -- but the tire repair center was not open.  Anyway, by this time, it's about 4 AM and the nearest tire shop that might be able to help us is 45 minutes away.  So we decided to stay at the local motel for a couple of hours sleep and start over early in the morning. We found a tire shop that could help us and we were on our way -- this time in Dallas' early morning traffic.

At each fuel stop we answered the inevitable questions and open stares: What is that? What are you going to do with it?  It was certainly a conversation starter.  In fact, we met many wonderful people who told us their stories with aviation and/or the US Military.   We happily stopped to talk with anyone who had questions.  After all, that's what this restoration project is about -- to give everyone with an interest the opportunity to have a personal experience with a Warbird and to honor those who fought for our country. 

Day Two, we are 12 hours from Houston and have lost the 55 gallon drum in a brief blaze of sparks and one tire blow out.  The spare tire has been repaired and we are on the road just north of Dallas.  We can't wait to get through Texas.  That is, until we reach Hope, AK, birth place of President Clinton.  BAM. Our second blow out.  At least this time we have daylight and we can see the aerial sign for Wal-Mart just ahead.  We have the spare repaired and buy two tires as backups. 

With only two hours of sleep, we're all exhausted and ready to just be home.  Our families have called several times now for the latest update...the estimated time of arrival seemingly longer with each call.  Are we there yet?  We're all more on edge as the road home seems to stretch out ahead of us -- and we watch the trailer tires anxiously.  It's late night when we finally reach southern Illinois.  Alleluia! Only 350 miles to go.  We take a much needed caffeine break and rotate drivers.  We have high hopes of reaching home in six hours, 4 AM (OK, so we're an optimistic bunch).

We're filling the airwaves with our chatter on the short wave radios.  The mile markers ticking away towards Chicago.  We can practically feel the sheets of our own beds...bam. Sparks are flying from the left rear trailer tire (again!).  We radio the lead driver to carefully pull over.  We lost another tire.  It's after 11 PM, the tire is changed, and we're on the look out for a 24 hour truck stop that can replace the blown tire with the extra tire we bought in Arkansas.  Would you believe that one company wanted $250 to put on our own tire?  We pressed forward towards Effingham where a shop would repair our tire. (Thanks to family at home searching the internet for truck stops along our route, we were able to keep moving forward without wasting time exiting the interstate in fruitless search for the elusive 24 hour tire shop.)  We arrived in Effingham at about 2:00 AM.  They removed the now tread bare tire from the rim.  Then they realized that they didn't have the right sized tire stem.  We spent another hour and a half looking for a store with the right sized stem before the mechanic remembered he had one at home.  I wish I could remember the name of this stop, because I would recommend them to anyone with a need for semi-truck repairs.  They spent all of this time on our tire for free...(we tipped them, of course, which was more reasonable than $250.). We're still 275 miles from home, it's 4:30 AM, and we have just the one spare tire.

By this time, we are so tired we are doing everything to keep awake...lot's of coffee, hard candy, and gum.  But mercifully, the sun is finally rising as we reach LaSalle County...only two counties away from home.  Concerned for low bridges, we debated our final route.  We settled on a highway that weaved through rural towns busy with morning commuters.  We prayed for two things: that our tires would hold out for the remaining 20 miles to the hanger, and that the rail bridge that spanned part of our route was taller than our load! 

God was with us on both counts.  We did, however, come close to skimming some of the trees and traffic lights that lined the road.  As the hanger came into view, we cheered each other over the radios.  And after finally pulling into the drive next to the hanger, another tire gave up the fight and simply deflated.  We brought our Warbird home.  Now, it was time to go home ourselves.  As we drove home we called our families to let them know that we were home safely and we would tell them all about our adventure later -- much later. 

We returned to the hanger later in the day to unload everything that wasn't bolted to the trailer.  We would need to arrange for a crane to help us to unload wings and fuselage.  Like everything in this project, that sounds much easier said than done!

We had planned to simply pull the trailer into the hanger loaded with the fuselage.  Apparently no one had measured the hanger door opening.  The wings and fuselage would have to come off of the trailer.  The question remained: how would we get the fuselage into the hanger without the crane?  Fortunately, we have some clever people on our team. We would simply weld heavy duty caster wheels onto the iron frames and roll the pieces into the hanger.  Again, this sounds great in theory.

So two weeks later we had our caster wheels, welding torch, and crane ready for work.  Needless to say, this was an ALL day project.  We only dropped the fuselage once...

As you'll see in the photos, we had to have the crane tip the fuselage so we could duck the tail under the door.  A couple of the welds were were not quite strong enough and collapsed under the weight.  Fortunately, the fuselage came down on a hard point so no damaged was sustained...except maybe to our hearts as they collectively stopped for a few seconds upon hearing the thud.