That Sabre is awesome, but I would hate to be the one footin the fuel bill. What does it burn an hour?
Thx
Jeff

I just ran across this forum today and had to join. I live in Belgrade and grew up at the end of this airport and I mean literally at the end of the run way (my parents still live there and I also still live here) and I look at those f100's all the time. I have friends that talked about this plane and I never really knew much about it. I'm also in the RC hobby and I truly enjoy the sport and people. From the photos, it is a beautiful plane and the story is fantastic. I hope I get the chance to see it.

Ok, Reno is over, the fall harvest is over, I've got a break from flying the 7X, and things are quiet at my airport now that our annual fly-in is over. Time to get back to work on the Sabre.

But first...a pic of my "Reno shirt". I only wear this one time a year...and that is at the air races.



We tried a couple of "easy fixes" with the fuel controller to see if it was something simple...alas it was not to be. After trying said fixes, we ran it and I didn't even get out of the chocks with it...the leak was still there. We got on the phone with our friends at S&S Turbines up in Ft. St. John, and they are looking forward to receiving our fuel controller for service. If you want to see come cool vids, jump on YouTube and look up user AgentJayZ. These guys are the Orenda gurus. They're telling us they can turn it in 10 days from reception, so we're trying to get it to them this week. We don't have many more days of snow-free weather left here in MT!

The tail is off, and we are either going to send them the one off the motor or, depending on whether we can find it, the one sitting on an Orenda-14 engine core we have sitting in one of about 15 engine cans in our storage area...somewhere.

Pics of pulling the tail:

Getting the tail dolly in position:



That double row of rivets is where the rear dolly pad needs to be in order for both pads to be on empennage ribs:



These are two of the three pins holding the tail pipe in position:



Some of the electrical cannon plugs that needed to be disconnected prior to pulling the tail:



Hydraulic quick disconnects and radio antenna cable connection:



There are three cables per side that connect to the rudder as well as the horizontal stab/elevator actuators that have quick disconnects as well:



Starting to split the fuselage:



You can see where the two bolts connecting the right side are. Only 4 bolts TOTAL connect the entire back end of the aircraft to the front:




Sliding the tail back was kinda like watching some hot chick slowly hike up her skirt...



...and then finding out the chick was a dude!



Tail is off:



From the front:



From the back:



The hoist is in place and secured to the engine:



We're hoping the engine removal goes as easily as the tail removal did. We're planning on pulling nozzles and igniters while things are apart to make sure all is well.

Until next time...

On an unrelated-but-still-really-cool note, my 3 yr. old nephew Trey has hit a major milestone in any man's life...he has managed to stay dry both day and night for a month straight!!

I promised him when this odyssey began that I would take him flying if he could do it, so here are some pics from Trey's first airplane ride:

Attaboy Trey! Continuous dryness is way cool and hanging in the right seat is
even cooler! Make sure you log your time!
WT

Just coolness all the way around. Interesting pics of the tail coming off....and the FOUR bolts that transfer all the flight loads from the tail to the rest of the fuse . I'm always amazed at what 4 bolts can do when the structure is properly engineered !!!

BEST THREAD EVER!!! Thanks for sharing this with us!

Originally Posted by qmulus

BEST THREAD EVER!!! Thanks for sharing this with us!

Amen

very cool!! keep us updated with the turbine repair!

The Orenda-14 came out yesterday, and the fuel controller is packaged and on its way to S & S Turbines.

Sorry for the blurry pic. I was the forklift driver and had to take this shot in a hurry.


Engine completely separated from the forward fuselage:


Looking forward into the intake from the rear of the forward fuselage:


The offending party:

While the engine is out, we figured it'd be a good opportunity to pull the fuel nozzles and igniters clean 'em up a bit. Not a job that can be done without having the motor removed.

Here is a pic of the nozzles hanging out in a heated ultrasonic cleaner, orifice end down.



A close up shot of what one of the fuel nozzles look like:



I tried to get a decent shot of the swirler apparatus inside one of the burner cans, here is the best shot I could get, sorry for the blurriness. The nozzle protrudes through the center when installed.



Here is an unrelated but good shot of the inlet guide vanes as well as the compressor fan blades. Unlike a lot of other engines, the guide vanes in an Orenda are fixed, not variable pitch.

This has to be the coolest thread on FG...period. Thanks for all the pictures.

Wow! Can't believe I am just seeing this thread. I am at the airport almost every two weeks.

I literally ran across this by accident and had to join to thow in my two cents. I worked on the T-Bird N305FS (and a few others) when I was with Flight Systems back in the early 80's. We were based at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. The T-Birds were used as chase planes for the QF-86 drone program that was going on at the time. I was based at our facility in El Paso, TX, and went TDY to Holloman any time someone called in sick or was on vacation.

Lots of memories came back when I saw those pictures. N86FS, if I remember correctly, was the company president's personal airplane, and at one time was set up to tow target darts. 305FS gave me a JP-4 shower one afternoon when I forgot to vent the tip tanks before pulling the wing fuel caps. Never did that again! I remember the recurrent lecture about keeping the yaw string out of the nose access doors, too. I still have my FSI T-33 preflight checklist in my tool box...

You're doing a beautiful job on the Sabre. Keep up the good work!

This is a really great thread! Hope all goes well!