A New Home, A New Beginning
Apologies to the world for the relative inactivity on this site. Truth is several very important strides have been made with ol 41-21218 in the past few weeks, but other happenings in the lives of the members of the LLC have precluded updates. But we're gonna take care of that right here and now and get you all current with the biggest single item to date - on Sept 15, 2019, Annie was put back on her legs!
It was almost three weeks ago when the members of Valiant Effort LLC, along with half a dozen volunteers, descended onto the aircraft at Livermore Airport. Armed with some tools, a forklift, and a lot of spirit, we set upon Annie with the express purpose of swapping out the main gear struts. These struts had snapped during her landing incident back in Oct 2018, and the restoration project getting started hinged on putting her back on her wheels. Two "new" used struts had been obtained in the weeks leading up to the swap, and after hoisting her into the air, we set upon this most important step!
Not surprisingly, we encountered difficulties with the left strut. This strut was the older of the two and as it had been seated into the left wing, so it was expected that it would be the harder to remove. What we weren't prepared for was HOW MUCH HARDER it would be to get out of wing; rust had formed during its stay in that socket, and our initial attempts (for the better part of two hours) to get it loose barely made a dent. Only after getting a sledgehammer and other tools did we manage to finally whack it out of its housing! A decent break was required by the sledgehammering team of Keith, Greg, and Taurus (one that Bob, I, and a few volunteers were able to provide as he sanded out the rust) before they were able to install that damn strut's replacement.
Almost comically, the right main strut made no fuss in coming out! Seriously, after removing the retaining bolts, it took barely three hits with the sledgehammer before it unceremoniously dropped out. The collective crowd of the volunteers, Keith, Greg, Taurus, Bob, and I just stopped cold and stared at it, then to the old left one... and back to the right one.... and back to the left.
You could practically hear Annie laughing! hahaha.
From there, things went quickly. A tow bar was retrieved from the newly acquired hangar, and with Keith's truck doing the pulling, 41-21218 rolled on her own three wheels for the first time in 11 months! It was a sight celebrated by the gathered crowd of supporters, well wishers. More than a few seemed incredulous that the seemingly permanent fixture of the north ramp was on the move, and one of the controllers even asked if we were taking her to the field's "Boneyard" (where permanently wrecked planes are brought). Taurus was not the least proud to say "negative"!
The move to the hanger was delayed by a mandatory stop by the wash rack, where nearly a year's worth of grime was happily washed off, and from there, we took the plane the final hundred-or-so yards in as much fanfare as a dozen people could muster. It was an outstanding feeling we all felt to see Annie finally inside her new home, and we all celebrated for a good hour before parting company. The single biggest step had been accomplished; from here, it only gets better!
A special shout out to our volunteers - Edgar, Tia, Sierra, Joseph, Christopher, Carlos, and Kathy! Thank you for all your help!!! :)