MiG Mudding

In Texas, it can be Sunny, Rainy or Snowing, sometimes all in the same day! In continuing our progress on the Cold War Air Museum, MiG-23, the guys took advantage of a brief respite in our recent rains to roll out Bord 022 and do some tests. APU start? Check. Engine start? Check. Brief taxi run? Check. Gear in the Mud? Check.

As we get older, we continue to find that life is a series of learning experiences. Because of the recent rains, the gear quickly bogged down in the soft ground beside the ramp. With the co-operation of the airport management, who NOTAM'd the taxiway out of service, we called our friendly crane company who happened to have the needed equipment just down the road. These guys have assisted in the past with rigging and lifting, especially when we have off loaded the aircraft on arrival (see the Mi-24 coming out of the box and the Mig-23 coming out of the box).

With a quick lift, we were soon back in the hangar, although some of the "boys" were covered in good Texas mud (and a bit of chagrin). And while the taxiway was temporarily closed, the local police department took the opportunity to come out and practice using "Stop Sticks". With the locals checking the moorings on their Arks the day before and the day after, we picked a good day for everyone to get outside and enjoy the Texas weather.



When we took a poll of associates about publishing a potentially embarassing story, the response overwhelmingly was positive, after all that's what blogs are for, and look what we've accomplished, we've assisted local law enforcement and provided a stimulus package for the local economy through fuels sales and crane rental. Or, as another associate summarized:

Fuel Purchase ----------------- $xxx.xx
Crane Rental ------------------ $xxx.xx
Getting Stuck in the Mud ---- Priceless!

We will have videos of the happier and drier portions of this exercise posted soon and with the skies once again blue and clear, we hope to have more stories to tell and video to post after the weekend.

Feature Associate, Pete Taylor

Hi, I'm Pete Taylor and I have been a volunteer associate at the Cold War Air Museum for over a year now. While I'm not into the Video Blog thing, the guys at the museum asked me to share a little bit about my flying background with our blog visitors.



After serving four years in the infantry in the states and Germany, I was given the opportunity to enter OCS followed by flight school. Like everyone else in helicopter training at the time, I attended primary training at Fort Wolters near Mineral Wells, Texas with secondary training at Fort Rucker in Alabama. After graduation, I received my ticket to Vietnam where I served with the 1st Aviation Brigade, 116th Assault Company. After about three months in the Co-Pilots seat of a UH-1, I graduated to Aircraft Commander (AC) and completed my tour with the unit as the Operations Officer with about 1200 hours under my belt and railroad tracks on my collar.

Returning to the states, I was assigned to Fort Wolters as an Instructor Pilot (IP) in the TH-55 and also served as Operations Officer, XO and CO of a training flight before completing my commitment and leaving active duty in 1971 with another 1500 hours of IP time. (The museum has the civilian version of the TH-55, a Schweitzer 300).

During the early 70's I continued to fly as a “weekend warrior” with Army National Guard units, first in Texas as an AC and IP in UH-1's and then in Connecticut as an AC, IP and Instrument Instructor. Leaving the U.S. temporarily for Canada in 76, I flew fixed and rotary wing charters in Western Canada for about five years including fire service work most summers in a Hughes 500 with a bucket.

Returning to the U.S., in 81, I went on active duty again for a year and a half at Fort Rucker as an IP in UH-1's in the Tactics Branch. Because I had been off active duty for more than ten years, I was returned to duty as a Warrant Officer. I don't know that I am unique, but I don't run into too many others that have served as a non-com, commissioned officer and warrant officer over the course of their military service,

After my tour at Rucker, I worked for Mediflight service based in Oklahoma City, flying both fixed wing and and rotary wing aircraft again. Learning from one of our “customers” about a guard unit with a need for pilots, I once again put on my weekend warrior wings and joined the Kansas National Guard where I served as a CH-54 Aircraft Commander and UH-1 IP. The CH-54 is better known by its civilian variant name as the “Skycrane”. With a 72 foot rotor diameter and a 47,000 pound maximum takeoff weight, it is still one of the largest helicopters in the world.

With over 7,000 hours of rotary wing time and a variety of fixed and rotary wing experience, Pete is definitely one of the Senior Aviators associated with the museum. Besides that, Pete, like most of the associates we count on, is a genuine, hard working guy that is willing to share his experience and concern for safety. We are lucky to have him helping us at the museum and salute his experience, both military and civilian.

MiG-23 progress

At the Cold War Air Museum, we are again working on the MiG-23.

The 23 has an unusual ventral fin for added stability in flight. Here it is shown retracted to the side so that it does not scrape the ground on landing or take off. Fin retraction is tied to the landing gear system. It automatically extends when the gear is retracted and retracts when the gear is extended.

We were able to see this (and a lot of other things as well) while checking some of the hydraulics and the gear system yesterday. Sean, one of our volunteers, captured several clips of the gear and ventral fin and provided them to us for the blog. Thanks Sean!

At the beginning of this clip the gear is being retracted and the ventral fin can be seen moving to the down position. Almost immediately the gear is extended again as the camera shifts to a different view. Upon full extension, the view quickly shifts to the tail to show the fin flipping back to the side again.



A young man recently visiting the museum called the MiG-23 a "Transformer" plane. Like the action figure series, it has lots of large moving parts and is capable of some pretty fancy reconfiguration. The clip below shows another view where at first you can almost imagine a mechanical arm reaching out from some large mechanical war machine. Oh yeah, in reality, that's pretty much what it is.



The video continues long enough to again show the ventral fin changing position under the tail (the "click" noise associates with the fin unlocking to change position).

Video Blogging

Oral histories have been a popular method for museums to harvest and preserve "snippets" of history. The Cold War Air Museum is experimenting with video posts, to introduce projects and associates, tell stories about aircraft and events and to capture and preserve oral histories from those willing to share their story on line.



Another ongoing project is developing audio and video displays to accompany each aircraft in the museum, allowing visitors to walk through the museum and replay information and interesting videos about aircraft and events at their own pace. If you are interested in helping to develop this project, or you have stories or know someone who does, please post a comment below, or e-mail us through the contact page on the main museum web site.