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I decided to attempt construction of a facsimile of a navigator position
due to my early navigator background and this would give me an excuse
to work on my APN-9 Loran A receiver. The crew position that I created
was obviously not patterned after the position in "Flak Bait"
- - not even close but I had that empty space under the stairs and I had
an APN-9, a Pioneer Compass System and a bunch of other stuff sitting
in carboard boxes on the shelf and building the position was good thearpy.
Improvise-Adapt-Overcome.
Loran
A was a big deal. The introduction of the APN-9 allowed inexperienced
operators to obtain LOPs and plot a position. As a navigator a celestial
plot combined with a LOP obtained from a far off station was always welcome.
If anything went wrong we blamed it on Coriolis. An excellent site to
visit to learn about Loran A and other systems can be found by visiting
VE3FAR's Jerry Proc's site.
The
APN-9 just fits under one of the stairs without any modification. My wife
is now tuned and alerts on any "sawing" sounds. So major modifications
to the stair structure were not in the plan. Plus I had to be able enter
and egress the "Operations Center". An estimate of the vertical
clearance using a temporary shock mount was made while I searched for
the originial mount and appropriate TM's.
http://www.tuberadio.com/robinson/Manuals/APN-9_user.pdf
I halted all major construction and began working on a shock mount for the receiver. Usually when I fabricate something the actual item that I attempted to copy turns up but so far no APN-9 mount. I am also looking for the inverter.
Q. How do you acquire a APN-9?
Answer below.
Its easy to
acquire W.W.II avionics at Dayton. KA3EKH shown in the blue shirt spotted
the APN-9 and called me on the phone and advised me that a receiver
was available from a seller for $1 a pound and he would deliver from Dayton
to Chickenland just like "Room Service". How could I refuse.
Repairing and getting the APN-9 receiver aligned was not
an easy project.
Video
APN-9 Bench Test
The
shock mount was fabricated from another wider avionics mount - note the
cuts down the
center where a center section was removed. A lot of "experts"
will question my fabrication but I wanted to finish the project. My goal
is to get items off the shelf and out of those "Musty Card Board
Boxes" and either display the item in my "Operations Center"
or put it in operation at military meets and portable OL's.
The
set looks OK on the modified shock mount now all I needed was an antenna
connection and a power receptacle.
The Operating Instruction AN 08-30APN9-2 can be download from Ray Robinson's Site
The APN-9 requires 400 cycle power and a appropriate receptacle was installed and wired to the main 400 cycle AC buss.
A search through some of my "Musty Cardboard Boxes" resulted in these instruments. Did the Nav position on a typical multi-engine aircraft have a Turn and Bank indicator ? Ans: NO but it looks neat.
The remaining of the upper stairs and some of Flak Bait wiring is hidden behind this panel which can be removed for maintenance.
Stencils add a finished look to any military project.
HO-249 tables and a Air Almanac were important tools of the trade.
A
storage area was constructed for the Tables and Air Almanac.
Several 115VAC maintenance utility receptacles were installed for ease of
Flak Bait maintenance. These receptacles were independent of "Flak Baits" power system. The 400 cycle AC receptacles utilize a different plug to prevent those little mishaps.
The E6B
flight computer is not the correct period but Norm Chips gave me the
computer several years ago at a hamfest and following the K4CHE "Musty
Card Board Box rule" it is out of the box on the shelf and on display.
Thanks Norm.
As the
project grew in scope cables had to be lengthened.
Again
following the "Musty Cardboard Box Rule" I started working
on a Pioneer Remote Indicator compass system to include a suitable bulkhead
mount and
power distribution system (400 cycle). The transmit magnesyn can be rotated
in its wall mount plus or minus 45 degrees for demonstrations.
Pioneer
Compass Video
The compass 400 cycle inverter draws approx 1 amp at 28 VDC.
An oxygen mask and regulator were installed for those oh dark thirty takeoffs.
The O2 mask and regulator were obtained at the Aberdeen Military Meet. The "No Step" is a stencil on the hood of my M151A1.
Mark
KD3ZK provided the O2 Mask and regulator. Mark has a lot of stuff and
we transferred it "from his pile to my pile". *
* Al N3FRQ originated the "pile" procedure.
Now what to do with a sump hole?
The sump hole was covered with a Bail Out Hatch.
Things
are looking up, we even added an Atlantic Loran A chart.
The Pioneer
Compass mount and the 400 cycle dynamotor are shown here. The dynamotor
is mounted above with the actual magnesyn below. The Magnesyn can be turned
in the mount plus or minus 45 degrees to simulate the aircraft turning
to demo the panel compass indicator.
Note the compass indicators.
Got
the Loran receiver coupler installed on the upper bulk head and the Navigation
portion of "Flak Bait" is finished.
FINI