RESTORATION
OFRESTORATION
OF
Convair F-106A
59-0010!
Below: Pictures of 59-0010 during restoration at McClellan Field, Sacramento, CA (2005).
Balls-10 at the former McClellan AFB ramp (now known as McClellan Business Park flight line) in May 2005, immediately after being brought up from the AMARC storage facility at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona: bits and pieces are the rule, as the aircraft had to be disassembled for truck transport to Sacramento.
Some of the restoration crew above--third from left is Colonel Dick Stultz (USAF, Ret.), who was Chief of Flight Test at McClellan Air Logistics Center. His job was to shake out the birds after they had been overhauled. Dick flew Sixes at Langley (remember TAZ and those orange-suited 'Protectors of TAC'?) before coming to McClellan and has over 3000 hours in the Six. His wife Sandy is on his left. Dick (appropriately, considering his associations with the Six, is the overall coordinator, a** kicker, mover/shaker, and spiritual motivator for the 59-0010 restoration effort!). It is largely through his inspired efforts (and those of several other key players in the McClellan Aviation Museum Foundation, not least being fellow board member Major General James Hopp) that we were able to retrieve 59-0010 from AMARC, with USAF Museum's General Metcalf's blessings. More images will appear here as the restoration phase of the project begins.
Picture above right taken after both wings have been reattached on 26 Aug 05. Special thanks are due to our McClellan Six Team (Dick & Sandy Stulz), Jeff and Dawn, and a volunteer CPO from Coast Guard Air Station McClellan Field (who helped us lift and secure the wings, using an intricate two fork-lift technique that defies any erection and maintenance instructions ever found in an aircraft dash-4 manual!). Another view appears above, left, with 59-0010 seen from under the nose of the MAM C-54.
Below: Part of team with "Balls-10"; I should point out that 59-0010 was never officially known throughout its service career as "Balls-10", since only aircraft 59-0001 through 59-0009 of this series were known by the "balls" term in actual operations. This stems from the common use of the last three numbers in the aircraft's tail number being used as a radio call sign (as in "003" being "Balls-3", etc.). However, 59-0010 is known to us at the museum as "Balls-10" out of respect for its fabled survivability in having remained intact and flyable through nearly 40 years of hard use and dedicated service to the nation's air defense. 59-0010 definitely has earned its "Balls" appellation the hard way, and we are proud to refer to it by this term
Below: Who says you can't have fun putting together a full-scale 30,000 pound model airplane? MAM Six-team crewman Jeff demonstrates how Air Defense Command wing COs used to discipline F-106 squadron crew chiefs who didn't meet ADC's exceptionally high standards of operational alert readiness (this technique was considered somewhat more acceptable than use of the rack, the thumb-screw, or the garrote) in an effort to "stretch" crew chief capabilities more humanely......
Update: 22 Oct 05. With the help of the Air Force ROTC cadets of Detachment 88 (Commander: Lt. Col. Kevin Houdek) at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS), the final major reassembly work on 59-0010 has been completed and the remaining task is to surface prep the aircraft for its final painting in its original 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (5 FIS, Minot AFB, ND) colors (a small vestige of the 5th FIS tail-flash may be seen on the rudder of the aircraft, above). The photograph below shows Sandy Stultz (member of the restoration team, McClellan Aviation Museum Board member, and most recently married to Col. Dick Stultz, 59-0010 restoration team leader and former 'Six' flight test pilot) giving our bird a hug on its radome as it nears completion.
[NOTE: On 3 November 2005, the McClellan Aviation Museum had the formal public 'kick-off' of its new museum building campaign.Held in the adjacent Coast Guard Station Sacramento hanger, this event announced our new museum building project and welcomed the latest member of the McClellan Air Park collection....Balls-10! A formal dedication of the aircraft and the newly completed museum facility will be held publicly on 2 February 2007, subsequent to the culmination of the restoration. Below, Aerospace Museum of California board of directors member Chris Carey, fomerly active with 5th FIS in 1967 at MAFB, works on prepping on the vertical tail assembly for new paint (December 06).
(Below: 59-0010 in final stages of preparation for painting, December 2006, outside the Aerospace Museum of California hanger at old McClellan AFB site.)
Below: 59-0010 as of 29 Oct 05, almost ready for painting!
Below: 59-0010's final appearance in November 2006, just before receiving new 'warpaint' in old 5th FIS squadron colors
Below: Three images showing 59-0010 as she appears after final paint-up and on display at the Aerospace Museum of California (16 December 2006)
Below: Aerospace Museum of California Board Members LCol. Dick Stultz, USAF, Ret. far right, and Chris Carey, 2nd from left, 16 Dec 06
