Hi!

That is certainly true.
The original tailwheel was too small and hard for use in the soft
Finnish airfields, it simply sunk into the field.
The replacement was a wheelbarrow wheel built by "Suomen Gummitehdas",
12*4 inch rubber wheel. Naturally the wheels were new and directly from
factory, not just robbed from poor old wheelbarrows.
At the same time also the tailwheel assembly changed completely, to
adapt it to the new wheel. The new tailwheel could now be turned and
controlled.
The change was ordered for all the Brewsters on 10.8.1940 as "very
important".
The new tailwheel assembl was 21,5 cm higher than the USN tailwheel, so
the landing run was longer than before.

Interestingly, mr. Erkki Pakarinen, a Brewster pilot from LLv24, told me
how he once burst his tailwheel. He was rolling to takeoff position and
had to turn 90 degrees. Unfortunately, he made a mistake with locking
the tailwheel and it got stuck on a piece of wood (or possibly tree
roots) in the airfield area, jammed and the wheel burst.
Erkki told me how he ended up standing stiff as a stick for 20 minutes
while his squadron's superior officed yelled to him face red along the
lines "where do you think we are getting new tailwheel for this plane?
The plane is now going to sit useless on the ground until we can fix the
tailwheel or get a new one".

They were situated in the very far east of Finnish frontier, in the
Finnish/Karelian wilderness, in the very far edge of the supply network,
as far from the repair depots as you could get... And there wasn't much
spares...

Sadly mr. Pakarinen died suddenly less than a year ago - and he seemed
to be in better condition than I am... He had fantastic memory and could
re-live all the things he had experienced, telling very detailed stories
and explaining any details of his Messerchmitts and Brewsters.

Watching him live through his aerial combats and experiences was amazing
- he was showing his hand movements in the cockpit, he could show how
the planes maneuvered in 3D space... A goldmine of information...

jok



One thing I would like to know for sure. I remember hearing or
reading that after they arrived in 1940 the Finns replaced the USN
hard rubber tailwheel for a pneumatic tire with a wheel from a common
Finnish built wheelbarrow! Is that true or urban legend?

John

On Apr 7, 11:24 am, "Jukka O. Kauppinen"
wrote:

I see in Classic Wings and at the Annals of the Brewster Buffalo,
http://www.warbirdforum.com/buff.htm, that the Museum of Naval
Aviation has transferred the Brewster 239 BW-372 to the Finnish Air
Force Museum at Tikkakoski for a 5 year period.

Photos:

http://www.virtualpilots.fi/feature/...bw-372_photos/

jok