Bought a Fairchild 24

[Dave Hadfield]

Thanks Michel! Very nice. And thanks to you too, Pogo.

I've been very busy the last week with the airshow at Gatineau, and then installing the overhauled Magnetos and Carb in the Fairchild. Plus overhauling the carb air box rigging. Pictures soon.

That C-17 photo reminds me of the P-40 in 2009 -- it was like taking the world's greatest Christmas present out of a really cool box.

Dave

[AIRIC]

Hey Dave, finally getting caught up on your adventures. Enjoy this thread so much.

Cheers

E&B

[Dave Hadfield]

Hey Eric, I've been jammed for time all spring, and am way behind on airplane stories. But I see from facebook you've been busy too. The B-17 -- were you in Sarnia when this event occurred?



Dad used to fly B-17s for Kenting, as has been shown on this thread, so he and Chris flew the 170 over from the cottage airstrip to be part of it in Sarnia.

[Dave Hadfield]

Here's a C-170 view you might not see very often...



As for me, lots of flying. Recently I had an email from Mike P, saying he had a scheduling conflict and could I please ferry the Mustang to the Bagotville airshow? I replied that yes, as a matter of fact I could(!). So with my grand total of .8 hours in the P-51, I re-aquainted myself. Study study study...

First was my annual prof ride in the Harvard. I flew circuits in the back seat with John A. No pictures because my arms and legs were moving too fast. Then fire up the V-1650-7.


Pierre Lapprand

Oh yeah, it taxies like a Harvard, not like a P-40 -- stick forward to unlock the tailwheel and all that...


PL


PL

[Zac Yates]

Go Dave! What a cool experience!

[Dave Hadfield]

Thanks, Zac, but it got more interesting -- Vlado Lenoch was going to have a Mustang there to fly with the F-22 Raptor as a Heritage Flight. Unfortunately that Mustang developed engine troubles. So he asked if he could use ours?

Ordinarily we'd say NO, of course, but after some research, and references, and discovering Vlado's vast qualifications on the P-51, we decided to allow it. So -- here's the Really Big Thing -- my wife, Robin, in her role as the Airshow Coordinator for Mike Potter, tasked herself with getting a Foreign License Validation Certificate for Vlado -- WITH A TIMELINE OF ONLY 3 DAYS! (To fly a Canadian-registered airplane in Canadian airspace, you need a Canadian license, or this validation.)

My wife is an "Irresistable Force". And TC can be an "Immovable Object". But we had excellent cooperation from TC (Mr. Omer Lemaire -- thanks!), and although it came right down to the wire, we got the document, and thus Vlado rode with me in the Mustang to the show in Bagotville.

But, you notice...



... he is in the back seat. Well, I was glad we were able to help out, but No Way Was I Giving Up 4.0 Hours Of Mustang Time! Not happening! So poor Vlado, brave man that he is, was forced to sit in the back, no control column, while a P-40 pilot rastled with the new airplane to Bagotville.

Of course he is a most pleasant fellow, a gentleman, very easy to get along with, and quite kind to a sprog Mustang pilot, and we got there OK. However, when he told me later that this was the 55th Mustang that he'd flown, I was glad I hadn't pounded the thing onto the runwaythere in Bagtown. In fact the aircraft was pretty much reusable.



Here we are parked in 433 Squadron's operational hangar, which is usually full of F-18s.

[Dave Hadfield]

The Airshow organizers had only paid for a static display, for 3 of our aircraft: Mustang, Corsair and Hurricane. So it was great to see the Mustang actually fly in the show. Attendance was amazing -- 82,000 people were there on the Saturday! That's nearly everyone in the Saguenay valley! They're a very air-minded population in that part of Quebec.

Vlado did an impeccable job.







And I think he had a good time.



I wish I had a picture of the expression I saw on his face when he was handed a serving of poutine!

[CAPFlyer]

Great to see you and Vlado had a great time. I wouldn't worry about him though, as you said, he's flown 55 different ones, I'm sure he's happy to get a little back seat relaxin' in.

[Dave Hadfield]

We had flown there on the Thursday, but on Friday the weather was bad around Montreal and the other 2 fighters scrubbed. Next morning the Corsair made it, mainly because it didn't have to stop for fuel along the way and still make the airshow cut-off time -- which was a problem for the Hurricane.

But the big blue airplane was very well received.



John Aitken flew it in. But we all took turns standing beside it to answer questions -- me dusting off my high-school French... and getting some very strange looks...

A very cool non-aviation moment was when we went for dinner Saturday night in Chicoutimi, and selected "Georges". As it turned out, "Georges" was where you went to for Anniversaries and Birthdays when John was first there on squadron with the Voodoo -- in the late '60s!



Anyway, the show went very well, the Mustang looked and ran superbly, and we opted to stay one extra night due to weather and leave Monday morning. John needed some formation time to prepare for the VWoC flypast on Canada Day, so this is what we had to look at -- other than the trees and rocks of course...

[Pogo]

This thread has had many a COOL post in it , but this latest batch takes the cake! WOW!!!

[k5083]

Nice experience - and so appropriate to have a Canadian marked Mustang in the USAF heritage flight for this location and occasion. I imagine that hasn't happened very often.

August

[K225]

Dave what a shock after reading your posts and having met Vlado briefly at the hangar to hear of his loss today.

[Dave Hadfield]

Yes, Steve. A terrible shock. I was late hearing about it. I'd been anchored on my boat at Hope Island without a power cord for my phone, so the battery nearly died. I turned it on briefly as I cruised back, only to hear the sad, sad news.

I went into the cabin and poured a noggin for Vlado, held it up in the cockpit, toasted his passing, then hurled it up into the air.



Godspeed, Vlado Lenoch.

[Zac Yates]

A beautiful tribute, Dave. I have tears in my eyes now, especially after scrolling past the photos from so recently.

[Scott Rose]

Godspeed, Vlado Lenoch.

He will be missed....