Warbird Information Exchange

It's flown twice , paperwork has been cleared for two months.

Thanks John, had missed seeing any info on that. Came across this video on the youtube of the two flying together. Envious of anyone who was there!

I attended Saturday’s show and for $35.00 with full access all day, it was money well spent. Quite amazing that POF can put on such a great event year in and year out. I do have to state that the audience attendance seems larger than I’ve seen at Chino, but I wouldn’t agree that it’s Warbirds that’s the main draw. The current military planes seemed to garner the most attention. To me Chino had more enthusiasts interested in warbirds, but perhaps Santa Maria simply needs a few more years for the draw to change to how it is at Chino. Just my thoughts.

As for the layout of the event? Well organized and easily accessible either by driving or flying. No lines, no traffic jams, no congestion. Area is beautiful and the ocean is nearby. Accommodations are plentiful and realistically affordable.

As for the airshow itself? Very well done, as usually expected, when it was at Chino. Constant flying and entertaining. Great weather and calm winds.

It was a nice show and well worth my 20 minute drive from home.

I may have missed if there's anything "official", but my guess is the long-term plan will be housing all of the airworthy planes at SMX, and the static at CNO. A lot of POF's airworthy planes didn't go to Central Coast, but that would change right away once they're all stationed there. Not sure if the goal is ever really to make a full-fledged Chino warbird show again, but I could really see it happening once everything is in place at SMX.

You lucky people!

Fabulous sight, and one that I missed seeing 37 years ago, when RR299 & RS712 were scheduled to fly together at Biggin Hill Airshow the week or so before RS712 was due to ferried across the Atlantic by George Aird for delivery to Kermit's place in Miami.
Sadly, RS712 developed a minor tech issue and stayed on the ground at Biggin Hill, and so that last formation was done a few days later when RS712 headed north to Scotland and RR299 met up enroute to take the air to air shots.

However, this formation at POF, marked 61 years since the last time two 'solid nose' Mosquito's last flew together, when back in 1963, RR299 and TV959 flew together as the only pair of T.3 trainers operated by the RAF's No.3 CAACU at Exeter, as seen here just prior to their withdraw from service.

I am pretty sure that the nasty looking four-blader that you saw on Polar Bear in 2011 was the experimental prop built by MT Propellors to test the concept for the replacement P-82 propellers. When they were rebuilding the P-82, they were unable to find a complete and airworthy set of Aeroproducts props for the Twin Mustang. Eventually they had a chat with MT Props and they built up a set of new props to P-82 spec but with wood/composite blades and a modern hub. A test version of this was installed on Polar Bear so they could run a 110 hour flight test program without having to do this on the P-82. It meant that the P-82 could be made airworthy and it had a tried and tested set of props on it when it first flew.

If you want to know more about this, search for "Modern Propellers for Warbirds, Presented by Dan Whitney to the Aircraft Engine Historical Society August 17-20, 2011 Conference Everett, Washington". I found a PDF of it online at one point but cannot remember where I found it.

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A Little VC10derness - A Tribute to the Vickers VC10 - www.VC10.net

Ah! I THOUGHT they were both there and believed they'd been flown in formation with the short-lived Blenheim but have never found any reference... One's memory plays tricks...

Couple of greats pics from 'Air Classics"

SANTA MARIA MOSQUITO FLIGHT

"On 21 September at Santa Maria Airport in California, history was made by Rod Lewis, Charles Sommers, Steve Hinton, and Bernie Vasquez when two de Havilland Mosquitoes were flown in formation for the first time since 29 September 1987. On that date, George Stewart and George Aird (read the incredible story of Aird’s low altitude ejection from an English Electric Lightning in the September 2024 issue of AIR CLASSICS) took off from RAF Benson for the first stage of the delivery flight of Kermit Weeks’ Mosquito (RS712). They were briefly joined by John Sadler in the British Aerospace Mosquito RR299 (unfortunately later destroyed in an airshow crash) for a quick photo session. Some 25.5 hours of flight time saw Kermit’s Mosquito safely arrive in Miami.
AvSpecs in New Zealand meticulously restored two Mosquitoes for Rod Lewis and Charles Sommers and this was the first time the two planes had been in the air together as well as the first Mosquito formation flight in 37 years. Also on hand to witness the event was AvSpec’s Warren Denholm and Vintage V-12s’ Jose Flores, builder of the magnificent Merlins that power these rare survivors. The event took place at the Planes of Fame Central Coast AirFest airshow and the event thrilled the crowd."

So, was it worth it to drive up from San Diego, 4 hours, and then home, 5 hours, to see these to fly together? Hell yes!
I had seen 474 when POF had their open house viewing of it after it arrived, they flew it, but it was a short flight and you didn't really see much.
But now, to see two of them from take off to landing, oh yeah! That was definitely a memory I will not forget!

Can't wait to see how POF will top this show gathering.