Warbird Information Exchange

Watching the P-38 fly at the Wings over Akron airshow a few years back. I have seen the P-38 fly before, but for some reason it was just a special feeling.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

I don't know that I'd call it the most exciting pass I've seen, but I gotta say that watching FIFI go around the pylons at Reno in 1997 is pretty dang high up on the list. There were quite a few grown men out there hootin' and hollerin' as it went by...myself included.

Gary

Any video of that?

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

I saw an SR-71 at the Pax River show in either 1973 or '74. It did one low alpha pass and then just peeled out in mid-air. Just hauled hiney out of there.

Seeing Dale Snodgrass wring out a Corsair for the first time was awesome.

I watched Glacier Girl take to the sky for the first time in 60 years. Total goosebumps.



I saw a MiG-29 at Dayton in 1991 (or maybe 1990) do the Cobra Maneuver. I laugh whenever I watch my video because I yelled "WOOOOOOOOOOWWWW!!!!! when he did that.


Dave G.

I don't have any video, but I'm sure there's some out there somewhere. All I have is this picture of a poster that's hanging up in the hallway here.



Gary

First (official) flight of the POF N9MB flying wing. I was also there when it flew the week before in semi-secrecy. Back then I had the honor of meeting Gen Bob Cardenas, who flew the N9MB back in 1946, and Bruce Hinds, first test pilot of the B-2. I snapped this shot of (l to R) Bruce Hinds, Gen Cardenas and Don Lykins (flew the wing that day).

while driving down the M25 just outside london. Sunroof open I hear a bunch of merlins and think WTF? look up and there they are motoring along right down the m-25 in tight formation. VERY COOL indeed!

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P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.

S: Took hammer away from midget.

Last year I was diving down Arnold Mill Rd past Air Acres and I got to see the B-25 "Wild Cargo" take off. That Grass strip is maybe 2400'. I was thinking, this is gonna be tight. But shoot, they flew off an Aircraft Carrier, this oughta be easy. It was. Boy, I loved hearing those radials crank up, She maid it with plenty to spare.

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tracers work both ways

I was flying rides in the Twin Beech at Grass Valley in California and I was on the roll out down the runway after landing when I heard this strange noise. It was something I had not heard before especially on the runway sitting in the cockpit. It was a kind of a howling-screeching sound that kept getting louder. All I could think of was someone had landed behind us and was locking up the brakes to get stopped and the tires were making that ungodly sound. I remember thinking we were going to get plowed from behind and there was nothing I could do about it. I was thinking that I should warn my passengers somehow so they could prepare but I figured that it would only make things worse for them since we couldn't do anything about it. What a helpless feeling.

All of this happened in a few heart beats. It is amazing how time can stretch out in a situation like this and how the mind races to make sense of what you are experiencing so you could react.

A fraction of a second later I found out what the sound was. It was a North American F-100D that had come by the air show for a few fly bys. I knew he was in the area because he was on the radio but I had no idea that he was flying up our 6. He went over the top of us so low that from the pilot’s seat in the Beech I was looking right into the tail pipe when he lit the afterburner. He was cookin' to say the least.

It is hard to describe the feelings that go through your mind at a moment like that. There was a big feeling of relief that my passengers and I were not in the middle of some kind of a wreck at the same time we all were exhilarated beyond words from being buzzed by an F-100D Super Saber.

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Per Request


I think my most exciting pass was Lefty at "Old Rebel Fie;d" in Mercedes while sitting on the road next to the strip.


Aero

This thread got me thinking...seen & heard a lot of fly-bys in my time.

One memorable moment that I haven't thought about for a long time until this thread appeared is one that would not have been on my wish list, but was mighty impressive.

In the pre-9/11 days, I visited the Museum at Dover AFB; home of some mighty big a/c of Air Mobility Command. In those days you drove to the museum under the flight path for one of the runways. The day I visited C-5A's were doing their version of touch & goes (crash & dash). They don't actually touch, but when one got right over my car, they hit the throttles all the way forward and I heard the most unholy scream from those engines less than 100' over my head (seemed like about 15' it was sooo loud).

Talk about unforgetable, memorable, (fill in the blanks). Definitely the most impressive fly-by ever seen & heard by this ground-pounder!

I was told by the guard at the gate not to stop anywhere on the base except at the museum, so I have no pictures, but I do have that memory.

Might have to be a B52 flyby. One in particular.
Back when the Sacramento airshow was held mid week at Rancho Murieta. This particular year a BUFF came by and he did a high (about 500') pass at average speed, then came by for a low speed dirty pass then swung way out. When he got lined up the smoke really started to roil out of her and he pushed her right down on the deck for a REALLY low and high speed pass. How low? From my vantage point on the flight line looking across the runway there was a line of trees on the other side of the runway just off the airport property. He was so low that during the pass I could see the tops of the trees in the distance over the top of the fuselage.
Low, fast, loud and big. Great pass.

As for other warbirds;
Anytime Ellsworth flies the Seafury.
Anything Jimmy Franklin or Elliot Cross was flying.

A "private" P-51 display by Alan Henley at his farm in Alabama. By far the most aggressive warbird flying I have ever seen, and I had to duck more than once. I don't think Hoover could have matched him on that day.

Three...
Dale Snodgrass taking off at Williston, Fl Airport in the F-86 on a Friday while we stood on the edges of the runway.

Dale wringing out the F4U-5 at Terre Haute three years ago,
and once again,

Dale flying the F-14 demo in the rain, at the 1985 Pratt & Whitney Airshow.

ALL WERE SPECTACULAR!!!
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

John Ellis doing aerobatics in the Air Zoo Tigercat. Priceless!

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Matt