Warbird Information Exchange

John,

not meant to "start" something unpleasent here. Just only repeating what I was told. Not unlike the time I visted the Champlin Fighter Museum some years ago....they too, ostensibly were all flyable, but not flown. For obvious reasons, not the least of which are AVGas, parts, and Insurance of any kind, one can understand why something may be airworthy but not flown. Especially on Warbird fighters...such as a P-38 for example. Rare plane and insurance are two words that just don't seem to fit well together on a tight budget.

Just my two cents.

Paul

I think the prudent matter of fact is that it would be much cheaper to collect the insurance money and rebuild a wrecked aircraft than it would be to actually maintain each in a bona fide state of airworthiness, and insure them against the hypothetical possibility of forced relocation.

_________________
Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

Kudos to Doug Jeanes, probably also guessing Ronnie Gardner, Aubrey Hare, Stewart Dawson, and Mike Burke.. sorry if I guessed wrong guys, but Thanks...
Blake, know how you feel, I tend to fight that battle quite a bit.....
On the Bearcat.... The airplane IS flyable.....but is not flown due to insurance issues......this is my understanding. This airplane is owned under Mr Waltrip's name, not the museum name..... the insurance co will not cover the airplane for flying unless it is insured for somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-5 million bucks....
In the future, I think we will see the P-38 and the A-20 fly again.....probably the A-20 first, as soon as the first Wangaratta A-20 takes to the air in about three years...... With the P-38 population rapidly increasing, I think that the P-38 will eventually be cleared to fly.... time will tell..... Glad everyone is safe.... Good work everyone... Alan

http://www.khou.com/perl/common/video/w ... 050924.wmv

Here is a news clip that shows the island very well. It looks like LSFM survived pretty well.

_________________
Live to fly, Fly to live.....

We dodged a BIGGG bullet here folks. Apparently Rita sucked the water out of Galveston Bay and we didn't get the rainfall as we were on the WEST side of the storm. Wind was equivalent to a Cat 1 storm, lost trees, powerlines, and minimal damage to some structures. Wind was only a worry when the storm was over 135 MPH. The potential storm surge and bay flooding was the scary part. Some of what was predicted did happen in Lousiana. Never go east of a storm to escape it unless it's by a VEERRRY wide margin. 100 miles is not near enough for a storm that is 410 miles wide !