warbird first love ?

[Matt Gunsch]

I started by building models, by the time I was 13, I was working on a B-17, Ha-1112 and T-6, been doing it ever since. I am 41 now, and was working on the C-119 and A-26 this morning.

[astixjr]

My father kept his Stearman and ex-Tora Tora Tora Kate replica at Arrowhead Airport here in St. Louis. They were really cool to a ten year old kid but nothing could match the twin F8F-2 Bearcats that the airport owner, John Gury, kept on the field.

[Ztex]

My parents would stop by dothan ala. on the way to the beach and I could play in the b-17s.

Got any pictures of Chuckie when she was in Alabama?

Z

[k5083]

K5083, is that really you in front of RAF? If so give us the details about when and where? I really don't like that ultra shiny paint job. I never met the previous owner Don, but I was told he was a nice guy and took good care of the planes.

Bill,

Yeah, that's me. I guess I knew her before you did, but I'm not bitter.

She used to buzz my house when she was with Don, who did a lot for her, and I went to visit her in the hangar sometimes after she lost him. She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen or touched, and she was available, but I couldn't do much for her. I was 8 and my allowance only went so far.

After a while she started going with a fellow in Maine, but she was too fast for him. Then she hooked up with that guy in Arizona, but always felt that she was competing for his attention. After a while she settled down with you. She seems happy.

Meanwhile I got to know MK923 a little bit. She was a hottie too, but she was going with a guy named Jerry who was very possessive. "He's so overbearing," MK923 used to complain to me, "he acts like he OWNS me. My, but he can dance though. The way he whirls me around..." and she would sort of drift off, humming Nobody Does It Better to herself.

I still catch up with TE308 at airshows sometimes. We meet up and exchange a few quiet words when you're not around. I tell her she hasn't aged a day (true) and she says the same to me (bull). We whisper a few other things, but I won't embarrass the lady by telling them to you.

She does tell me that she appreciates you picking up the tab for the ankle surgery last year. But she is a little ticked off about you horsing around with MK912 while she was laid up.

The pic is when I went to visit her at Owls Head in Maine, 1976.

August

Last edited by k5083 on Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[k5083]

Not surprising young Austin Powers fancied the Spit.

Yeah, this shot answers the question, "Which is it, Spits or Swallows?" Definitely SPITS, BABY! Yeah!

Austin

[rwdfresno]

I was 7 when my dad bought me a 1/48 scale Monogram B-25, and it was all downhill from there.

Funny you mention that model. I loved that model. I must have built 20 Panchito models when I was a kid. My B-25 models never looked like the other kids though. I remember one time I was about 8 and my best friend's dad came to pick up my friend and saw one of my models and said "Hey how come your model plane has one engine missing?" I remember saying "It isn't missing the bomber is getting a QEC." lol. I remember I had the engine with the cowling sitting on a stack of model airplane tires from other broken kits. I was like "sure airplanes fly, once in a while but every time I ever see them they are half apart getting worked on" lol. He also asked "what are those big black spots of black paint under the airplane?" I sort of looked at him with a confused look and said "those are the puddles of oil." I remember thinking "who ever saw and airplane without huge puddles of oil under the engines." lol

[Steve Nelson]

I think three things combined to get me hooked on round-engine smoke-belching oil-dripping airplanes...


Christmas 1975: I was 11, and my uncle got me the venerable Monogram B-17G. It was my first "serious" attempt at modeling (even though the only paint I had access to was the Testors gloss line at the local supermarket.)


12 September, 1976: My first airplane ride (this poster is one of my most prized bits of aviation memorabilia)...




2 July, 1977: My first meeting with a Jin-You-Wine Warbird. My dad took me and my buddies to the Selfridge AFB Airshow. It was at the hieght of my freinds and my "Ba Ba Blacksheep" addiction, and we were thrilled to see a real Corsair and "Zeroes," as well as Fifi, The Aircraft Formerly Known As Diamond Lil, and Texas Raiders (pre her restoration to military configuration.) I'm the one on the right..fortunately my buddy was stuck with the plaid polyester slacks....




Cheers!

Steve

[tom d. friedman]

nice pants!!! sad to say they are back in style!!! i flew in the old tin goose in 75 / 8th grade. we took it to middle bass island for a day of ice fishing. that's when winters were winters. ahhh the old goose...... took off at 90, flew at 90, landed at 90. what other airline could you open the window to spit?? my old man said if you used the john, the waste went out the bottom. i was ready to eat burritos & bomb my school when i heard that!!!

[Steve Nelson]

I keep tabs on that old Tin Goose...she's now owned by Kermit weeks, but was trashed in a hangar collapse during Hurricane Andrew. She's been under long-term rebuild with Maurice Hovious for the past decade, but it's a low-priority project. Ironically, his shop is just a few miles up the road from me in Vicksburg, MI. He's also the same gentleman who supplied Gary with the material to make the floorboards for AM927.

I didn't get to fly over Lake Erie in her..they were touring her around FBOs in the midwest when I managed to score a ride.

As for the "amenities" offered by the Ford, here are a couple shots I took from the left seat of the EAA's 4-AT a couple of years ago (note the airspeed indicator!)

SN

[Stephanie]

For me, this plane (specifically) and LSFM is what sent me over the edge!



True. Love.

How could you not love the Corsair? Beautiful!!!

[retroaviation]

How could you not love the Corsair?

Well, you could try standing on those wings for days on end while modifying one to a later model engine. You wouldn't love 'em so much then.

I used to always tell folks that I bet more people were issued Purple Hearts for falling off the stinkin' things than being shot down in 'em.

They are good lookin' airplanes, no doubt, but they aren't the most pleasant to work on.

Gary

[Bill Greenwood]

Steve, I used to own a T-34A, G-285 that had been in the Selfridge AFB flying club. He was the passenger killed in the Wright accident. Good photos except it's not good pratice to stand in the prop arc and I hate to see that in a photo. I got to fly the Tri motor once briefly. The ailerons are about as responsive as trying to tack a square rigger, but if you know what you are doing it will land and take off short!

[Stephanie]

I used to always tell folks that I bet more people were issued Purple Hearts for falling off the stinkin' things than being shot down in 'em.

They are good lookin' airplanes, no doubt, but they aren't the most pleasant to work on.

Gary

That's pretty funny. I suppose you'd be right about working on them, but - thank goodness that despite their treachery you're still willing to! I just think they're beautiful.

[Tim Landers]

For me, this plane (specifically) and LSFM is what sent me over the edge!

Here you go. Last WOH show.
Archie Donahue, Jim Swett, Joe McPhail, Dean Caswell

Ar

[Stephanie]

For me, this plane (specifically) and LSFM is what sent me over the edge!

Here you go. Last WOH show.
Archie Donahue, Jim Swett, Joe McPhail, Dean Caswell

Yeah, that's it! Thanks, Tim! That plane made me Corsair nutty... I have two Corsair stickers on my car and lots and lots of pictures of them... I just love it.

LSFM's B-17 is real close in the running, but the Corsair is the first plane that really just, caught my attention.

P.S. Great picture... I need to go read more about those men, I know there are at least two Ace's though...