Warbird Information Exchange

Blue skies and tailwinds...
https://www.npwelch.com/obituary/wilson ... dwards-sr/

Never met the man but always heard great things about him and a big thank you for saving the aircraft you saved for future generations. R.I.P. Sir.

CAVU Connie. You, Tex and Bill are all together now....

Another true legend goes west. I met Connie back in the mid 1980s at the Breckenridge air show. He had his PBY there, when it was painted all black and named "The Black Mariah". Although the PBY was not "open for tours", when I asked if I could climb the ladder and peek inside, he let me climb aboard the aircraft and check out the interior, and sit in the pilot's seat. That memory will always stick with me. Recently, Connie donated a set of ultra-rare prop hubs to VFM for the restoration of our Piaggio Royal Gull amphibian. Those hubs are rarer than hen's teeth, being unique to that aircraft only, and he could have sold them for a fortune, but he gave them to us. Class act, all the way. Blue skies and tailwinds, Mr. Edwards!

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

If only he could see all his surviving birds flown....

Blue sky sir and than you for your passion and vision....

Some search and love stuff......

From the man himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IzB_OyztUk

His legacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tun3gtoqW-o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHzeeZrC-WQ Still wish they would have kept the original colors and blown canopy

And of course the last famous gear swing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmPw1GEpveU&feature=youtu.be

I met him about 15 years ago when he brought his USCG-marked Albatross to Abilene for avionics work. It was during a hurricane evacuation on the Gulf, and one of the TV stations (not the one I worked for) reported it was a USCG plane seeking refuge...unaware that Abatross were long since retired from active service.

I found him to be friendly but modest about his work/collections.

RIP.

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

BTW....someone knows what happenend to his PBY with yellow wings?

Never saw it for sale anywhere.

I recently saw a TV news clip from 1986 of a PBY suffering a water-loop while alighting in Plymouth after a transatlantic flight. I read up on the airframe and learned it found its way to Connie: same machine?
https://youtu.be/7Cd9XTuUKg4

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Zac in NZ
#avgeek, modelbuilder, photographer, writer. Callsign: "HANDBAG".
https://linktr.ee/zacyates

"It's his plane, he spent the money to restore it, he can do with it what he wants. I will never understand what's hard to comprehend about this." - kalamazookid, 20/08/2013
"The more time you spend around warbirds the sooner you learn nothing, is simple." - JohnB, 24/02/22

As most here know, Connie Edwards owned quite a number of Mustangs over the years, including as many as 6 at one time that were brought out of Guatemala - I have some old photos passed down to me from the late 70's of all six of the Guatemalan Mustangs lined up on his ranch (among warbird pilots, it was a popular spot in Texas to visit at the time). Mustangs that he helped save include those that have gone on to become "Happy Jack's Go Buggy", "Hun Hunter~Texas", "Miss Marylin II", "It's About Time", "Goldfinger", "Archie", and "Red Dog XII". At the time of his passing, he was still the owner of P-51D 44-74902, an incredibly large stockpile of P-51 parts and Merlin engines, a couple of PBY Catalinas (N4NC and N222FT), a Grumman Albatross (N226G), and a number of other aircraft and classic float planes (Grummans and Piaggios). It was great to see that he was able to visit the UK last year and see some of the Buchons he saved, completely restored and flying again. The Spitfire he saved, MH415, is expected to fly this year in Australia.

List of the Buchons he had in his possession over the years:

C.4K-30 (reportedly being used as a parts source at Air Leasing, in the UK, in Buchon restorations)
C.4K-31 (became N109ME and G-AWHE, today flies in Germany converted as a Bf-109G-14, D-FMGV, with Hangar10)
C.4K-61 (fuselage surviving, reportedly being used in a Bf-109K project in Germany)
C.4K-99 (today flies in the UK, restored as "Yellow 7", G-AWHM, with Air Leasing)
C.4K-100 (displayed today at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo)
C.4K-102 (today flies in the UK, restored as "Yellow 10", G-AWHK, with Historic Flying Ltd)
C.4K-105 (today flies in the UK, restored as "White 9", G-AWHH, with Anglia Aircraft Restorations)
C.4K-106 (currently stored in California, pending future restoration)
C.4K-111 (under restoration to fly in the UK, as G-HISP, with Air Leasing)
C.4K-112 (today flies in the UK, restored as "Red 11", G-AWHC, with Air Leasing)
C.4K-126 (currently stored in California, pending future restoration)
C.4K-127 (displayed today at the EAA Museum)
C.4K-130 (today flies converted as an Allison-engined Bf-109G-10, N90602, with the Erickson Aircraft Collection)
C.4K-144 (flew as N8575 with the Confederate Air Force, crashed in 1987)
C.4K-152 (under restoration to fly in the UK, as G-AWHR, with Air Leasing)
C.4K-154 (reportedly part of the mass Buchon sale back in 2014 - possibly at Air Leasing in the UK/parts source?)

One of a kind, thanks for all you did.

Blue skies...

Phil

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A man's got to know his limitations.

Blue Skies Connie...

The yellow-winged PBY is his PBY-6A N4NC which successfully landed at Plymouth at the end of the trans-Atlantic enactment flight in 1986. It is still at Big Springs but has recently been advertised at $5m! The Catalina (actually a former RCAF Canso A) C-FOWE was the one that water-looped on arrival at Plymouth not long after Connie had landed. It was owned by Robert Franks. It was salvaged, repaired at the old Coastal Command flying boat base at Mount Batten, Plymouth then flown back to Canada. Years later, Connie acquired it and it is currently at Big Springs registered N222FT and named Flyin' Turtle.

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David Legg
Editor, The Catalina News
The Catalina Society
Author: Consolidated PBY Catalina - The Peacetime Record

I really hope someone does a book-
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all ... remembered

"He also regularly flew the big seabirds to the Cayman Islands, as well as the annual EAA convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he hung jet skis from the wings."

Jet skis...

Phil

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A man's got to know his limitations.