Warbird Information Exchange

Saw and heard a bunch of warbirds flying around this afternoon, what a sweet respite from gazing upon hurricane debris and listening to heavy equipment. There was an A-26 buzzin' around, haven't seen one of them babies flying in forever, anybody know who's it is?

It was Rick Sharpe in the A-26. Former Bob Pond A-26.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

If it was bare aluminum probably Rick Sharpe's

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Support Your Local Warbirds! KBO!
The only reasons the airplanes matter is what the veterans did with them... and why.

Yep, musta been Rick Sharpe then. Also saw a faded green Huey slick thumping about at one point... reckon Rick would know anything about it too? Thanks, y'all!

As an aside, last year about this time I returned to the Houston area from an extended road trip just in time to catch the last couple acts of WOH. I was observing the proceedings from offsite with more than just a little bit of interest when a B-24 lifted off and it WASN'T Lil. Wasn't Witchcraft either, I knew where that birds was... What in the world?! The darn thing came right over me at low altitude and I caught the nose art. Pretty sure old Lil had undergone a facelift while I wasn't looking - what else could it have been? - I still hurried on home to conduct a little internet research on "Ol' 927" asap. That first Google session led me to WIX for the first time.

And I still think Gary's Lil/927 thread needs to be made into a book!

Faded my A$$ ! That's authentic Marine Green on an authentic Marine UH-1E. We flew three media flights today.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

If you re-read my comments a little more carefully you will surely see I *meant* to say "...a fabulously authentically outfitted Huey if there ever was one..."

DANG, I feel so stoopid, I know you guys have a Huey and that it's a lot more likey it's y'all than Rick (the other Rick, I mean) and his'n. I blame it all on the hurricane. Yeah, that's it, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

PS: What a beautiful bird!

Oh,...my mistake, I should have read what you really meant !

Rick has the UH-1V long body. Unfortunately as good a pilot as he is he hasn't figured out how to fly the UH-1 and the A-26 at the same time. Les Smith also flies it a lot but I think he was busy flying for Rowan today. Al Maxwell brought Rick's Staggerwing over today.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

I'll ask for a show of hands at this point, all those who can walk from Honolulu to Los Angeles are excused, everyone else suffers from 'oops-itus' and foot in face problems-(I know I do) and yes Rick, that is a great lookin' UH-1, most folks don't think of them as being used by the MARINES but I worked with a guy years ago who was in the Navy, and his squadron flew OV-10's in Viet Nam, the Black Ponies

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

VAL-4, they worked the Delta.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

On a related note, last night at dusk a Baron and an Embraer Legacy (I think - looked to be painted like a biz jet) were circling the west side of downtown Houston in formation at 1000-1500 ft, presumably on a photo mission.

Anyone happen to know what the pictures were for? Downtown was really glowing beautifully in the sunset (and clear air!) at the time.