Warbird Information Exchange

I shamelessly grabbed this pic from the SoCal Wing website... I have been impatiently waiting on this bird to fly for the last couple of years....... It should be very soon....... more info here..... http://www.cafsocal.com
This Spit was previously owned by David Price until it was acquired by the CAF along with the Zero (that just returned from New Zealand).

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Just call me Al.

Always good to see another Spitfire ready to fly again.Beautiful aeroplanes those Spitfires and Seafires.

Do you know what was wrong with the engine before, and who did the overhaul? It's nice to see it running again, I hope they remember to tie down the tail if they do any higher power runs, to protect the prop. I'd guess on this preliminary run they are mainly checking for leaks.

I almost flew that plane when David Price owned it. I was invited to an airshow/open house type celebration at his museum. It was a cool place, blending some Hollywood type glamor and history with high performance aviation in a very nice setting. I'd been friends with David for some years, and though don't know him well, and knew his cohort Bob Guilford. When I got the invitation, instead of travel expenses, I told the coordinator, that I'd like to fly their Spit once. She checked with David, readily got the approval from him, and I was all set and began to plan as the XIV is somewhat different from my plane. I was fairly familiar with an XVIII which is somewhat like theirs. Then I got a call from the coordinator that it was off. There was a guy, who worked for David that didn't like me and talked him out of letting me fly the plane. She conveyed David's apology, but said while David had no problem or doubt about my flying,, he had to support his employee. I had quite a few hours in Spitfires, a couple of our very top pilots had ridden with me, I'd never had any real problem flying one then, but there we were. I was getting my info 2nd hand, and thought of talking to David directly to resolve any problems; but I didn't want to make him uncomfortable. It was his show, his plane, and his choice who he backed, and he'd always been a gentleman to me.
When I got to the show, I just went my own way, and the other guy went his. He is a good pilot, but seems a different kind of person. We never had any discussions, then or before, but one year we both flew in the Spitfire reunion in Arizona,and I think that's where he got his funk from. He wanted the formation a certain way, but he was not the organizer, nor paying the bills and they asked one Spit to leave the formation at one point to meet a T-6 with Brit photographers on board,which I did, then rejoined. Actually the photo plane pilot got confused and wasn't even there, but I tried. Nothing was said in debrief, but since this was one of the few times we flew together, I guess it didn't fit his sense of order. It's possible he just didn't want to share the Spit with anyone else,but I thin it was more than that. David's show went just fine, my detractor flew as a solo and I did the same, don't recall who did the briefing, probably David.I would have liked to fly there again, but eventually museum disbanded, I think, wonder what is there now? I did make friends with one of the mechanics working on their Spitfire, who said the plane wasn't flown that often and he wished I would have the chance. I did sit in it for a cockpit check in case I ever got the chance to fly it, but no such luck. I recall the cockpit seemed pretty complete if a bit rough. I seem to recall they might have had some problem with a brake leak or an oil leak.
I hope the plane is well cared for now, maybe I;ll get a chance to sit in her again.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

I think I see something holding the tail down in the pic Bill.

This was always a classy looking plane. I still remember Oshkosh 87 when this, David's IX, Bill, and Jerry Billing were all there. It seemed to me that this flew quite a bit in the years when the Santa Monica museum was doing well; I'd see it at Chino, March Field, Hawthorne, or just beating up the beach. Can't wait to see it with a tramp stamp.

August

I spent 2 summers out at Santa Monica in 91-92 when my dad was out there doing some projects for David, every day David, Bruce or Alan were flying something, i got to see the P51's, Skyraider, T28's among others fly regularly. I sure miss it, you never knew what would come in from day to day.

If I have my airplanes right, this is the same machine that ended up on its nose during a runup at Yankton, S.D. around 1985-'86. I am probably off a year or so one way or another, but a Mustang and Griffon Spitfire stopped for fuel (on their way home from Oshkosh IIRC) and the Spit ended up sitting in a hangar at Yankton for a good while waiting for propeller blades.

Scott

I'll peel the darn thing off ...

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

You are correct. It was '86 I believe. My father was in the '51 - Cottonmouth as we called it - and David was in the Mk XIV... David rolled out a little long and wound up in the grass at the end of the runway. He added power to get himself out of there but the grass grabbed the tires and the airplane tipped up and clobbered the prop. Craig Charleston arranged to borrow some propellers while a new set was made by Hoffman in Germany. They left the Spit in S.D. and both flew home in the '51. A year later my father put the Mk IX on it's nose in front of the crowd while rolling out after landing during the Chino airshow. I was sitting next to David under a B-25 wing and he was quite nonchalant about the occurrence - having had his own nose-over experience !!!

Bill Greenwood...I can only 'guess' as to who the other pilot was that squashed your dream of flying the Mk. XIV. I think he has a bit of a reputation. Regardless of that, I'll always be appreciative of that 'individual' for he was the one that pulled my father and Judy Fern out of Charlie Knapp's '51 (Minuteman) - with fuel spilled and downed power lines - after my father snap-rolled the airplane into a house off of Clover Field in SMO - the engine failed on takeoff.

Thanks for filling in the details of that incident! I worked just west of the airport at the time that happened. My boss was a Korean War veteran (with a soft spot for air/ground cooperation) and we were working when he suddenly hollered "MUSTANG!" to me. I hadn't yet heard it, but sure enough I soon heard the P-51 and then the Spitfire overhead. We heard the P-51 leave but not the Spit, and later learned it had nosed over. I saw her tucked into the hangar later but never really knew exactly how the damage occurred, other than that someone thought it was during a mag-check.

Scott

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SoCal !

nuff said!

SPANNER

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

Group,

I was out at the So Cal CAF on 03 Jul, and they were getting ready for the engine runs.
They said the engine was built by Mike Nixon (Vintage V-12's).
I was told that Nixon had to do the initial engine runs for a valid warrenty.

I had not been out to the wing for a while and there have been alot of changes (remodeling).

LAterrrrrrr
Avn-Tech