Warbird Information Exchange

On Saturday early after noon I was in the south practice area off of Fire Island, directly abeam the Robert Moses lighthouse with my student at 2500'. We were dodging the usual gaggle of Piper's and Cessna's doing the same thing we were when all of a sudden I spot traffic at 2 O'clock low. It was an OD B-25 at 2000' about a half mile from us going opposite direction (eastbound) along the shorline. I wish I had a camera as I had a perfect shot of it with the lighthouse situated directly in the background. What a site to see a warbird in the air like that!

I checked with the usual FRG (Republic) spotters but no OD B-25 departed from there. Only AAM's FRG based B-25 Miss Hap which headed over to TEB for Wings and Wheels. But this one was not NMF for sure. IT was OD with an emblem clearly on the tail, not letters or numbers.

Where is CF's Tondelayo this weekend? Barbie III? MAAM Briefing Time? Although I really thought I saw something on the tail like the Chino based -25.

......or maybe I saw a ghost? An "aeronautical Mary Celeste"?

Pete

Most likely it was the B-25 Briefing Time. It was in Millville, NJ for the static Warbird display on Sunday and it left around 11:45AM to go up to Connecticut to do a flyover of the John Brown that is on a cruise up there. It returned to Millville around 3:00PM. Briefing Time has "9D" on the tail.

Greg

_________________
Greg Witmer, V.P. of Operations
Airboss / Ground Boss / WWII Aircraft Coordinator
David Schultz Airshows LLC

That was her then! The Brown's website has the cruise out of RI on Sat;

Sat Sept 25, 2010
10 am to 4 pm Providence, Rhode Island
Narragansett Bay Living History Day Cruise

Funny how our brains interpret what we can't make out and we see what we want to see. From my vantage point the 9D and the flag on the tail kinda merged and my brain popped the Chino based B-25 into my mind.

But what a beautiful sight to look down on a warbird from above, flying along the shore with the lighthouse and the breakers underneath her!

Thanks Greg.

I think they had a few more Warbirds fly over the John Brown too. I believe that Chris Baranaskas in his P-51 Glamourous Gal and Ken Laird in the Val Replica also were to fly over. I don't have confirmation that they did, only that they were supposed to. Nice mental image though looking down and seeing Briefing Time along with the breakers and the lighthouse.

_________________
Greg Witmer, V.P. of Operations
Airboss / Ground Boss / WWII Aircraft Coordinator
David Schultz Airshows LLC

i left millville at 2 and saw what i am pretty sure was panchito over the beach in sea isle an hour or so later

_________________
-recovering Viper crew chief
-AWACS driver/soon-to-be A-26 driver
-displaced Philadelphian

Panchito was in and out of Millville flying rides most of the day on Saturday.

Greg

_________________
Greg Witmer, V.P. of Operations
Airboss / Ground Boss / WWII Aircraft Coordinator
David Schultz Airshows LLC