Well its that time again..... Time when a small band of dedicated volunteers from the Connecticut Air & Space Center trucks a bunch of our displays, parts from the Corsair, & alot of literature to give out to people, all the way in upstate Connecticut. The location: a little airfield in the sleepy town of Simsbury. The purpose: to be apart of the Simsbury Flyin: the largest flyin of its kind in the state. Which isn't saying much considering some of the pics I've seen from other gatherings in the country.
Either way it was a day long celebration of aviation, vintage vehicles, and tons of other cool stuff. I'm in no way a professional photographer so be gentle.
So here are some of the shots I got off when I had my 15 min break from our display booth.
Lets start off with the purpose of our visit: Mobile HQ for the CASC at the show.
This year we had the added assistance of Ed McGuiness, Mark Knopick, and Steve Recsenski to help out with the booth. Without them this would have been 3 times as hard. There volunteer spirit should be acknowledged and praised. So in the end we raised a few bucks and spread the word about our operation to some folk from Connecticut and Massachusetts alike! Drew King would have made it too had it not been for that whole "being human so you get sick now and again thing". He was missed. So without any further interruption, onto the planes...
Bare Metal 170 ....nice
King of the Classics J3
Boy could we put one of these to good use. PT-17 (A Simsbury regular)
Dunno what this little guy is.
Fairchild 24 IIRC
Now this is what I call a local legend. Harland Avezzie's ridiculous PT-23. Restored in 1990. Re-skinned around 95. His son also brought his Jeep:
Why cant Santa leave one of these under my tree this year?
Grabbed a quick pic of Harland leaving.
Looks like a Taifun 17E
Curious scheme on this little Swift
I got nothing. I know one of you out there know what this one is. Looks fun though.
Luscombe 50?
Must have had a heck of a time landing on the paved runway.
Gettin Artsy...
Fairchild 24 Argus?
Beautiful little Ryan PT-22 owned and flown by Taylor Smith. Taylor gave some great passes in this one.
Interesting looking Cub. Anyone know the year and engine?
A Beaver was certainly a surprise to see... one of the loudest to leave the show.
As we poke our heads into one of the older hangars we find.... Stearman number 2!
And behind that an immaculate Harvard! The owner said this aircraft was up in Maine last year during the flyin. I think I need to get better acquainted with this owner.
What a toy box...
There were of course your usual little Cessnas, Beechcrafts, and other light aircraft that can be found at any airport. Although a UH-60 Blackhawk was on display. At the end of the day she lifted off and started leaving. Little did we know she was coming back to do a low high speed pass down the runway.
BADA$$. Also got to meet a Pearl Harbor Vet who was a top turret gunner on B-17's. He was telling me a story where the first time he had to fly a B-17 was when it was all shot up, and they finally made it back to Guadalcanal IIRC. He showed me a picture of his 17. I believe it was an E model named "Calamity Jane". I say "I believe" because the whole bottom of the nose was shot off and resting on the ground. He then went on to tell me about how he switched to fighters and was in 49th FG with Bong and Mcguire, until finally switching out to P-51's until the end of the war. He stayed in the Air Force after the war, ferrying everything from Stearmans to Corsairs and everything in between. He said most of those ferry missions were out to the desert to the boneyards. That was a highlight of the day for me. There was also a fairly large car show, balloon rides, live music, food, etc..... But the most shocking thing to find, the most random and totally unexpected bird of the day was this little guy:
Okay, so when I left my house this morning the LAST thing I'd expect to see was a flyable Kaman HH-43 Huskie!!!!!! Needless to say she was the Belle of the Ball. As you can tell the general public seemed to be enamored by her so it was almost impossible to get a clean shot. This is now the second flyable example I know of. Anyone else know anymore?
So thats a quick summary of the events today at a little flyin (in comparison) in a little town in upstate Connecticut.
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so Ill take the free sick pass for not being there.
Even if the Pats did lose to the Jets! 
