P-47 restoration in maagazine

[mustangdriver]

There is a current magazine out right now that has Butch Schroeder's P-47 Hairless joe on the cover. I won't name the magazine. It talks about Dave Schilling who's paint scheme the aircraft wears and how complex the scheme is. It also talks about how Butch and several of his guys researched the scheme for ever to make sure it was right, and how the restored this aircaraft and painted it to be an award winner. The problem that I have is that it is all B.S. I worked on this aircraft at the Air Heritage when it belonged to David Tallichet. The aircraft arrived at Air heritage in bad shape. It had been on display at the national Warplane Museum in Geneseo, NY. It was painted all white with black lettering on the noser that said Zemke's Wolfpack. Through out several years this aircraft was restored at Beaver County and the complex paint scheme that is in this magazine was done on our facility by our volunteers. I don't mean to saound mean, but it is not fun to spend your weekends on something for several years, and then have someone else take all of the credit and ignore that you exist.

[Jerry O'Neill]

Do you have any pics of it when it was at Beaver County? I'd love to see that stage of it's life. I saw it on Long Island and at Geneseo in the Zemke paint.
Jerry

[mustangdriver]

I do, but they are from the early 90's, and I will have to scam them when I get home(at work right now). I don't mean to sound bitter, I don't mind busting my butt to work on a warbird, and I don't mind when someone gets credit for saving the plane, but when some one else steps in after you have really worked hard and says, "I did all of this", well that doesn't fly in my book.

[sdennison]

Dude, I know how you feel. I spent years in Indy car racing as a mechanic and fabricator and when qualifying pictures were taken at Indy, you could barely make us out in the "way way back" as the owner's friends and sponsors were all up front "profiling".

Get used to it and be satisfied in your heart that you did what was important. I don't think you busted butt to take a claim of glory but did it out of love and passion for what you did. In the long run, the truth will prevail and everyone will know who really did the work.

It's tough sometimes to handle but you'll win in the end.

[mustangdriver]

Thanks. I really don't even care for the credit for myself. Air Heritage is a small facility, and could always use the press. I was 13 when I started working there, and the guys there really took me under their wing to teach me alot about airplanes, life, and respect. Most of them are WWII vets. I just want them to get credit they deserve. The work I did on this plane is small when compared to what others gave, but I was only 13 and did what I could. Move ladders, clean and sand blast parts. This airplane and "909" were the first two warbirds I ever worked on. "909" had suffered a very bad belly landing, actually slif off of Runway 28 at Beaver. Tom Rielly came to look at the wreckage and told Bob Collings to cut it up for scrap. It was Air heritage that drug it out of the hole it was in, and rebuilt it. That is when we got our hangar.

[Tim Savage]

There is a current magazine out right now that has Butch Schroeder's P-47 Hairless joe on the cover. I won't name the magazine. It talks about Dave Schilling who's paint scheme the aircraft wears and how complex the scheme is. It also talks about how Butch and several of his guys researched the scheme for ever to make sure it was right, and how the restored this aircaraft and painted it to be an award winner. The problem that I have is that it is all B.S. I worked on this aircraft at the Air Heritage when it belonged to David Tallichet. The aircraft arrived at Air heritage in bad shape. It had been on display at the national Warplane Museum in Geneseo, NY. It was painted all white with black lettering on the noser that said Zemke's Wolfpack. Through out several years this aircraft was restored at Beaver County and the complex paint scheme that is in this magazine was done on our facility by our volunteers. I don't mean to saound mean, but it is not fun to spend your weekends on something for several years, and then have someone else take all of the credit and ignore that you exist.

I haven't seen the article, but I do know Butch and the guys who helped him get the airplane flying pretty well. I doubt that Butch would have taken credit for stuff he didn't do. I wonder if the author of the article just took artistic license with this portion.

[mustangdriver]

I only met Butch once, and that was when he came to our place to check ou tthe aircraft when he was buying it. He seemed like a cool guy that was excited to be buying a P-47. I did not mean any of that toward him in his crew more the person who did the writting.

[daveymac82c]

Thats intertesting. I imagine that the writer of the article knows quite a bit about warbirds, so this could just be a lack of research being covered up by assumptions.

Not related to the article you speak up, but another.... I always cringe when I read articles that have anything to do with airplanes, which are written by non-aviation oriented people. Especially articles about airplane crashes and accidents.

Anywho....

Cheers,

David

[valdez25]

XXXXXXXXXXX. Nevermind.

[mgeorge51]

I have had many writers quote me with stuff I never heard of. It is almost funny when they totally make stuff up and use it as a quote. Sometimes I think they must have heard it in a dream as I never uttered a word to the effect of the quote. Sometimes it is embarrassing as well.

A neat story about Butch is that his father flew P-47's in the war and he wanted to obtain one before his dad got too old.
He did buy the P-47 with quite a few years left of his father's life.

I was honored to fly in the memorial missing man formation over the funeral of his dad.

Butch is one of the real gems of the Warbird movement he will literally do anything for almost anyone. When I was looking at Mustangs he travelled with me for free to look at several on the west coast.
I am positive that the error is on the part of the publisher.

The work you guys did on the P-47 is beautifull.

[mustangdriver]

Thanks, Butch struck me as a very nice guy. I remember hearing that he was wanting the p-47 as his dad had flown them. I am glad that it went to a good home. When the plane left Air heritage it was not flyable yet, as the prop had not come back from being over hauled. She was pretty close to being done, I did notice that he did a lot of work on it after it left our faciltiy in little detail things that make it an award winning airplane.

[warbirddriver]

Consider the source of the article and all your troubles will be answered.

Glenn

[mustangdriver]

I kind of figured that, but I didn't want to say that and get the site in trouble.

[sdennison]

And now for something completely different...where can I find a picture(s) of this Jug?

Thanks! "Son of a Jug Pilot"

[Dan K]

And now for something completely different...where can I find a picture(s) of this Jug?

Thanks! "Son of a Jug Pilot"

Just a start:

http://www.warbirds-eaa.org/images/warbird11.jpg