Steve Nelson wrote:
Cool pic! What's the status of Tom Woods' warbird collection since he passed away?
SN
My buddy talked to Tom Woods Mustang's pilot and he said the Woods family had no intention of parting with any aircraft and that they intended to have them all flown. That was about the only good bit of news during the rain out.
Saturday sure was a mess. I parked my motorhome in the grass at the north end before the gates opened. When I left Sunday evening, there was still about 1 inch of water around it, and it took many tries to get the pig out of the mud.
Fortunately for us, before that early Saturday evening Thunderstorm, we were able to coax one of the local exec hangar owners to allow us to put the C45 inside. Man, it looked like all Hell was going to let loose, and it sure did dump a bunch more water. I was glad to hear that there were no reports of the 60 mile an hour winds or 5 inch hail like they had west of Indiana. In fact I didn't hear of any damage anywhere on the field. That was a bit of good news.
Saturday wasn't a total loss for us. Matt Younkin had some engine trouble on his Friday practice. By Saturday afternoon when the sun came out, his mechanic had installed a new carb and of course a maintenance flight was in order. We packed up the C45 and "flew chase" with Matt's Beech 18, which performed perfectly. The Jelly Belly Interstate Cadet also flew as did multiple Mustangs (Horsemen giving rides?) late afternoon. It seemed there were many Huey sorties in the area until the last minute before the evening storm. During all that, we were busy eating, and climbing in Mustangs, T6s, the B25, the C123, a Huey and others, and schmoozing with other crews and volunteers. You meet the nicest people at airshows.
I was actually able to talk to the owner of our C45's grandfather quite a lot during the wash out. Harold Plunkitt was a ball turret gunner who had 56 B17 missions out of North Africa. Not all of them successful, he described being left for dead... twice. It was fascinating to hear his stories.. when he wasn't over at Yankee Lady crawling around, critiquing and educating the crew about their turret and other stations.
We had a great time at the Indy show. It was Jordan's first chance to fly his C45 in a show and he did a fine job. I think he had a good time and was very happy to show the plane with his family. He was a bit disappointed that his wife and two sons weren't able to stay to see his first time flying in a show. However, to make up for it, Jordan flew over his son's soccer matches on his way back to home base and did a couple passes.
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