Warbird Information Exchange

Gonna have three flying P-47's among other planes this weekend. Great weather, should be great.

I'm there, after a side trip to Buena Vista to do some aspen photography up near the ghost town of St. Elmo...will be there early am Saturday....wonder what 3 jugs they'll have besides Klaers?

Mark

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Mark Morris

Neal meltons Hun hunter and John Schoffners Wicked Wabbit out of Tennessee. They came in for the HellHawks reunion being held at Westpac and will be flying in the show Saturday and Sunday.

Kinda what I thought....seen 'Hunter' before at the Corsair gathering at Indy but not the 'Wabbit'....those'll look great against the backdrop of Pike's peak...Bill said he's gonna put the B-25 static, not gonna fly it...unfortunate.

Mark

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Mark Morris

He's flying the thunderbolt

I'll be there Saturday wearing my WIX shirt!!!

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Scott Greenfield

I'll probably have on my B-25 'Tondelayo' shirt...

Mark

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Mark Morris

I am thinking about flying down there from Boulder, just for the day Sunday.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

Went to the show today, little bit of a southerly breeze blowing and keeping things cool....got out on the ramp and the first surprise was two F-4's on the ramp, one parked in the 'active' area, hopefully meaning it would fly.....then also in the active area was a Lockheed Harpoon....no idea who it belonged to, had the number '84' in black on the rear fuselage.....a couple of guys down there years ago owned a Harpoon (Jerry Flesher and Whitey Wannemacher) but as I understand it they sold it to the Lone Star museum...any info on it would be massively appreciated. Slightly dissappointed to see hardly any Colorado birds on the ramp...no Mike Bertz Mustang, no Joe Thibodeau Mustang or Sea Fury, only Jack Cronyn's T-6 with a few others I did'nt recognize. The promised Thunderbolts were there as anticipated-Bill Klaers, Neal Melton's and John Schoffner's...Dick Janitell took off in his Sea Fury and never returned to the show, he is based in the Springs....never heard what the deal was with that. Endured the seemingly endless run of aerobatic planes and parachute jumpers, etc before the REAL show started, the three Jugs cranked and took off to fly over the halftime show at the nearby Air Force football game and then returned and made some nice passes while the F-4 and an A-10 took off for their respective parts in the display....the Jugs landed and an opportunity was missed for what would've been a REALLY cool Heritage flight, the P-47, F-4 and A-10, but as Meat Loaf said, "Two out of three ain't bad...", and the F-4 and A-10 made multiple passes both by themselves and together, and had the audience riveted. Having personally not seen an F-4 fly since the mid 90's and having given up any hope of seeing one lest I make it to wherever the Collings Foundation example comes closest to my area, to see an F-4 again was just an absolute treat. I will post a link to my Facebook page so you guys can see some of the action off my point and shoot digital in a bit.

As I understood it from Klaers son, the Jugs were'nt flying ion tomorrow's show due to a lack of fuel sponsorship, so if you go tomorrow expect to see them static.

Mark

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Mark Morris

Hey all, had a busy day ay the airshow...The Harpoon is ATTU WARRIOR....Owner/pilot Dave and pilot Steve, arrived here at the Springs Friday around 3:30 PM. Due to some parking snafu's, didn't get AW settled in for the nite till around 7PM.

We did a fly-by of the Air Force Acadamy stadium just prior to the Air Force-Navy game....Daves plans were to drop "Fly Navy" leaflets over the stadium, but I guess somebody didn't see the humor in it....Anyway, the pilot's did a fine job of flying AW, without eating up the slower C-45, and three T-6's that lead us in over the stadium...I did my usual fine job of keeping the tail where she belonged, as the critical ballast. Had fun shaking the tunnel guns as well...good thing those T-6's were not behind us...

Was really awsome to see three P-47's in formation and beating up the field....The B-25 was static today, but made several flights yesterday...F-4 and A-10 flew information, and also worked out individually for half an hour....Lotsa good stuff going on out here....and you cannot believe the amount of Biz jet activity...More Gulfstream's than I'd ever seen at one time in one place!

Finally got AW inside the static display area this afternoon after the airshow, so we hope to have a really good day tomorrow if the weather allows. I noticed that AW turned a lot of heads as we taxied by the crowd, looking forward to yakin' my head off giving the Harpoon her due....Hot Stuff crew...Dave and I both have been informing the folks we've talked to so far about our friends in Indy with their fine Harpoon as well!

Sorry, the camera is down...hope other WIX'ers can fill in the void...If you're around, stop in and say hello!

G

Gary...

Thanks for the info, but still a few blanks to be filled in....where is the Harpoon based? As I mentioned some friends of mine based in the springs had a Harpoon back in the mid 90's but I BELIEVE it went to Lone Star....or did you guys get it? You got an N number on this thing so I can chase it a bit? When they had their Harpoon they also did some work on another one that was going to (I believe) Neil Rose up in Washington state or something like that....been a long time so don't hold me to that. Sure got my attention when I saw you guys there with that thing, great to see it!

Mark

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Mark Morris

Gary...

Thanks for the info, but still a few blanks to be filled in....where is the Harpoon based? As I mentioned some friends of mine based in the springs had a Harpoon back in the mid 90's but I BELIEVE it went to Lone Star....or did you guys get it? You got an N number on this thing so I can chase it a bit? When they had their Harpoon they also did some work on another one that was going to (I believe) Neil Rose up in Washington state or something like that....been a long time so don't hold me to that. Sure got my attention when I saw you guys there with that thing, great to see it!

Mark

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Mark Morris

Hey Mark,

Dave's PV-2 ATTU WARRIOR is based in Heber City, Utah...near Park City, and Salty Lake City. N-number is N7670C..No, this Harpoon is not the same as the one mentioned, but I think you could be right about that PV being in Texas. If you have it's N-number, I can track her down for you. I think that this is a D model Harpoon as well.

7670C is one of the Hirth Air Tanker, Harpoons. April 1997, one of the owners was involved in a fatality accident in PA. HAT (the last operator of the Harpoon in ag. and forestry work) closed their doors. Of the 5 Harpoons left in Wyoming, one was restored to Navy markings, and flown to Pensicola, Fl..to the Naval Museum. The remaining 4 were auctioned off in 2005...Dave ended up with 7670C, tanker 39 (I can't remember the N-number at this momnent) and N7272C, belong to a gent in the Southern states, and I've ended up with N7458C.

Hope this helps,
G

Here are some of my shots from Saturday. Bluedharma has some great ones that I'm sure he'll add:











A-10, F-4, Pikes Peak:

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Scott Greenfield

Where did the Centaurus powered Sea Fury come from?!!!