The Confederate Air Force Flies Again!

[Nathan]

YEAH!!! Get sum'!!!

[bluehawk15]

The page said 38 ads, 25 years, 1 winner....Hats off to the Confederate Air Force!

I think (bias might be showing) this was the most dramatic of all the commercials.

Thanks, WIXers, for your votes! I'd love to know what the final totals ended up being.

[Lynn Allen]

Looks like we are still in the lead, with about 55 minutes left in the voting! We haven't heard back from the PR firm about the fly-over, so a "Stand Down" order has been sent out from the Wing Leader. Oh well, I just checked weather and we couldn't fly down Congress Avenue anyway. Overcast 1600. Staying 500' below the clouds would give us 1100 AGL to work with. Staying 1000' above the highest obstruction gives us 100', and the downtown buildings are a lot taller than that!

Maybe, once we win, they will start broadcasting the commerical again. I wonder if they will change the voice-over to say "Commemorative" instead of "Confederate" if they do?

When we did the show over downtown Austin for Desert Storm years back, Ralph Royce said in the briefing that where he would be up on one of the buildings downtown, he didn't want to look "down" on anyone going by...

[cco23i]

Another victory!!!! CHEERS ALL!!!!

Scott

[the330thbg]

The State of Texas announced the winner of the contest today at 11:00am local time.

Confederate Air Foce Wins!

Congratulate yourselves, WIXers ... there is no way this would have ahppened without some of you beting your fingers to a pulp voting. I don't know if they'll announce the vote totals or not, but I dare say it was a landslide.

I do love the smell of victory in the morning!

That was fun!!

What next? Presidential?

LMAO!!!!!

[cco23i]

I remember that add from when I was stationed in Clovis N.M and all we watched were Texas TV stations! I'm glad it won!!!

Scott

[B 25 C]

Congrats to the CAF. Thanks to all who voted!

[LadyO2Pilot]

Thanks to all who voted !!!! Congrats to the CAF...sure was fun to see that ad again

[Randy Wilson]

OK, if you want to see the CAF Don't Mess with Texas TxDoT commercial or the "making of" video (edited down a bit) take a look here: http://dmwt.rwhome.net/. There should be links to see them from the main CAF site any minute, I'm told. Enjoy.

Randy

[Russ Matthews]

... see the CAF Don't Mess with Texas "making of" video here: http://dmwt.rwhome.net/. Enjoy.

Wow. After viewing that footage, suddenly these photos (copied directly off the "Don't Mess With Texas" Facebook page)
don't seem nearly so implausible!

[Old SAR pilot]

Congrats CAF and all those who voted!

[Pogo]

Amazing stills - wowee!!!!!

Where was the filming location again? I thought it had been mentioned, but went back thru the thread, didn't see it.

[CAPFlyer]

Randy, thanks for posting that footage. I just hope that DMWT finds a way to cough up the funds to redo the commercial in modern HD, maybe with a 4-ship of bombers (FiFi (lead), Ol' 927 (slot), TR, and SJ) and 2 fighters completing the 6-ship Delta.

[Randy Wilson]

I had not seen those still shots before but that's me in the FM-2 (F4F in the video sound track) and the B-17 was really down there!

As for the location, it was quite a ways south of Midland and a bit of a story, if you don't mind. I had been flying the Wildcat for a bit less than a year when asked if I could take it from the Dallas/Fort Worth Wing hangar in Lancaster, Tx out to Midland. Reg Urschler flew the P-51 to Midland from his base up near Omaha, NE. So when we were launched from Midland to go to the filming site several tens of miles south of Midland, neither of us were familiar with the area. I flew wing off Reg and in these days before GPS and other wonderful things in our warbirds, all we had was a sectional. After a bit, Reg and I were trying to locate ourselves in an area of mostly desert and Reg said something like "Wait here, I'll be right back!" and dove down toward a small town below us and circled the water tower. When he rejoined, he said "I know where we are" (frankly I don't remember) and off we went until we were able to talk with Herschel Whittington of the CAF staff on his handheld (seen late in the video) and started our runs.

The initial plan was for the P-51 and FM-2 to follow the B-17 in very closely for the shot. The hill that the B-17 pops up over was probably only about 100-200 feet above the desert to the south where we made our approach. Reg and I quickly figured out that at 40-50 feet AGL or even a bit higher, right behind the B-17 we were not having much fun or luck! Talk about turbulence. So then we started to try and work off the wing of the B-17, etc. In any event, we didn't make it into the final cut but it sure was an interesting day! Trying to keep up with Reg when he cobbed the power was not fun, either! Hope you enjoy knowing a bit more about the good old days.

Randy

[Nathan]

I had not seen those still shots before but that's me in the FM-2 (F4F in the video sound track) and the B-17 was really down there!

As for the location, it was quite a ways south of Midland and a bit of a story, if you don't mind. I had been flying the Wildcat for a bit less than a year when asked if I could take it from the Dallas/Fort Worth Wing hangar in Lancaster, Tx out to Midland. Reg Urschler flew the P-51 to Midland from his base up near Omaha, NE. So when we were launched from Midland to go to the filming site several tens of miles south of Midland, neither of us were familiar with the area. I flew wing off Reg and in these days before GPS and other wonderful things in our warbirds, all we had was a sectional. After a bit, Reg and I were trying to locate ourselves in an area of mostly desert and Reg said something like "Wait here, I'll be right back!" and dove down toward a small town below us and circled the water tower. When he rejoined, he said "I know where we are" (frankly I don't remember) and off we went until we were able to talk with Herschel Whittington of the CAF staff on his handheld (seen late in the video) and started our runs.

The initial plan was for the P-51 and FM-2 to follow the B-17 in very closely for the shot. The hill that the B-17 pops up over was probably only about 100-200 feet above the desert to the south where we made our approach. Reg and I quickly figured out that at 40-50 feet AGL or even a bit higher, right behind the B-17 we were not having much fun or luck! Talk about turbulence. So then we started to try and work off the wing of the B-17, etc. In any event, we didn't make it into the final cut but it sure was an interesting day! Trying to keep up with Reg when he cobbed the power was not fun, either! Hope you enjoy knowing a bit more about the good old days.

Randy

That is very cool, Randy! Thanks for being on WIX. It's neat to listen to warbird pilots. I am very jealous.