Warbird Information Exchange

Look for us next to Ole 927!



Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

Look for us on the West Ramp ! Sorry I was too usy to get any pictures. We had 4 aircraft up today ! UH-1, TA-4, and F-4 were in the Viet Nam Demo, the T-33 flew in the trainer portion. All are Code 1 for tomorrow's show.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

We brought the ALS L-5 out on Friday and were there today (Saturday) only. The show was OK, but I was seriously disappointed in relation to past years. The aircraft counts seemed down and the show also seemed a bit under-planned from a management aspect. The individual acts were good, though. I'll post more pics later, but here are a few for starters. Honestly, I didn't get nearly the quality of pictures that I got in Houston, but that was partly because a LOT more people visited our aircraft due to our location.

Oh, and enjoy these photos from San Antonio... It's apparently the last airshow this large city will see until 2013... I was told that the military airshows are being cut back and that there will be no show at Kelly Field until 2013 and that after that the plan is for another Randolph AFB show in 2015... There used to be airshows at Stinson, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon, and there's NO way our international airport will host an airshow, so it looks like we're down to local fly-ins and driving or flying to airshows.

One good thing was that we were parked where I could see the B-24 nearby


and the B-29...


It made me feel like we were a bit more appropriately parked.

The P-40 was waaay off on the west ramp.


As was Galveston Gal.


And some aircraft were even farther out of reach...


But that's not always a bad thing, right Karen?

Oh, and a shout-out to all of the WIXer's I missed.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

From our perspective; A GREAT SHOW !

Some shots taken by the Collings Viet Nam Memorial Flight crews on the way home, yesterday.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

It was a GREAT show from my perspective also. I'm so glad we could have a really superb Vietnam Demo to end a year with a bit controversy in that area. I'm told from those on the ground that it really looked great with so many different aircraft in the air and once again wonderful pyro from the Blastards.

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Boy, you certainly could have knocked me over with a feather had I been in S. Texas, looked up and seen those three aircraft flying in formation.,. I would have thought I stepped out of a time machine!

Very, very cool!!!

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S.

I've noticed you're always looking up ! I mean on the bright side !

I'm hoping that the Airboss saw and heard the crowd reaction to the Viet Nam aircraft and starts to see the light.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

Me too !!!! I know Jr saw the light long ago. Looking up; Looking down. Considering there also were Helos when I was landing GPM, I guess I must always include Hueys on the centerline while I'm short final. Actually......I really enjoyed flying with all the guys !!!! and waving to the pyro guys on all the passes !!!!

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Yeah, but Jr. doesn't have a vote !

On another note; It was really good to see Mexican Bob standing in front of the Skyhawk. We had a short visit then he had to get back to his aircraft. I appreciated the time and effort it took him to come over to say hi !

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

The Vietnam stuff was great, the best I've seen that demo done. Hueys, Oscar duece, Skyraider, Spooky, Phantom and Skyhawk - and lots of pyro. Very nice. All we needed was some tie-dyed hippies out there protesting to completing the picture.

Had a great time, though most of the time was spent cleaning up Thunderbolt oil and Mustang coolant. Yuck ...

It's interesting how you see the military bunch having the same issues over and over at airshows - due I guess to the fact that you never have the same bunch running things from show to show. Someone needs to write a book called 'How To Have A Successful Airshow - For Military Coordinators', including a workbook, and distribute it to all bases in the US for each upcoming show season. It would be nice if 'lessons learned' would benefit the next guys down the line, instead of being forgotten on Monday after the show!

Agreed.., apparently the overall coordination from a ground support role was FUBAR!

My brother said he was on line for almost two hours just to get on base.., then they had to park on the opposite end of the base. Then wait in another ridiculous line for a shuttle bus to the flightline. He said they had to give up at over 3 hours and just parked along Pat Booker Road to watch from a distance.

Too bad!!!!!

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S.

That was a good looking PT-19 parked next to you Karen,.............know who it belongs to?

I believe that was one of the planes from RGV Wing or down that way. But I may be wrong.

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Rick H - Can I use some of the photos you posted of the formation A-4/F-4/T-33 in an interview that i am doing on Mike E and the Scooter / etc for an upcoming future edition which should be printed all going well in the AOPA Australian Pilot magazine.

Ive known Mike for around 1year now and he is a good mate.

Phil

Yes but give credit to the photographer. The pictures of the F4/TA4 taken from the T-33 were taken by Christopher George.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto