Warbird Awards @ Oshkosh

[Ryan Keough]

Posted at:

http://www.airventure.org/2004/sunaug1/warbird_awards.html

Congrats and a job well done to all the winners this year for their hard word and effort to keeping restoration quality high and for their determined work in preserving these warbirds that we love so much!

My personal congrats to American Aero Services for the Gold Wrench award for their work on the Collings Foundation's Grand Champion Post-WWII Award-winning Chance-Vought F4U-5NL Corsair.

Ryan Keough

[Rob Mears]

So which P-51 belongs to Bob Baker? It must be a heck of a cream puff to have beat out the competition.

[bdk]

Where do they come up with the category of "Best Wildcat"? How do they choose categories? Why not Best P-40, Best Skyraider, or Best Fairey Gannet?

[Matt]

Hi Brandon,
Have never been to Oshkosh (although there are major plans for a trip in the future), so I haven't seen this happen from experience, however I remember reading somewhere that it depends on the quantity of a type that's present.
From the Oshkosh thread, someone stated that there were at least 4 Wildcats on site. Obviously the number present either met or exceeded the minimum required to have an award for the Best of type.
Good luck with the T-6 resto mate, and I hope this helps somehow.

Cheers,
Matt

Where do they come up with the category of "Best Wildcat"? How do they choose categories? Why not Best P-40, Best Skyraider, or Best Fairey Gannet?

Where do they come up with the category of "Best Wildcat"? How do they choose categories? Why not Best P-40, Best Skyraider, or Best Fairey Gannet?

Brandon-

If there are four airplanes of the same type entered for judging then they award a Best of class. Usually this means just generic Fighter, Navy Fighter, Bomber, T-6, T-28, etc. This year it was kind of cool to have three FM-2s and an F4F and I guess all the owners got together and registred for judging. On the other hand, Paul Redlich's beautiful T-6 was not awarded the Best T-6 because there were not four registered for judging although there were over 60 T-6s in attendance. Paul therefore missed out on a Silver Wrench Award for the guys in his shop.

Tim

[Al Moore]

So which P-51 belongs to Bob Baker? It must be a heck of a cream puff to have beat out the competition.

Here is a shot of Bob Baker's P-51.

http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/p5 ... ovely1.jpg

[John Beyl]

So which P-51 belongs to Bob Baker? It must be a heck of a cream puff to have beat out the competition.

"Tender and Sweet" and man it is every bit of that! What a beauty. Friday morning as he readied the airplane for the judges final peek, he made the time and talked to me for about an hour as he showed me through the plane. I sure am glad I wasn't one of the judges. They had an ultra tough job choosing between three flawless Mustang restorations at the show. My hats off to John Muszala for his work on the TP-51C as well. I didn't get a chance to have a real close up of his work since the judges were "Visiting" when I was there, howerver John stopped over to the Red Tail tent later that afternoon to introduce himself and chat for a while. Like everybody else I talked to at the show, he is a genuinely nice guy.

[bdk]

Here is a shot of Bob Baker's P-51.

Interesting. I guess the days of just showing your airplane are over... he obviously didn't fly in with that runway matting! I wonder if this show will go the way of some car shows where you'll need a full display presentation (like a diorama) to even be considered for an award?

Looks like a paper drop tank (or replica of one) too?

Here is a shot of Bob Baker's P-51.

Interesting. I guess the days of just showing your airplane are over... he obviously didn't fly in with that runway matting! I wonder if this show will go the way of some car shows where you'll need a full display presentation (like a diorama) to even be considered for an award?

Looks like a paper drop tank (or replica of one) too?

Brandon-

It has been that way for a while, more and more presentation to display the airplane for the judges.

One of the paper drop tanks is a real one, one of three that exist in the world. The other is one that Bob manufactured. You cannot tell the difference. Pretty cool.

Tim

[John Beyl]

"You cannot tell the difference. Pretty cool."

Tim,

Bob is very proud of that drop tank (And his pride is justifiable!). He challenged me to figure out which one was real and which was a replica. We stood in front of the left one for a while and talked, then moved over to the right one and kept on chatting. I asked him about all the fittings that he would have obviously had to custom made for the tank and as he answered he removed the filler cap off of the right tank, then put it back on. With a big grin on his face he paused and said, "Well, ya figured it out yet?" I said, "Yup, the right one." His face went kinda blank for a second and then he said, "Howd you know....nobody has been able to figure it out?" My reply, "Don't pull that filler cap off for anybody else if you want to keep it a secret.....those fresh shiny brass threads gave it away!!!!" "D@MN I never even gave that a thought!!!!!" He spent a lot of time on that tank and if I had not caught the thread detail by accident, choosing the correct tank would have been total dumb luck.

CONGRADULATIONS AND NICE JOB BOB!!!!!!

[Rob Mears]

Wow! That's a mouth-watering bird for sure.

Did Mr. Baker do all of his own work? I'm not to wise when it comes to the Mustang crowd, but I've never heard of the guy AFAIK. I find it truly amazing when a relatively unknown jumps out of the woodwork with a masterpiece like this. I'venever heard a peep about this plane's existance until just now.

[John Beyl]

Wow! That's a mouth-watering bird for sure.

Did Mr. Baker do all of his own work? I'm not to wise when it comes to the Mustang crowd, but I've never heard of the guy AFAIK. I find it truly amazing when a relatively unknown jumps out of the woodwork with a masterpiece like this. I'venever heard a peep about this plane's existance until just now.

From what I was told Bob and his crew did all the work on it...including the engine. "We hung the engine with the front end loader on the John Deere and when we were ready to run the engine in, we tied the tail to the same tractor and ran it in for the required 5 hour period. The engine has 20 hours on it and the airframe has 15."

While he may not be one of the more prominent, in the limelight Mustang owner builders, award winning A/C at Oshkosh isn't anything new to him. Several years ago he produced another "Surprise" winning Mustang when others were expected to take the trophy.

[Rob Mears]

John, do you recall the name/identity of that other award winning Mustang produced by Mr. Baker? I'm curious to find out more about the man's warbird accomplishments.

[Al Moore]

Here is one of Mr. Baker's Mustangs that won an award at Oshkosh.



More info here on the Mustangsmustangs website:


http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/su ... 3463.shtml

[Al Moore]

Oklahoma Miss is for sale as well,

http://www.aviatorsale.com/aix1262/