Warbird Information Exchange

I don't use that GPS in the plane... It's pretty much worthless as far as I'm concerned. Now I do occasionally bring along my Garmin Gekko...

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.

It may not be the same as the old days when wealthy warbird owners got together and cut loose for a weekend, but there is generally quite a bit of impromptu flying before and after the formal program at Geneseo. The atmosphere is very laid back and no one gets gouged on the cost of food. Thunder or Midland usually have more types of planes these days, but Geneseo wins when it comes to atmosphere.

[quote="k5083"] He wasn't saying there are less warbirds or the warbird community is folding or inviting inane truisms about making things happen

Thanks for clearing that up for us.

Some warbirds are certainly still owned by the idle rich,

Idle rich? That's an ignorant, if not derogatory description.

It is not meant to be either; merely a trifle envious. I am working hard to become one of the idle rich if I possibly can. Thus far I find that I don't get rich when I'm idle, and I can't be idle when I'm making money. Not complaining, mind you -- most folks are neither idle NOR rich. But let's face it -- some people, through talent or past hard work or luck or all three, have a lot of money and a lot of time. And owning and operating, say, a P-51 and flying it around the country all summer takes a lot of both. When a single person can do that all by himself -- well, I'll adopt a more delicate term if you prefer, but...

Of course, not everyone involved with the operation of warbirds, especially nowadays, is among the idle rich -- part of the point of my post is that organizations have brought it within reach of others. So I'm not stereotyping warbird operators as a class. But SOME warbird owners have been individual guys with a lot of money and a lot of time, and they have had an impact on the movement and particularly on both hosting and attending the kind of airshows Mark started this thread about.

August

I believe things are just changing but not for the worst. Some aircraft may be gone out of the country or no longer flying,..but look at the new aircraft that are appearing over the past years and the ones that are in the works. I never thought I would be seeing a Me262 flying, or the group building Oscars or seeing the progress of a P-61 back to flying status! I never imagined in my life.. being part of an airshow with eight B-17's flying!! With new technologies and processes Im sure we will see a lot more aircraft appear either by restorations or brand new planes from blue prints! I think the best is yet to come!

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Trae

Definitely agree there. If I were to make two predictions about the warbird scene 30 years from now, they would be:

1. Over half of the warbirds we see flying now will no longer be flying -- either destroyed or retired. BUT --

2. Despite this attrition, there will be substantially more warbirds flying then, and of more types, including several now considered extinct.

August

Oh, there are good things happening in the warbird community, to be sure....there are plane types flying now that there WERE"NT 15 years ago, the restoration levels are amazingly high, a lot of the flying is now much safer than it was....I'm not arguing against the new safety standards, the new high quality restorations, and I'll be the FIRST one in line to see a new build FW 190 or Messer 262 when one comes to Denver or is within convenient driving range to go see it...ALL I'm saying is that the warbird movement, where it has GAINED in some areas immesureably, it has lost a bit in some other areas, to the detriment of the good old fashioned Breckenridge type airshow....where folks got together and had a blast and the flying was amazing and folks went away saying "Wow!"....nowadays the flying is kinda limited and restrained, and we all hope one of the rich collectors will bring a few trinkets from his collection for us to gawk at during the weekend, because the days of the less financially well off collector who has 3 or 4 warbirds in his collection seem to me to be coming to an end...

But I'm glad a lot of you feel some of the shows are still WELL worth going to and being a part of...gives us some hope for the future of warbird shows...

I've said it before, I'll say it again....I don't want to be on this earth anymore once the last flying warbird is grounded.

Mark

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Mark Morris