Warbird Information Exchange

According to the museum director at Tillamook, it's fully certified to fly and ready for someone to take it up into the wild blue yonder. Whether that will happen or not is another question however.

Dennis

Maybe they just simply have a shortage of qualified pilots and A&P's associated with the museum. I would imagine if they import a pilot they would have to clear it through their insurance...They must fly some of them.

Dennis,
Is Ted Ryder still running the maint. hanger?? If so he's top knotch
and also qualed in most of the airplanes. He wrote a nice story about flying the Duck for Flight magazine a while back.

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Don't touch my junk!!

I'm not sure about Ted. We were told that the museum no longer hires a mechanic.

Part of the roof of the maintenance hangar was blown off during those very high winds they had on the coast in November.

The blimp hangar is owned by the Port of Tillamook. It needs lots of maintenance which the Port can't afford.

Dennis

Ted worked for Jack E. not the museum and has for years. Someone had to assemble the Oscar. The hanger is a dank place and very cold in the fall and winter months. For those who haven't been there, the museum only occupies the north ends the rest is storage.
Also the P-51D shown is a real pile of junk! It was bought for the ID and the original idea was to mount it on a pole out front. It's a shell with pop rivets holding it together and lots of corrosion.
It's one of those place where the museum's doesn't own it's aircraft ie empty building syndrome.

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Don't touch my junk!!

Like Stephanie, I really enjoy the collection/museum and try to visit there at least once every two years.....and I live 500 miles away. This was my 6th visit. Yes, the P-51 out in the main hangar is a shell. The flyable Aussie P-51 (N551D) is in the tent. And Jack has another project P-51 in storage.

It's fun to walk around the west wall of the hangar to see what gems are stored there. B-17E "My Gal Sal" was there for awhile before it went to Ohio. The P-39 project has been put on display.

Dennis

I just wanted to say thanks you guys, I have learned a lot following this thread. Very interesting, I appreciate all of your insight.

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"It is the greatest shot of adrenaline to be doing what you have wanted to do so badly. You almost feel like you could fly without the plane." Charles Lindbergh

FINALLY, a mustang within my budget.