Closest She'll Get To Flying

[peter]

Followed her progress since she was in Flypast in the early 80s! The guys are right though it would be good to see her runnable again and maybe even taxiid? You could have some sort of family open day or flyin to generate funds for her?
I would also be against flying it as she is so original and to have her flyable you would lose alot of the originality in the restoration process.
Just had another look at the photos again, the video of the wing change was interesting!!

[Glenn Maude]

As far as I know all the gages are there and are all orginal, the only thing the P-40 didn't come with upon purchase was the radios and the 50 caliber machine guns. Ill have all the photos and videos up on the website soon in a picture history type of thing, along with more photos, a forum, and much more, it will be up soon, and hopefully it a busy site. Thanks for your post.

[Bill Greenwood]

Glen, I don't know much about the particulars, but if you ever decide to return the P-40 to flight there are a number of careful and experienced Warbird pilots who could and would fly it with the respect it deserves. Tiger Destafani is one, owned a p-40 for years, and multiple year winer of the Unlimited Reno Air Races. I have flown with him in my plane, as well as his P-40, and flown formation and of course watched him race and fly airshows for years. There are many others, Steve, Johnny of the Chino guys etc.

[Brad]

I know for a fact that Bud Granley was asked about flying this airplane about six years ago. At this point there had been some disagreement with a museum in the local area and options for moving the airplane were being looked at.

[Bill Greenwood]

Brad, Of course. I was about to put Bud in my suggestion, but decided to make it those who I was sure had a lot of P-40 time.Some of the other top guys, Rudy, Ollie are sort of easing into retirement.

[oscardeuce]

Some of the other top guys, Rudy, Ollie are sort of easing into retirement

That seems to be the trend. Insurance will make it harder for those of us working our way up the ranks.

[Jack Cook]

If it was ever flown by anyone it should be John or J-C Paul who have a long time connection to the Maude family and that partucular P-40.

[Brad]

Brad, Of course. I was about to put Bud in my suggestion, but decided to make it those who I was sure had a lot of P-40 time.Some of the other top guys, Rudy, Ollie are sort of easing into retirement.

I checked in the logbook and by 1995, Bud had 75hrs of P-40 time. He also shows 331hrs in the P-51, 40.5 in the Seafury, 12.4 in the FM-2, 60.6 in the Yak9, 350 in the T-33, 1000.3 in the F-86, 74.9 in various Spitfires. There's another 26,000hrs in a bunch of other planes I don't know how much he's added since 95 but it's a lot! He started flying Paul Allen's P-40, P-47, P-51, Spitfire and a few others last summer.

If you'll let us borrow it, I'd love to see him fly your Spitfire again. I'll have to ride in the back seat for CG purposes!

You are right, some of the older guys are starting to slow it down a little bit. I'm glad most of them know when to do it, but I still hate to see it happen!

[Bill Greenwood]

Jack, it sounds like John Paul could be "da man". I've seen his plane many times, but don't think we ever met so I guess he didn't come to mind. Brad, maybe Bud has enough to fly and should leave something for the rest of us. Do you mean he has no Spruce Goose time? When Bud used to fly my plane and I'd take it to the shop, my A&P, with a little bit of Brit wit, used to say, "Hm, been out stretching the skins again." Brad we'll have to talk about the back seat part, believe it or not I've had a few other volunteers. I could certainly work out any trade where I got to fly the Museum's Mk V., so they could fly mine. I'd like to see Bud fly the Me 262 in WA. and hear his pirep.t. We had some great times when he used to come to Oskosh.

[Ollie]

I ain't retiring Bill!

[Bill Greenwood]

Ollie, I know well that very few Canucks ever retire while the bar is still open, especially if someone else is buying! But I was referring to my friend Ollie Crawford who retired from the P-40 last year in a nice ceremony at the CAF show at MIdland. He did a roll and then made a great landing. Tex Hill was there to greet him.

[John-Curtiss Paul]

I'll be your Huckleberry.. Next time you guys decide to run that engine, if it has not been changed since my Dad replaced the wing and the nose case, be sure to check all the screens. George ran it up quite a bit with the bad nose case and that bearing material is probably still in there. My dad also seems to recall trading your grandpa a new box engine for some stuff George had. You guys really should run it, taxi it around and run the hydraulic system once in a while. It would not be hard to train someone how to do that safely. In all seriousness, if your family ever decided to see it fly, even once, Steve Hinton is the guy you'd want to talk to....period. I can assure you that the Paul family would all be in attendence however!

[Ollie]

Just teasing you Bill.