Warbird Information Exchange

That must be why I've seen him going back and forth from their base in Rockwall the last week or so. Most of their sorties have been pretty short too, I'd see him fly out around 7am and be coming back by 9 at the latest. They are a really cool crew and I've always been impressed at how well their ground crew sets up the lifts so that the helo is only on site for a very short period of time using the minimum of fuel and time for the customer.

Good photo anyway, Dean. The nose shape would indicate a turb-whine conversion. Any ideas on what the powerplant is?

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"I love the smell of 100LL in the morning."

Wikipedia says it's a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6T-3 Twin-Pac turboshaft.

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Lake Dallas, Republic of Texas

On the way home yesterday evening I saw Witchcraft and Nine-O-Nine at Chicago Executive Airport; they're here for the weekend parked over by the former 94th Aero Squadron restaurant (whose P-47, P-51 and P-38 mockups have gone to who knows where). Will get some shots today.

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

I am staying with my Mom right now. Her place is about ten to twelve blocks north of the thresholds of the '24s' at LAX.
We routinely see stuff flying over the complex headed north and south- usually right over the house.

Just about five minutes ago somebody's P-51 just crossed the complex headed roughly to the northwest.

I sooo love the sound of a Merlin in full song!!!

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StudeDave

heard the merlin before i saw the plane

spitfire heading north towards lincoln from newark uk...18.00 hrs today. possibly bbmf given location. too high to identify anymore, beautiful summers day, great end to a hard days work

I didn't see it, but some sort of fighter I suppose came down the Houston VFR corridor VERY low today; it was so loud that some items on my desk buzzed around. I just checked my neighborhood website and there were some 42 posts by grumpy people complaining about it.

Any Houston guys know what it was?

Houston is larger than many independent republics, literally takes an hour and half to drive all the way across the messoplex. Just sayin'.

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Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas

PIC, Ford 6600 pulling Rhino batwing up and down the runway

At 11:15 AM heard the roar and witnessed 6 AT-6/SNJ/Harvards heading westbound in formation passing over northern Erie County Ohio...A mini airshow - for the locals in Vermilion...

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Be happy to serve your fellowman

At 11:30 they were flying over Toledo still headed west in formation. I did snap a couple pictures and I'll try to post them after work.

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

"Show Me" B-25 just flew over, just as I logged in to this site! Selling rides I assume. They fly to the St. Louis riverfront.
"Goose Bumps" Headed outside for their return.....John

Former Butler Aircraft Services DC-7 “Tanker 62” has flown over my house about a half a dozen times or so.

It is now owned by Erickson Aero Tanker of Madras Oregon and flies out of the Medford Airtanker Base at the Rogue Valley-Medford International Airport (MRF).

It is doing retardant drops on the 21,088 acre Oregon Gulch fire located in the Soda Mountain Wilderness of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

We have had a couple of weeks of 100 degree plus weather. 2,000 dry lightning strikes in our region, Wednesday, touched off dozens of fires.

Air resources include 14 helicopters and air tankers.

There are also 7 "dozers", nine water tenders, and 788 people fighting this fire.

The fire is about 25 miles east of my home. I am guessing the round trip takes about an hour round trip and covers about 80-90 miles.

Last year was fairly exciting with 6-7 multi-engined prop-tankers flying around the clock... It was like one of the scenes in "Always", only with slightly newer planes.

Tim Crippin has some great pictures of the local planes in action on his photostream:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/42436228@N04/14587075477/in/photostream/

Photo borrowed from "High Sierra Spotters":

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Keep your PDI centered!

What a great shot of that very handsome DC-7! Also of note is the one-and-only Skyfox prototype sitting in the background (visible beneath the tail of the DC-7).

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Lake Dallas, Republic of Texas

It looks better in person... on the ground or in the air!

I stopped by the MFR tanker base at 7:30 this evening to watch refueling and reloading.

I in arrived time to see N807NA Neptune Aviation P-2V Tanker 07 land, taxi, and load up.

My ears caught that familiar multi-engine drone that only comes from a dozen or so planes. I looked up and saw N401US Erickson Aero Tanker DC-7 Tanker 62 heading into a sweeping left turn.

The DC-7's number 4, right outboard was feathered and was flying on three engines.

The first thing that ran through my mind were all those battle-weary B-17s limping back across "the Channel" to those makeshift WWII crash strips.

Tanker 62 circled the field and made a text book landing. It promptly taxied up to the ramp and shut down. Ground crew came out and began to remove the engine cowling on number 4. I'm sure its going to be a long night for them.

Kudo's to the pilot. I was impressed with the landing.

Shortly after, the P-2V started its engines and took off heading southeast down the valley toward the Oregon Gulch (part of the Beaver Complex) fire.

The fire is located about 15 miles east of my home and smoke in town is moderate. The wind is blowing to the northeast. The fire has grown from 2100 acres to 3200 in the last 24 hours and is now about 15 miles from my home.

Areal tankers parked on the ramp were:
N472NA Neptune Aviation BAe-146-200 Tanker 10
N161AB Beech 58P Baron
N9002K Air Tractor AT-802 SEAT #883
N398AS Air Tractor AT-802A SEAT #826
N745BW MD-600N Helicopter

Areal firefighting resources are spread fairly thin because of all the fires in California, Oregon, and Washington. The USFS has not kept up on the number of usable airtankers. There are 25 percent less tankers than what was available in 2002... mainly because of scandals and piston engined fleet groundings.

I heard a rumor that the DC-10 was supposed to fly in tomorrow.

I also haven't seen an Erickson S-64 or MD-87 on the fire. I also didn't see any S-64's at the Central Point manufacturing facility last night when I was driving by.

Interesting data about the fire:
http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4034/
http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=1024
http://www.swofire.com/2014/08/night-update-for-beaver-complex_2.html
http://wildfiretoday.com/tag/oregon-gulch-fire/
http://bmidc.org/files/R6Reprt2012.pdf
http://missoulian.com/news/local/gao-report-takes-issue-with-forest-service-neptune-air-tanker/article_e781ce56-c28d-11e3-a169-0019bb2963f4.html

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Keep your PDI centered!

About "Skyfox"... it was conspicuously missing.

Parked in its place on the ramp were the bulk of the "small" airtankers and helecopters.

I've heard the MFR administration is tight lipped about the status of most planes at the airport.

It might have been sold and no longer at the airport...or it could be in a hanger.

?????

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Keep your PDI centered!