Warbird Information Exchange

Nah, they must be a Mercedes fan.

And I though that one of Express Airways' old Beeches had an interesting paint job.This picture is from their Sanford,Florida home base in 1983,or thereabouts.It's a little hard to read in the picture,but under "Sanford and Son" it says "Aerospace Division".

Hey the Col that flew that thing. is he an old 'CAF' guy..........I think I used to know him, stayed pee ooed all the time.

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

If we could only get this one to Oshkosh next year, we'd be in the running to keep Taigh from having a repeat..........

Gary, now you'll have to explain why you were out there in Nevada at "Angel's Ladies".

I know why *I* was out there...what about you?



Is that the Miss America trailer in the background of your second photo?!

Man, NOTHING gets past WIXers, does it???

Sadly, I gotta say I didn't even notice the brothel sign at first...I just saw an airplane and slammed on the brakes, so we had to look. Thennnnnn, I noticed the brothel.

And yes, that is the Miss America trailer in the background. We had passed one another from time to time on our return trip from Reno, and it just so happened that they were passing us during this particular stop. They seemed to get a good laugh at the fact we were at Angel's Ladies, as they gave us a long honk of the horn from their truck as the drove past.

Gary

And so rests the case for the defence, your honor !!!!

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If the first casualty of war is innocence, the second is sobriety - Hawkeye.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws - Plato.
Lies get halfway round the world before the truth has a chance to get it's pants on - Churchill
If you are going through he11 - keep going - Churchill

Sorry it took so long to reply but I am still recovering from OSH 2009.

We had a bunch of people that wanted to go to OSH this year (14 of us) and since I sold my "keeper" Twin Beech we needed a second ride.

I have a C-45G that we retrieved from Boeing Field where it had been sitting derelict for almost 11 years. We brought her out of storage and went through the systems and got her up to speed. The engines were overhauled just prior to being parked and had a total of 22 hours on them plus the 11 years of sitting. She was willing to come back to life and didn't fight us too hard in the process.

The years sitting out in the Seattle weather took a toll on her paint and she looks pretty bad so we thought that we should try and win the "highly coveted" Dirty Bird award that is given out at OSH in the Warbird Category. Usually this award is given out and is not necessarily well received. I couldn't remember anyone actually trying to get the award so I figured we should make a valiant attempt at it.

My daughter came up with the Dirty Bird logo which we made into a decal for the nose art, shirts and stickers.

We didn't wash the Beech before we left for OSH and the guys even went out of their way to add additional greasy hand prints. We had replaced the flaps with some from the storage hangar that were covered with dust which added to the whole package. We were pretty upset enroute because we were rained on pretty heavy at Yankton, SD which washed off a lot of our dirt and dust!

Since we were going to remove the paint on this old Beech with our new soda blast equipment I figured we should have some fun with it first hence the painting idea. I ought a bunch of water based paint, put it out on a table with the brushes and let the good folks at Airventure 2009 have at it.

I had no idea how popular it would turn out to be. Jess, my mechanic Steve's girlfriend, started it off and it took off like wildfire. I was off doing the judging thing so I didn't get to hang around the Beech until Friday but whenever we drove by there was a big crowd of folks having a great time turning the Dirty Bird into a work of art. There was a mass of folks around the Beech all the time. The grass was mashed flat all around the Beech from everyone walking around it.

She sure looked wild from all of the artwork until it rained on Thursday and washed off almost all of the upper surfaces. No sweat as Friday was full of folks that repainted it even more than it was before. We did loose some nice artwork in the rain but we gained a whole new set on Friday.

The response from the people at OSH was amazing as there were so many wonderful comments thanking us for doing this. We had a few folks who just didn't get it, which was expected, but the overwhelming majority of people had a wonderful time painting on an airplane. We had all different types of people come and paint on her from little kids to WWII vets and everyone in between.

here are some shots:



















This one was my personal favorite:



















Here is the motley crew showing off their Dirty Bird fashion wear!







Here she is after the rains washed off all of the upper surfaces:



It didn't matter because more good folks came back to repaint her in a whole new way


















Here is Bernie Poppert painting on a good one. When it was done it said "RESCUE ME FIRST"





It was so fun to do maybe I should just repaint it white and do this at all the air shows

Maybe next year we will have the Howard Super Ventura up and running as it is a perfect Oshkosh Express aircraft. It has almost the same exact blue and white derelict paint job...

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To donate to the PV-2D project via PayPal click here http://www.twinbeech.com/84062restoration.htm

We brought her from: to this in 3 months: Help us get her all the way back

All donations are tax deductible as the Stockton Field Aviation Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Tell a friend as the Harpoon needs all the help she can get.

Thank you!

Taigh Ramey
Vintage Aircraft, Stockton, California
http://www.twinbeech.com
'KEEP ‘EM FLYING…FOR HISTORY!'

I know I like that better than the CAF Tramp stamp.......................if your going to go.............go all the way!!!!! Thanks for the laugh Taigh.

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

That is great! Congrats on the award, that Beech earned it.

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

Riiiiiiiight, Gary, riiiiiiight. That's what they all say. Did you "ride" a Mustang? Hahaha!

Taigh, first, congrats on wining the award....
Next, congrats on probably making an unforgetable moment for all the kids that painted on her. You probably did more to promote aviation to the younger crowd than anyone has in a long time. What a great idea! You deserve more than just the Dirty Bird award....You deserve a Good Will award too!!!!
Good for you!
Tailwinds, Steve.

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Civis Aerius Sum

I am a citizen of the Air

Good thing the rains came cause that artist on the right rudder and the one on the left aileron and stretching for the left leading edge certainly look like they knew what they were doing. Gary was just at Angels to get a massage after a hard day of racing. P.S. Where were the paint police with the Invasion Stripes? I see one (obviously a wixer) put the shark teeth on.

Taigh... nicely done... good for you coming up with the idea What a blast they all must have had!

Ha ha, I think this is the greatest thing I've ever seen out of OSH!

My favorite art: the stick figure man hanging on to the port fin! Second place goes to "RESCUE (me first)". Third place to the painted tires. Oh man, I love it, just love it!!!

Painting 'er white and doing it at all the airshows may not be all that bad an idea. Talk about getting the public involved. Sure beats blaring "popular music" over crappy PA systems.

Man, good thing somebody didn't come along and do a tramp stamp parody, I think I'd have died from laughing.