Gathering of Warbirds & Legends - Topeka KS

[Mike]

I do hope they manage to snag one of the 43 airworthy Bearcats for their single allocated slot.

[Mudge]

I do hope they manage to snag one of the 43 airworthy Bearcats for their single allocated slot.

If there are 43 airworthy F8Fs in the US. A WHOOOOOOLE bunch are well hidden.

Mudge the skeptic

Last edited by Mudge on Sat Feb 02, 2013 11:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Mike]

It must be true

I read it on the internet

[WallyB]

Um, not true at all. Thursday thru Saturday is typically the days of largest attendance at AirVenture. Granted, Sunday is usually slim pickins...

I'd sure like to know more about this proposed boycott. One owner says he's not coming and it's suddenly a boycott???

You mean people attendance or airplane (warbird) attendance? My impression is most of the latter are gone by Friday. Isn't the Tuesday usually "Warbird Day"?

OK maybe not a boycott - just going on what's posted in other threads and again my impression is warbirds are fewer every year.

[k5083]

Virtually all the warbirds are still there on Saturday. The Saturday OSH airshow this year, if you just took it in isolation and forgot there was an Oshkosh around it, would have been among the top 3 warbird shows in the country. The only significant warbird that had left by Saturday afternoon this year was one that clearly came only to win the big trophy, participated to the minimum extent possible, and didn't even stick around for the award ceremony.

Obviously there are many shows' worth of warbirds that don't come to OSH though, and we can hope that a great show comes out of this exquisitely bad website.

August

[Warbirds and Legends]

2/1/2013

Thank you all for your work in helping to keep these vintage aircraft airworthy, and your promotion of Warbirds for the role that they played in our American history. The gathering of Warbirds and Legends that you have spoken about on this thread is a gathering planned for August 1 - 4, 2013 in Topeka, Kansas. Many of us were a part of the gathering of DC-3/C-47 from 2010 that also started out as a small gathering with humble intentions, and it grew to be quite large. Our concept then was the same as it is now. We use all volunteer help, we pay for all of our own structure, no one ever gets to profit from it (make money), and we take extra effort to honor the vets that are still with us from that time period. In the 2010 gathering, we wanted 10 aircraft, but it right away grew to 15. We allocated "SLOTS" because we were going to split the money that we raised amoung ourselves, so we had to limited the number of pieces! In the end, we gathered 34 aircraft, and we all parked together. We had a fabulous time. Everyone got free food, free beer, unlimited airspace, and gas for $2.00 a gallon. When we left we launched a 30 ship that would water anyones eyes. This gathering is just an expansion of that. We had a lot of "other" types that wanted to be included if we ever did it again. Topeka has a 12,600 foot runway, a massive ramp space, and a community that wants to give us anything we need. We anticipate raising more than $100,000 from this, and we are going to split every penny between us in the form of beer, food, and cheap gas, and thats all. Nobody gets paid. If we only gather 35 planes then so be it. We would like to have a flying example of as many of the types listed as possible due to the media from europe that is signed up to come over and for the photo opportunities. We know there are some errors on the "types" page - We are fixing those as we speak and we apologize. If you have any input re the number of flyable examples of each broad group in the US, we could use some help with that, these were just rough guesses as there is no solid numbers on many of these to be found. In the end, we will have been together, drank together, given away a couple hundred rides to WWII vets for free, and taken a lot of pictures. No more. No less... No one is forcing anyone to attend or not, and we dont support the rumoured boycott of OSH. If you read the WHY AUG 1 - 4 page on our site we explain that. We have been respectful to all and appreciate each persons desires and wishes, and only offer this as something different for those that are eligible to participate. We wont stay on the forum here and hang around, but you may contact us via that site for more information if it sounds like something that you may be interested in. Again thank you for the work that you do. Sincerely, Staff at the Gathering of Warbirds and Legends 2013

[Al Moore]

I wish you much success with your gathering! And welcome to WIX.

[Mark Allen M]

+ 1 on the success of your event, and look forward to seeing your revised website. IMHO it helps with an events credibility when stated facts are accurate and realistic. Many folks here on WIX can most certainly assist your web people with some correct data.

Best of luck

I wish the organizers success with the event, but it will be tough to pull off. And of course the DC-3 event in 2010 was tied into Oshkosh.

[Airlift48]

Looks like it could shape up to be a great show.

[Warbirdnerd]

They have started filling slots. Bad news if you were planning on bringing your Constellation, F9F, or F11F. Those slots have been awarded...
http://www.warbirdsandlegends.org/
I am guessing The Combat Air Museum's birds must be filling those slots...
http://www.combatairmuseum.org

[Mike]

Interesting, considering that there are currently no Constellations airworthy in the US

[DuxfordThunderbolt]

There's hope that the Super Connie at the KC Airline History Museum will be back in the air by this spring

[kalamazookid]

Interesting, considering that there are currently no Constellations airworthy in the US

Isn't there a static Connie in Topeka?

[GARY HILTON]

There is a 131 at Forbes Field..at the Combat Arms Museum....There is also one (Connie) in Kansas City, as mentioned, and another not too far away in Salina....