Warbird Information Exchange

Hi TJ, I just found them. Still looking for the Mustang picture.

Thanks

Stephen

Small world department.....

Back in 1971 I read that Air Progress article and lusted after that shot at a P-51. I was a sophomore in college so the $1800 needed was so far out of my league that it might as well have been a Billion. I read and re-read that article until the magazine fell apart.

Fast forward......

Back in 2015, I bought a fabulous RV-8 which was based in Texas. It's the plane shown in my avatar. I had long since forgotten about the location of Burchinal's airfield though I remembered the article. But I was so Texas-geography-ignorant that I envisioned it to be somewhere out in West Texas for some reason.

Anyhow I fly down to DFW to go pick up my plane and fly it home to Massachusetts. I rent a car and head east for ......................................Paris, Texas. That's where the plane was.

I get there and meet the Seller and he drives me around and just up the road on Route 82, West of Paris, he stops at the intersection of County Road 33010 and points to a short side road. You could see a twin engine prop transport (trike gear) and some shabby hangars.

"That's Junior Burchinal's old airfield."

"The place where you could fly a P-51 solo?"

"Yep".

"That's where it all started.", I said.


You can go to Google now and type in Paris Texas and go to maps and then put the little yellow guy at that intersection a little West of Paris and see what I saw. You'll see the transport. Switch to satellite view and you can make out the runway. I've attached a pic.

Later on the seller and I go up in the plane for a familiarity flight and we pass over the airfield. Man that runway (what's left of it) looked really short. But there it was. There's the place where, for $1800 you can train and solo a P-51.

Couple days later I hop in the plane, crank up and head East over the Red River - a river I knew about only because of the John Wayne movie.

So there it was...a connection between me and a magazine article I read in my dorm room in the early 70's and 2015 where I picked up my plane.

The days of the $1800 solo flight in a P-51.....long gone.

$1800 now gets you 20~30 minute ride in the back seat.

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remember the Oogahonk!
old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

If you look at the airstrip on Google Earth there appears to be a TBM sitting there.

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

That's not a TBM, it's a AF-2S Guardian, soon to fly!

A Guardian? That’ll be seriously cool!

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

Yeah, the Guardian project is owned by Skyler Burchinal, grandson of Junior Burchinal, and is getting ready to fly. The aircraft used to be owned by the late Jimmy Leeward. Skyler also owns/flies a very nice SNJ.

http://www.warbirdradio.com/2017/10/tex ... pisode-22/

John you are simply a bright shining star to this forum.

M

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[Thread title is ridiculous btw]

Video of engine run on the Guardian:

https://tinyurl.com/y9gff6ce

First flight is just a few months out!

Very curious, because Leeward reportedly owned the Guardian at Chico CA that was later donated to the Chico Air Museum - and can be seen on google earth.

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remember the Oogahonk!
old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

Does the family have any plans for that Martin 4-0-4?

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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 recall reading an article on Leeward a number of years ago and he was described as being the Grumman Guardian guy, owning two different Guardians and a supply of Guardian parts. The one that Skyler Burchinal now owns, that used to be owned by Leeward and used to be based at Ocala, Florida, is BuNo 126792, and has been for a number of years the most airworthy candidate

I saw an AF-2S flying at Tico in 1988 or 89. I presume it was Leeward's.

The Nichols collection was in a hangar east of Aero Trader (Yankee Air Corps) for many years until it was moved to the current "Edison Hangar" location. It later became a publically accessible museum (Yanks) with posted hours. Before that it was by appointment only.

Hi bdk,

The hangar I am referring to (and things have changed since the early 90s) is the one at the rear of this photo.



Can you recall when it was erected? I know it was there when I first set foot at Chino in 1990. And as there are photos of the P-51D on the inside, it was up by 1987.

T J

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Make my day, punk!