Warbird Information Exchange

You never know what to expect when you pull up at Stephens County Airport, but literally as I stepped out of my car and shut the door, the “Red Bull” P-38 roared out from behind the hangar, just breaking ground as the gear was rotating into the wells! Man, that plane is extremely quiet until it passes. Then that low, muffled exhaust note really puts a pounding to your chest. Once again, an amazing welcome to an otherwise sleepy little airstrip!

It’s been two weeks since my last visit to Ezell Aviation, but the amount of progress they’ve accomplished during that time was impressive to say the least. The arrangement in the hangar had completely changed, with the primary focus centered on the Lone Star Flight Museum birds, and Dan Friedkin’s F4U-4 Corsair. As you can see in the photos, a half dozen of the guys in Nelson’s crew were attacking the Corsair from all sides! It’s amazing how much work they’ve already accomplished in such a short period of time. After a complete refurb of the cockpit, firewall forward, wheel wells, and the proper repair of some older fuselage patches, the F4U is expected to fly out for paint before the end of the year.

The unexpected highlight of the day was learning that Sigi Engerer and his son Daniel were present to make their first flights aboard the “Red Bull” P-38! The duo had arrived from Austria to see the Lightning, and were making the most of their visit by enjoying a cross country tour in a very nice Husky floatplane loaned to them by a friend. I had the chance to hang out with Daniel while his father was beating up the airfield on his first flight. He was a super nice, very down to earth fellow with an obvious passion for the vintage iron. Turns out he’s also a pilot with the “Flying Bulls” collection. Unsurprisingly, both he and his father were visibly stoked over the experience with their new plane.

From the looks of it, the P-38 will be departing for good in a couple of weeks as soon as the last of the paperwork is cleared for the final trip to Austria. An unfortunate goodbye for US warbird aficionados, but clearly a fantastic blessing for Europe and one of it’s premier warbird collections.



















...and the man that makes it all happen...

What a piece of art! Very shiny! Great pics, thanks for sharing.

Looking at that smooth, faired over nose, how did they rebalance the A/C with all the weight of guns and ammo not there? That MUST effect the CG in a big way!

Here's a shot showing some of what's inside the nose. The labels are "Heater Access" and "Main Battery Junction". Looks like there's also some CO2 or oxygen bottles in there as well. All of that plus the radio/instrument gear and I imagine the weight might come close. My guess is that there's also a sizable chunk of lead hidden away in there as well.

Yeah, that's a really nice Clarkat! What's the serial number?

Is this F4U the one recently bought in France from C. Jacquard's collection ?

Awesome aircraft, great pictures !

Thanks.

Yes Michel, it's F4U-4 BuNo.97264 that arrived around the first of 2008 from France. It looked like it definitely had some miles on it from its many years working the air show circuit in Europe. Should be a stunner in another two months or so.

Not Michel, but I asked the question, , thanks for the answer !!!

It's true that this aircraft was seen in a lot of airshows in France and in Europe. F4U are becoming scarce in Europe, I hope the one based in La Ferté Alais will fly again next year, and the one for sale with French Navy paint scheme will stay here !

Sorry about that FAFG

Also, there's yet another F4U-5N in France being restored to fly. It'll probably be a few more years until completion though.

Yes, the restoration takes place in Dôle (near the swiss border), but it almost start from scratch, a lot of work to be done !!!

That's my old tug that Nelson is driving there. I don't know the serial number or anything, but man it sure was a cool machine!

Gary

That's a serious piece of re-skinning on that corsair. I wonder how they dealt with all the spot welds. I suppose they use a counter-bore type arrangement to cut away the spot weld nugget on the original skin... which would be discarded anyway. Tricky work though!

Cheers,
Richard

PS. Great photos Rob... you have a really good eye!

Randy Tait is the guy pictured there doing the reskinning. He educated me on just how difficult this is to pull off with the Corsair. Practically the entire airframe is one nonstop three-dimensional compound curve! There's not a flat surface anywhere on it. He had to reshape that entire sheet of aluminum ever so slightly in multiple directions with a planishing hammer to make it fit. Not only that, but that particular panel he's replacing is exactly the size of one sheet of aluminum. He had less that a half-inch to spare at the edges, and he had to work the material into a concave shape without bringing the edges in too much. I'm continually amazed at how difficult some of the more mundane appearing metal fabrication can actually be.

That kind of sheet metal work is a vanishing art! Kudos for keeping it alive! I hope he is teaching someone how to do it!

Heres a quick question.

Before this awesome Silver Beauty goes over seas, is it possible to get a photo flight with Glacier Girl? Also, like the VWoC's Corsair, couldn't four portioned 1941 stars be made to stick on the Lighting temporary? Now i'd think THAT would be some amazing photo. Red Bull or not, SHE PRACTICALLY LOOKS LKE THE PROTOTYPE! How could you pass up an chance like this?