Warbird Information Exchange

Just thought I'd say thanks to people for the nice comments on the last couple of pages.

Al, I'm glad you enjoyed the Fly-In. Giving talks about those 2 airplanes is easy -- they have great stories. See you next year.

Vortilon, I admire your judgement.

DB2, those are both spectacularly ambitious trips -- good luck with them! If you need Silver Ghost info, my father is the man to talk to -- his passion.

Davey, thanks for remarks. Yes, I am totally aware of how lucky I am. As my brother Chris was quoted yesterday, "If anyone's a hero in their own eyes, then they've deluded themselves."

Dave

Had some tailwheel shimmy, so dug into the system a bit and found very loose cables.



So, investigated, and I thought the springs had sprung.



Got the turnbuckles tighted up 3 turns, did a test flight, landed on pavement, and no shimmy! Thought I had it beat! Then flew to Brampton Sunday for the "Great War Flying Museum" open house, and drat -- on the bumpy runway it came back. Not as bad, but back. Oh well... got some literature on these tailwheels coming to me from the Farichild Club, and I'll have to investigate further.

Nice day at the museum. See the Fokker Triplane hidden behine the SE5a?





And that's a lovely Jungmann, still with the Tigre engine.



The aft cowl ring is off because I did indeed buy a new battery. The Flying Club had one. (The old one was a paperweight -- I was hand-propping every time.) Lovely fix! It spun up the engine like a gyroscope.

Speaking of spinning (!), Gerry Younger, Canada's Pitt's guru, (more time upside down than anyone....), is also a wonderful machinist. He had 2 miniatures at the display, a Rotary and the crank out of a Merlin he's making. (I don't know the scales.) Beautiful work.

The rotary runs of course, and starts every time.



The crank is a thing of beauty.





Gerry is pushing 80 and still Instructing. Fit and active.

Dave, I have seen the rotary engine before but that crankshaft looks like a work of art. Can’t wait to see that one running. We did the Hawkefield Fly-In Sunday and I’m working on setting up a shoot with Desmond a local Pitts owner who is training with Jerry. Great guy and I hope to do some A2A next weekend.

Cheers,

Eric

_________________
The air resounds from the Rolls-Royce roar!
To an enemy the warning is dire: here only eagles soar,
and the last thing he'll see is a mirrored Spitfire!

Huge weekend at Vintage Wings. Friday was practice day, so I arrived in the Fairchild, and then hardly had time to see it again. I got busy with P-40 flights and getting ready for Saturday's airshow. But some photos were taken:



(John Park photos)

Then, on Show day, into the Fox Moth for display.





And the view from the ramp was stirring...

Then iinto the P-40 for a hectic 2 days.

Took this 91 year old gentleman, Frank Waywell, up in the P-40. HE FLEW THEM IN 1942 IN THE WESTERN DESERT. I don't know what some of these old guys take for vitamins, but I need to order a case of it.



He flew the aeroplane smoothly and well, and kept asking for more rolls.



What a delight!

Followed by formation display flights in the P-40.

Lead in a 3-plane "Victory Flight".



Followed by #5 in a Lancaster formation for "Battle of Britain Day" flypast.





That formation display took forever. Our out-going Governor-General grabbed the mic and wouldn't let go. She kept all 5 of us in a hold for 40 minutes. I became quite familiar with the view of the a$$-end of a Lancaster. At one point I dropped back to change tanks and house-keep, and grabbed my camera.

Then break off and land as a 2-ship.



A quick refuel (her bloody speech -- a questionable one in which she spoke to a military crowd about how crappy the military was in Haiti where she grew up -- took that long), and the view over the wing was worth a shot.



At that point the Hurricane went U/S, thus we reverted to the standby formation of a vic of 3 behind the Lanc.

Haven't got any photos handy of that 2nd flight. But here are 2 youtubes.

http://www.youtube.com/user/deitersmonk ... qDchy9-ncI

http://www.youtube.com/user/deitersmonk ... qvYLi2q3pI

Then back into the Fairchild and home. The Warner purred for 3 hours, concluding a total dream weekend....

Dave

Dave one good thing about the delay is those of us back at Gatineau got a great flying display by the Lancaster, particularly the fantastic low pass and pull up while you guys sat on the ramp being refueled.
The formations looked great !
Steve

_________________
“Try to fly in the middle of the air. The edges are filled with mountains and oceans and rocks and it’s much harder to fly there.”

We could see the Lanc doing that from over on the ramp at Rockclife where we were waiting to martial in the the fighters after the flypasts. I rememeber thinking that must look quite impressinve for the folks over at Gatineau!

It was also funny that while the formation of four fighters and Lancaster were orbiting on the Quebec side of the river, the only sound we could hear was the prop of the Harvard taking photos over them.

Well...it's an ill mouth that blows nobody good.

Yeah, funny about the Harvard. One R-1340-driven prop VS 7 V12s and an R-2800, and the Harvard prop-tips win! I noticed the same thing last year when I took Stocky up in the P-40. I could hear the Harvard over and above the noise of the P-40's Allison, FROM INSIDE THE P-40!

I wish the season wasn't over....

Dave

Dave , one last hurrah !
On Sat Oct 16 , CHAA is hosting a season closing Open House ( rain date Oct 17)
We are planning on taking the two Fleets .
Would be nice to see the Fairchild there

Cam

_________________
...it was a plane adrift beneath the moon moving serenely thru beams like an angel of the night .....fair as a song ........aloof from mortal dreams

Sorry, Cam. I've got to work that day. Otherwise I'd be there.

I hope the weather cooperates and you have a great time.

Dave