Owatonna Skyfest Warbirds(Lots of Images)

Mon Aug 30, 2004 11:26 pm

I spent Sunday down in Owatonna Minnesota for the Owatonna Skyfest. The weather started out poorly, but improved by showtime and lead to a nice day of flying. I was very plesantly surprised to see Roger Christgau in attendance with his ETO veteran P-51D. Also present were both Sikorsky S-38 reproductions, of which I'll post photos in the vintage forum tomorrow. Appologies for the quality of some of the photos, the sun was on the wrong side of the airport for much of the day, and I think it time to upgrade to a DSLR. For those of you interested in vintage aircraft, you may find my vintage photos here.

The Aeroshell Aerobatic team

B-25J 44-29869/N27493

SNJ-5 BuNo 51971/N3267G

N3N-3 BuNo 2660/N51H

Boeing B75N1 N64434
Doesn't look much like a warbird anymore does it?

Boeing B75N1 N64434

AT-6 N7462C

T-6G 51-14791/N8044H

L-39C N91354

Stinson 10A N957DW
Was the Stinson 10A ever in military Service?

Stinson 10A N957DW
The paint scheme seemed appropriate after a recent discussion of the CAP in WWII

AT-6C 88-17575/N991GM

Nord 3202 N99EV, re-engined with an IO-540

Unitentified CJ-6 under restoration

CJ-6 wing attachment

P-51D-20NA 44-63675/NL1751D

T-28C BuNo 146286/NX146GF

NL1751D & NX146GF

Note, to the best of my knowledge, the information in the captions is correct. I noticed that I have the wrong registration in a number of the filenames.

Last edited by dj51d on Tue Aug 31, 2004 10:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Mon Aug 30, 2004 11:51 pm

Nice collection of pictures Dan. The Nord looked weird with that engine conversion in it.

I started to write about the Stinson in military service, but found a website with a better description about the early Stinson YO-54 and O-62 at http://www.geocities.com/akdhc2pilot/history.html

Roger

Tue Aug 31, 2004 10:50 am

Thanks Roger, that link is very informative.

Tue Aug 31, 2004 12:53 pm

Thanks for sharing Dan!

Tue Aug 31, 2004 3:46 pm

Dan,

Sorry I missed ya. I hung out with Roger all day Saturday but had to bug out Sunday 'cause of family obligations. When I talked to him Sunday night he said things went well dispite the questionable wx. He sure hates flying that thing huh? :wink:

Low passes on Saturday were done at 30 and 61 creating the sweet "Bacon frying" sizzle from the exhaust! Of course what else is he supposed to do with all that "Smash" besides bleed it off with a beautiful 80 degree pull up transitioning to a 90 degree knife edge bank to the downwind. You definitely see more of the top of his airplane when he fly's circuits than the bottom! :supz:

If you ever get a chance to see it, he has developed one heck of an acro routine thats worth the price of admission! He doesn't get a chance to do it much at shows any more but he still runs through it every week "Down at the farm".

Tue Aug 31, 2004 7:53 pm

I had hoped to run into some other WIXers but was denied. I had a family obligation on Saturday, so Sunday was the day. The weather started out awfull, with 200 foot ceilings and mist, but it cleared of quite nicely by the time Roger Christgau and Greg Fieber flew. The Aeroshell team was excellent, but for me the highlight of the day was getting to see the Mustang and talk to Roger Christgau again, it had been a few years since I talked to him, and even longer since I'd seen him fly. I'd love to see his aerobatic routine, prior to Sunday I had only seen Roger do simple passes due to being too close in to Minneapolis for much else.