Le Ferte Alais Air Show/Pink Lady Update

[CrewDawg]

I have the good fortune to be in Paris on business this week and will be going to the Air Show at Le Ferte Alais (home of Pink Lady) this Saturday before flying home on Sunday. I will be sure to take a plethora of photos and post as many of them as possible. For now, here's a link to website, strangely I can't find any mention of Pink Lady. I've been in email contact with the folks involved with the Pink Lady and I hopefully will be able to get a full tour and exchange information that will help keep both the Lady and Chuckie in the air.

http://www.ajbs.fr/

[happymeal]

Bill,

Andre Domine, who was chief-Pilote of the Pink Lady, will not attend the airshow. But he told me part of the crew will be in attendance, so if you ask for them, they will be happy to greet you.

[CrewDawg]

Merci, so far I have only been corresponding with a woman named Laura and she has been very helpful, going so far as to offer to pick me up at the train station.

[b29flteng]

I like the airshow poster...

[Fouga23]

wasn't pink lady grounded?

[Iclo]

I will be there this year, too. First time I achieve to be free.

Yes, The Pink Lady is grounded at least for many years.

[T J Johansen]

When I was at La Ferte Alais last year I spent the entire friday watching arrivals and training flights in the scorching sun. I had planned to do the same this year, but the airshow info says that only authorized people will be able to get inside for that day and the next monday. Does anyone know if this is something they enforce strictly, or is it a sleeping rule? I can't remember reading this on their website last year!

If true and enforced it really s*ck...

T J

[FAFG_Xav]

the schedule on the website describes only the flying program. Pink Lady will be on static display.

->b29flteng,
the poster was done by Romain Hugault, a very talented author of aircraft related comics, check his blog (in french) :
http://romain-hugault.blogspot.com/
I'm not sure but I think he'll be at the airshow for a signature session and it will be possible to buy his books.

->T J Johansen,
sadly I don't think it's a sleeping rule, access to the place on friday is restricted since a few years....

[CrewDawg]

I just got back from France and the air show at La Ferte Alais and I have to say that it was the the best air show that I have ever been to! I was blown away by the wide variety of aircraft on display, everything from a Bleroit X1 replica and WWI fighters to a DeHavilland Dragon Rapide, WWII Russian fighters, 2 Hurricanes, 2 Spits, a Mustang, ME-109, BF-109, B-25, 2 DC-3's, Skyraider, Zero (replica), Corsair (in restoration), B-17 not to mention the French Rafale and Mirage fighters doing an incredible demonstration! They had a mock WWI dogfight between the French/British and the Germans followed by the Hurricane's and Spitfire (only one flew in the show) chasing the ME-109 and BF-109 around the skies! The Japanese attacked with the Zero's and were chased off by a P-40 in time for the B-25 to make some passes. The Russians did some impressive flying as well although I am not up on my Russian WWII types so I'll defer to the WIX brain trust to identify them. There are too many pictures to post here on WIX so check them out on my Photobucket page.

http://s568.photobucket.com/albums/ss129/bgorin/La%20Ferte%20Alais/?albumview=slideshow

I will post the information and pictures that I took of The Pink Lady in a few on this thread once I get them uploaded.

[warbird1]

Wow, great pictures crew dawg! Those French sure know how to put on an airshow! The ones I've been to have been very impressive. Regarding the Russian aircraft, after a quick look through your slideshow, it appears there was an I-15 and several of the Yak-3/5/7/9 replicas, along with the obligatory Yak-11 conversions to the same. Fantastic lineup and variety of aircraft!

Question on this:

I assume that the paint job isn't finished yet, as that is horribly unauthentic and UGLY!

[Ryan Harris]

Those markings are actually highly ACCURATE for a Korean era -5NL from VC-3. Not all of them were blued out, but some were, including Guy Bordelon's "Annie Mo".

[CrewDawg]

Ok, so here's the scoop that I got from Jean with Pink Lady at the the air show. Jean was one of the volunteers who was manning the perimeter around Pink Lady talking to the crowd, luckily his English was great! I introduced myself and then sat back and listened to him talk. One thing that he said that I had never realized before was that they have never tried to restore her back to original B-17G configuration after they got her from the IGN. The IGN installed storage cabinets in the waist compartment, a cargo floor in the bomb bay along with cargo tie down points on the sides and removed the inboard bomb rack structure. This surprised me because I thought that it would weaken the structure too much. When I asked about it Jean just shrugged his shoulders and said that it has flown that way for decades and has never had a problem. Obviously they don't fly at the weights or stresses the airplane was designed to during combat, just goes to prove how tough the B-17 is.

Pink Lady still has her radar altimeter antenna's on each wing, part of the Pathfinder equipment added. There is also what appears to be a sideways looking camera port on the fuselage just forward of the ball turret under the LH wing. There is no shortage of radio's on the plane either. In the cockpit they added a cabinet on the RH side which caused them to move the hydraulic reservoir to the bomb bay. The pilot's electrical panel was modified and moved to the copilot's side. There is also some sort of additional control panel added to the left of the radio operators seat in the radio compartment. On the outside you can see a lot of antenna mounts that I've never seen on B-17's before.

Jean told me that the airplane is going to be kept airworthy however as has been reported elseware, the cost of insurance and the ageing crew seem to be the two biggest reasons for not flying the plane. The insurance companies put the B-17 in the same class as an Airbus A320. Most of the crew members and mechanics are in thier late 60's or 70's. He said that the only reason that they flew in 2008 was because fim maker George Lucas gave them a lot of money for using the airplane in the making of "Red Tails", which paid for thier insurance and maintenance. The spar AD has been complied with, he said that they de-mated the wings and "replaced" the spar terminals. I was not able to find out if they had new ones made or had some replacements in stock. He said that they have a lot of spares because when the USAAF sold the plane to the IGN they threw in all the spares they could since they didn't need them anymore. They had to change a turbo a few years ago and found that they had about 20 in stock!
Another obstacle that they have is that French regulations prevent them from flying passengers for donations so they are totally reliant on sponsors and donors. I have to say that there was a large crowd around the plane all day on Saturday so there is definately an interest in it. I did my part by buying some souveniers from them.

Anyway check out the pictures.
http://s568.photobucket.com/albums/ss129/bgorin/La%20Ferte%20Alais/The%20Pink%20Lady/?albumview=slideshow

[warbird1]

Those markings are actually highly ACCURATE for a Korean era -5NL from VC-3. Not all of them were blued out, but some were, including Guy Bordelon's "Annie Mo".

That's news to me. Do you have a picture, by chance? If so, then I stand corrected.

[Ztex]

Great walk around of Pink Lady!

I've never seen the interior before. Very interesting...the bomb bay looks huge!


Thanks Bill

[C VEICH]

Those markings are actually highly ACCURATE for a Korean era -5NL from VC-3. Not all of them were blued out, but some were, including Guy Bordelon's "Annie Mo".

I would contend that the blue used to "blue out" the white markings is too dark and I've never seen the white left in the national insignia as they have done.