Your First Warbird Flight

[AHancock51]

Hey all! Just thought I'd start a topic and throw the question out there, what was your first warbird ride in? For me, it was a Piper L-21 Grasshopper. First (and only) ride in an actual fighter has been in the P-51C "Tuskegee Airmen" with Doug R.

Share and Discuss!

[Dave Lindauer]

Back seat of Howard Pardue's FG-1D NX67HP at Breckenridge, TX back in 1983. A memorable day!

[Mike Halbrook]

In 1982 I did my first hour of dual instruction in a Piper Tomahawk. Later that same afternoon I was up in an AT-6 flying over Half Moon Bay, CA.

[Jerry O'Neill]

15 minutes in a Stearman outta Simsbury Airport in CT. Spin, Loop, Hammerhead, Roll. It was awesome!
Jerry

Last edited by Jerry O'Neill on Thu Nov 03, 2011 12:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

[rcaf_100]

Mine was in Harvard 4 C-FWPK (20242) at Tillsonburg, ON in July 2002. 4-ship formation practice for an airshow later that day.

Here's a shot taken later that day: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Canadian-Harvard-Aircraft/North-American-NA-81/0320879/L/&sid=a52bb4d76b7140ac25c12fe4abf4579a
(not my photo, though)

[Chappie]

First warbird flight was also my first aerobatic flight. Super Stearman called "Check Mate" at the Flying Circus Aerodrome in Bealeton, Virginia in 1987. I was 16 years old. Low take off with pull up right before the trees and then it got fun!

Loop...hammerhead....loop....hammerhead...aileron roll....low pass. What a ride!

More aerobatic instruction flights came in the mid-90s in Pitts and Extras, but the warbird flights (Yaks and CJs) would not happen again until 2007 and finally flew in an SNJ in 2010 and a Val replica in 2011.

Chappie

[jonesy]

Hmm, does a Yak-52 count? I flew in one whilst doing an air to air shoot with a Tiger Moth otherwise my first was in a Tiger Moth.

[ErrolC]

14 September 1982, in Harvard ZK-WAR (ex-NZ1092), aged 14. Flew in Battle of Britain memorial flypast, pilot Trevor Bland. This was the prize for winning (by the skin of my teeth) the Auckland Area Air Scouts BoB contest. I've got prints of photos taken of me in the back seat for the local paper.

[viking73]

My first is going to be this Sunday in the Cavanaugh Flight Museum's T-6. Can't wait!

-Derek

[Voodoo]

Mine was at the National Aviation Museum in Ottawa, Ontario in September 1994.

At the time, there was a guy offering Stearman flights from the museum (at Rockcliffe airport) for museum visitors -- I think it was $40.

Anyway, I took the opportunity. It was a perfect day -- warm enough to fly in a T-shirt, beautiful fall colours visible in the distant Gatineau Hills, the wind in your hair -- all while flying up the Ottawa River and over the Parliament buildings. It was also my first flight in a biplane, and in an open cockpit aircraft.

The flight was only about 20 minutes long -- but it took a lot longer for my mind to touch down.

[Robbie Stuart]

1979 or 80, backseat of CAF Cajun Wing's SNJ-4, N224X, Lafayette LA to New Iberia LA.

[Fouga23]

DATE AIRCRAFT REG
11/07/02 CM-170-1 MT-37

[kalamazookid]

My Dad and I went up in the Air Zoo Ford Trimotor when I was six years old. The two pilots let me wear headphones and stand between them during part of the flight. Been hooked ever since.

[K5DH]

Some time in the 1990s, the late Gordon Hargis took me up in Beech T-34B Mentor, BuNo 140839, N99257, which was assigned to the NAS Dallas flying club at the time. I learned about pulling G's on that flight. After the base closed, the airplane was sold to the public. I saw it a few years later in a hangar at Northwest Regional airport (north of Fort Worth) in terrible shape and without an engine. Last reported owner was Black Shadow Aviation in Jax, Florida. Status today is unknown.

Since then, I've ridden in these warbirds and classics: (no particular order)
Waco UPF7
Ryan PT-22 Recruit
Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress "Chuckie" (several times)
Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress "Aluminum Overcast"
Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress "Nine-O-Nine"
Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress "Liberty Belle"
Consolidated B-24A Liberator "Ol' 927"
Consolidated B-24J Liberator "Witchcraft" (twice)
North American TB-25N "Pacific Prowler" (several times)
North American T-6G Texan "Miss Texas"
Douglas C-49J "Southern Cross" (several times)

Last edited by K5DH on Thu Nov 03, 2011 10:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Silverplate]

My first warbird ride was with Kermit Weeks in the Grumman Duck. Awesome ride!