Warbird Information Exchange

Another mid twenties guy here first just trying to make a living flying. I hope to fly warbirds in the not to distant future and am fortunate to have already got some time in a PT. Through my contacts as a CFI and shooting the breeze on layovers with other pilots I have found its really who you know to get your foot in the door with the warbird community. Dream job would be flying DC-3 in the carib and not have to make ends meet with food stamps.

Well has long has PB & CY aren't the subjects

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Don't touch my junk!!

Here's a future fighter jock. My cousin Caroline started the year flying F-16s in Iraq
and now has a new son named Finn. He's already got his flight jacket! It looks like a
Irving so he maybe flying Spits in a few years

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Don't touch my junk!!

I'm 24.
Not a pilot yet, but working on it.

Hope to own and fly a warbird some day, of course.

I considered the military, but a bad fall (30 feet) in my early 20's ended my option to join. Maybe now it's different but at the time the AF and Navy were VERY selective in terms of health and vision.

I'm 40 now, and haven't made multi-millions yet, but I do make a reasonable living and still hold out aspirations to operating a "real" warbird. I say that because I am a partial owner of a Stearman and have a fair amount of taildragger time in it and RV's. I think a Yak or T-6 is in a possible future, but the big iron are probably out of reach.

Randy speaks the truth - there are a lot of young people (and some not so young) that have the desire, aptitude and attitude, but not the bucks. Certainly, money has always been a large factor in warbird ops and ownership. But the financial risk involved in operating fighters today seems to be a serious inhibitor toward introducing new folks into the warbird community.

It's true that some may not have the big bucks, but then it becomes a matter of building lots of time (for insurance), meaningful time (ie. taildraggers - for experience and competency), and making the right friends. That's basically what one of Rod Lewis' pilots (flies the P-51) told me at the Fredericksburg event earlier this month. I figure showing up places like that, being as un-obnoxious as possible, and
paying one's dues," is probably a good start. Folks won't know you're interested if you don't show up and act interested and show that you're also willing to invest as you have the ability.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

Ryan brings up another good point about building time, and building meaningful time. Many people I know are wanting to get into warbirds, but have only 150 or 172 time. Nowadays it seems flight schools are building their fleets according to the fastest way that will get their students into the right seat. At the school where I did my license, they have one Citabria and enough 150's, 172's and Duchesses to take on the USAF. The interesting thing is, the nose-draggers are always booked solid, no chance of getting any time in them, while the Citabria sits there and flies maybe 4 times on a good day. Although it cost me marginally more than the 150, I ended up doing all of my training in the Citabria for two reasons: first it was always available, and second IMHO nothing beats flying an airplane with the little wheel in the back. I'm sure this pattern is found at other schools around North America, for those that have even bothered to add tail-draggers to their fleet.

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real airplanes have round engines

It also helps to run with the right crowd.....

Lynn

My suggestion of military training was meant to be a suggestion to those who are physically qualified and have an interest in the military in general. I can assure you without reservation, if you go in the military just to fly, you will be unhappy with your choice.

The CAF is the best choice for anyone who wants to fly warbirds. It is very affordable and offers a wide range of equipment that few owners will have a chance to fly.


In many regards the potential shortage lies in the ranks of future owner/operator/bill payers. Just about any pilot can fly these airplanes with the proper desire and training. I am a good example of this.

Owning and operating is another matter entirely. Several posters on this thread have made reference to getting positioned financially, to fly warbirds. If you really want to own these airplanes (and I won't go into it here, but there are many reasons you might not want to), there is no substitute for education and hard work. I am often asked by aspiring owners what the best advice to get there is...........it may sound simple, but the most important thing one can do is position yourself in career in which the top people make big bucks. What I mean is this...you can be the top fireman, pilot, whatever, and you still have no chance to get wealthy. I know it sounds like common sense, but you wouldn't believe how many people I give this advice to, and their response is "that's all well and good, but I like to ___________", fill in the blank with any hobby or leisure time activity.

BTW, very few of the warbird owners I know inherited their financial ability to own warbirds, especially multiple warbird owners. I know there are notable exceptions but they are most likely to be - in order: small business owners, doctors, attorneys, senior executives, top sales people.

P.S. Ryan, I am very impressed with your approach and attitude. It will serve you well and will be a great example to others.

Think about it. The most important step in getting there is to be able to envision it and believe it in your heart.

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Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

I just wanted to throw in an a couple additional comments about the military path -

- While it is certainly a path that can get you great training and high performance flying experience without a huge financial outlay, it is not "free" training by any means. You pay for that training with service to your country that is not easy, and sometimes requires significant sacrifice. As others have mentioned, the barriers to entry are high and competitive.

- Opportunities to fly in the military are diminishing, and will continue to do so with the advent of the UAV. What this means is that the previous "steady stream" of former military trained guys who enter the civilian flying community is going to slow significantly within this generation. The impact is that more future warbird pilots are going to have to come from the civilian route...and I think we all ready see that with the current crop of owners and pilots, the majority of whom don't appear to be ex-military.

On the main topic of the thread, others have brought up fantastic points about obtaining the correct experience and "positioning" yourself to be able to become qualified.

That's probably the most important part of the "mentorship" aspect of bringing up new warbird pilots.

As an example, up until about 5 years ago, I didn't know that insurability was the highest hurdle in flying a warbird fighter, and that the key factor in insurability was T-6 time.

I distinctly remember a discussion I had with Bob Cannon in the pits at Reno in 2002 or 2003 where he told me the fact that I had 2,000 hours of military fighter time didn't matter....how much T-6 time did I have? I think if I'd known that earlier on in life, I would have focused more on obtaining that "correct" experience.

EVEN given the "T-6 factor", I know numerous people with that experience who don't have the means to make that jump to something bigger and need a mentor to help them span the gap.

A final comment....there's been lots of discussion about fighters on here, which is fine, but I think that the bombers are what I'm most concerned about. Those are the aircraft that are most money, insurance, and maintenance intensive. Those are the aircraft that need the most people in the next generation qualified, willing, and able to continue operating them into the future.

Randy Haskin wrote:



Not to hijack the thread, but, how did you get interested in vintage warbirds?

As for your very astute observation that , it brings up another point.........there is a certain level of dues to be paid in learning to fly warbirds as well, but one of the things that has always troubled me about the warbird crowd is that many of the pilots tend to hold the knowledge that they have obtained along the way to their type rating as if it is some big secret to be doled out over time. Half of the battle in getting further along is simply knowing what is required to get to the next step.

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Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

I'm 25 and been flying for a few years now, with a hurting desire for warbirds. I've been very fortunate since the beginning with opportunities to fly a lot of unique taildraggers, ending up with all the circumstances coming together last year to land myself a gig flying T-6 rides all summer long.

Now, having finished college and having a few hundred T-6 hours (back seat) under my belt, I'm looking forward to hopefully a next step. I've got a little experience helping wrench on most of the planes I've flown (and logging that time toward a future A&P) and am looking for any chance to get to help keep a fighter or bomber in the air.

Lately I've been thinking of looking for a job (hell maybe even a non-aviation one) in the Camarillo area so I can move down there.

Interested in them all my life (got it from my father and older brother) -- I pretty much grew up as an 'airshow kid'. Been flying for a long time, too...just never had the appropriate finances to put toward flying anything more expensive to operate than a 172. I worked at an FBO to put myself through college, so I didn't have the time or finances then, either, to do anything besides college, ROTC, and my job.

Where I would have done things differently was after getting in the military. I would have taken my discretionary income (the part I was spending on aviation, at least) and put it toward taildragger flying, rather than the other GA flying I was doing at the time. If I'd known that T-6 time was the key to the emerald city, that's what I would have focused my time and finances on.

Excellent point.

I think that's what I was getting at with the revelation of the T-6 time thing. I wish someone had told me about that earlier.

Of course, that would require someone else to want to give me that information, heh heh.

Im gonna fly warbirds some day. At the moment my father is teaching my me to fly in a 150. And after i solo i should move up into his Globe Swift GC-1B(its not exactly a warbird but it flys like one)im hoping that if i get enough time in the swift somebody will trust me with their T-6 and eventully a Mustang. As for young people liking warbirds,im in high school and in my photo class i posted a picture of PoF's Spam Can and some random guy in my class says"thats a P-51 Mustang those are Badass"
so im pretty sure there are young people that are interested in warbirdsthey just need inspiration.If i ever become lucky enough to a warbird i will give rides to teenagers interested in vintage aviation,because without kids like me there is no future for warbirds.