Warbird Information Exchange

From birth, I've loved all things mechanical: cars, trucks, planes, trains, ships, boats, you name it. I built my first glue-together airplane model at age 4 (it was an Aurora "box scale" Bf-109, which was molded in a dark reddish plastic, and the year was 1963; my folks have a color slide of me proudly holding that Messerschmitt up for the camera!). I've been very interested in aviation my whole life. I started going to air shows when I was a young teen, and I've never stopped. I began reading Air Classics in 1981, and added other warbird rags along the way. I hit pretty much every warbird show in the north Texas area for many years. I only missed two Breckenridge shows (both times I was ill). I got personally involved with crewing and working on warbirds through the Vintage Flying Museum. VFM holds a Big Band Hangar Dance every October. It's our big fundraising event for the year. About 10 years ago, our best friends learned about the dance and suggested that we all attend. We did, and we had a grand time! I joined VFM about 6 years ago, and I've been "livin' the dream" ever since!

I'm not a pilot or an A&P mechanic (I'm an electrical engineer by trade).

_________________
Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

You can blame my dad for growing up in the landing pattern of Wayne Major Field, watching the F-84's come and go. He learned to fly when he was old enough, and got into RC as well.
He took me to my first Oshkosh (way before it was airventure) back in 82, and I was hooked on the pink P-40, the YP-51, the Radials, the whole thing.
When I got old enough to use a hobby knife, I started building scale models, and got good enough with the knife that I was able to scratchbuild model buildings for a living when I was unemployed a few years ago. Have followed warbirds and vintage/ classics for almost 30 years now.

I can blame my interest on the past two generations also. when i was 18 months old my dad was still restoring the d model mustang, so he started taking me to the airport, setting me on the end of the creeper, and had me hand him tools. after he had about ten hours in the airplane he was trying to figure out a way to let me fly in it. Because i was not big enough to open the canopy if something were to happen , i had to sit on someones lap. we made a lap belt that clipped on to the normal harnesses and i wore earplugs and some gardening earmuffs, finding someone to let me sit on their lap was never a problem.

I think i remember my dad telling me about that pink mustang one time.

my father grew up in the east end of london during the blitz and joined the navy before the end of the war and was an airplane nut,was also nearly kilees by a v2 that landed in his neiborhood.we had a small local airport in my home town called niagara district air port it was common on a weekend for my dad my brother and i to drive out to the airport just to look at the planes on the ramp and in the hanger.my father also had a friend who had his pilots license and there was a chipmunk that was available for rent at the airport my dad was taken for a flight in it and came back looking very green! i was taken for several rides around the area in 172,s and was smitten all though i have not been as luckey as most of you i did not end up in the industry but spend most of my time on here or looking at other aircraft stuff i built alot of airplane models as a kid i think i built the p61 several times i also had a really cool one of a ov10 bronco that had some sort of silver plating on it it was beautiful have never seen it again bought it at K mart also remember there being a cool model of a flying boat tender that had two miniature martin flying boats with it! in still try to weasle rides in small planes when i can i go to the hamilton war plane heritage museum at least once a year i go to the trenton museum abought 10 times a year because its close by and still have getting my pilots license on my bucket list. i,m only 45 so i think i still have time you all have made my life much richer for the stories and the information that you have provided and am thankful for having found this site i salute you all.

How did I become interested in warbirds?? That's easy. Back when I was about 7 yrs old ( circa 1948 ) my father constructed a Strom Becker model of the P-61 Black Widow for me. It was made of solid pine wood and had decals for windows. I thought it was the neatest airplane in the whole world (in fact I still do). One day shortly thereafter, I was riding my bike near our home in Santa Monica, California when I heard this incredible deafening roar of an airplane coming from behind me. It was so lound that I think it may well have been the first time that I ever looked up in the sky to check out the source of this overpowering roar. What was the aircraft? You guessed it...a P-61 Black Widow!!!!! He was makiing a banking turn over our house and so low that when he went by I saw the pilot and the other crew member facing rearward in the tail end of the pod. I waved at him and HE WAVED BACK!!! Was this P-61 low or what?!!...and the sound of those two R-2800's still reverberate in my head today. Yes, I've been hooked ever since.

And the Strom Becker P-61 Black Widow model? I still have it!!!

Was kinda hoping for more input on this one. It started off good.

_________________
Fly Fast Make Noise!

Yeah I know that there were some thread about negativity and such and thought that maybe we all could just take a minute and remember whatit is that first started getting our hearts pumping on this subject.

_________________
Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

My love of airplanes started as a child, just looking for some thing to build a model of, or to sketch. When it really kicked in is; when I went to the Beaver County Airshow in 1987. At that airshow I saw my first B-17 in person, it was 909. As some may recall that is the airshow that 909 went into a ravine in PA. At that same airshow I joined Air Heritage, I wanted to work on their L-21B project. After the 909 crash, I found myself volunteering on 909's restoration for the better part of the next 4 years. Near the end of those four years I was given permission to put the nose art back on 909. This is my only aviation claim to fame, my name was on the nose of 909 for approx a year, before the aircraft went in for a total repaint. It is at this point that I decided I want to get involved in aviation to help preserve aircraft so others can see and appreciate them. Once 909 was finished and I was in A&P school, I finally started working on that L-21 that belonged to Air Heritage. This is about the time I met my partner in crime, and one of my best friends Chris (mustangdriver) during on of the Movie Belle's many visits to the museum for maintenance. Museum life had to end for me as I felt the need to get a job that paid something. I worked in NC for three years (general aviation) where I met my wife of 13 years and counting. Returned to PA, to find a job restoring Beechcraft Staggerwings, this is a job that fit my ideals perfectly. With increased responsibility, comes the need for more money and the ideals slip away. I took a job woking for Northrop/Grumman working on B-2's in CA. After getting laid off from there, I was hired on with UAL in Inidanapolis. I was able to put three good years in with UAL before they pulled out of Indy. After much aviation frustration, I decided to give it a rest. I took a seven year hiatus from airplanes. I worked in a car dealership as a service advisor. When the economy tanked, I found myself needing another job. So it was back to aviation. Once inside the doors at my current employer, AAR; the memories started rushing back of how much I enjoy airplanes!! All of this aviation rediscovery was aided by the fact that Chris was going through a transition in his life that brought him to Indianapolis. Hence the Miss Liberty Belle project at Grissom. For the moment I work on B737's in the same facility I was working in for UAL, feeling like a ghost roaming the halls. Commercial aviation these days are nothing but sweat shops. I hope someday to find my ideal in an aviation job once again. For now I will keep working on the Blue Bird Buses of the skies and hope for the best. Thanks all-Can Do!

For me it was the book Great American Fighter Pilots of WWII by Robert Loomis (still available at Amazon.com btw), and the "12 O'Clock High" TV series.

i was born under the Canarsie approach hard by JFK,and was serenaded at birth by the fading rumble of the turbo compounds ,and the harsh shriek of the 1st generation JT3s,and 4s,i never really had a choice in the matter,reading Gann,and St.Ex in grade school,there was only one path for me,so when my first flying job was a freightdog DC3 i rolled with it and flew them for the next 10 years,hitting everything from grass strips in Ontario (Muirkirk),to the South China sea on the way to Bang-kok,(great trip/story),found the Yankee Air Force in '96,and by the grace of God,and their benevolence still fly the C47 for them today, my work cockpits are a source of joy for me, i burn kerosene for love and money,I fly the Douglas purely out of love. anyway thats the story so far !

Got any shots of her or know which bird it was?

Thanks,
Gary

Born in Sept 1971, 8 months later, dad carried me out of the house into the back yard and into our Cessna 140 and I went for a ride! For warbirds.............after "our" ride we stopped at the other end of the runway and I went into my crib at the hangar and he worked on the N3N. Im done.

_________________
Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

Good friends of mine were involved with the Canadian Warplane Heritage and I often went to see them working on the time, an Avro Anson Mk. V at the Canadian Warplane Heritage museum.
I had this facination for all warbirds but had a soft spot for the North American Harvard with its roaring prop tips that hooked me on aviation as it flew the approach to runaway 06 by my house.
I joined CWH in 1981 at the age of 14 and started to get hands on, working on anything i could. I think the first was a DC-3 then i worked with the engineer at the time on a P-51 and several other warbirds.
Hoping for a ride one day in the Harvard to fullfill my dream I kept on.
Little did I know the first warbird ride would be in the back of a P-51D, that kept me coming back for more.
I spent a couple of years on the Lancaster, a couple on the Hurricane then 10 years as crew chief on the Corsair flying numerous times (67 actually/121 hours!) in the added back seat to airshows all over the north east.
The museum was what got me to love the industry and I became an aircraft maintenance engineer along the way.
I had one of the best of opportunities when I was asked to take over as Chief Engineer at CWH for an interim period of 3 months until we could find a replacement for the outgoing chief in 2008. 3 months turned into just over 12 mths and I had the time of my life.
Warbirds are a passion, there is nothing like it! People can't understand sometimes how someone can have this addiction..that is until they spend time amongst them, then they know!

_________________
Mike

Ah yes, There we were, left engine on fire, right engine feathered...ahh yes,...there we were, ..Screwed! No Kissing!

My Dad worked at Hayes in Birmingham, Al. in the early 50s. We would carry his supper to him every night. I would see the planes the he was working on and dream of owning one one day. I spent many school nights doing my homework at the Birmingham Airport just to watch the people board and hear those radials start up. I can hear and smell them as I write this. I own a few but they are 1/18 and other scales. Have flown on all of the Collings Foundation many times and been a volunteer there also. Spent two years preserving 41-12634 B-25C at Southern museum of Flight. I like anything mechanical.

_________________
*When you meet a Veteran shake his or her hand and thank them. They earned your freedom*

Back in 1980 I bought wooden and metal edges prop. that had been made into a light fixture for $15.00 from an old local man. I donated it to the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, AL. The Director found out for me that it came off of an Avro Anson, and was worth about $500.00 dollars at the time. Just wanted to share that with you.

_________________
*When you meet a Veteran shake his or her hand and thank them. They earned your freedom*