Reading WWII Weekend!

LARGEFLYER · **Joined:** Thu Aug 10, 2006 12:31 pm **Posts:** 181

Helldiver is stuck out near Pittsburgh with weather between them and us. Once the weather moves out of the Reading area they will be in on Sat AM.

Beasley is hoping to have the "BEAST" in Sat AM as well.

Trying to dry out now back at the hotel.

Weather should clear out in time to fly the show in the PM tomorrow.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Greg

Jiggersfromsphilly · **Joined:** Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:15 pm **Posts:** 951

Just got back tonight and It looks like tomorrow will be a much nicer day.

Spent some time with the 101st vets in attendance and had dinner with 5 of them.

Looking foward to sseing some WIX ers there tomorrow.

Is the fabulous Mudge the stay out of the precipitation , going to be there ?

TAdan · **Posted:** Sat Jun 06, 2009 7:17 am

I am going to try and get out there again this afternoon, the weather is looking much better.

wls3 · **Posted:** Sat Jun 06, 2009 9:55 pm

Couple of quick pics, L-O-N-G day.
Very crowded by the time I got there.
Couldn't get within miles to park so found a spot outside.

Thanks to Jeff Funk who kept me updated via cell phone on what was about to fly.
More later hopefully.

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Sat Jun 06, 2009 11:03 pm

Nice pics Bill!
Thanks for posting. I wish I was there!
Jerry

TAdan · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 7:30 am

wls3 wrote:

Couple of quick pics, L-O-N-G day.
Very crowded by the time I got there.
Couldn't get within miles to park so found a spot outside.

Thanks to Jeff Funk who kept me updated via cell phone on what was about to fly.
More later hopefully.

Great shots Bill.

Just like you said, the place was packed. I just about gave up trying to get clear pictures of the static displays.

As for parking I managed to park on the side of the road in the woods somewhere :lol:

I enjoyed seeing Jim's demo in the Spitfire, it looked like he was having alot of fun. That Griffon sounded really wild.

kalamazookid · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 8:59 am

I like the replica paper tanks on the P-51B. Jack Roush sure knows how to give his P-51s as authentic of a look as possible.

...And that Spitfire is a beauty!

k5083 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 12:09 pm

Some stray thoughts on yesterday.

Best weather than I can recall in years. Neither wet not stifling hot.

New/old layout is not so bad. CONS: Staring into the sun is hard on everyone, not just photographers. Crowd line is much shorter, so fewer front row seats, more jockeying for position. Ground battle had to use a smaller area; Iwo Jima and flamethrower stuff was invisible to airshow crowd. PROS: You get to see much more takeoff, landing, and taxiing action, so much more total activity and stuff to keep you amused between the flying, and there was a lot of "between the flying" this year. For photography, the sun ends up a little right of center so you can get nice side lighting if you catch the planes approaching from the left.

Jim's Spitfire is lovely and he did a nice display. Thanks Jim.

Dameo's Corsair display also was very nice, just upstaged by Jim.

CAF Helldiver was very welcome and impressive. I was surprised that they did not take the opportunity to correct the shape of the national insignia during the repaint. Guess no one cares about that stuff. Otherwise it looked great.

This was my first look at the CAF logos on the side of significant CAF airplanes, and they're not as intrusive as I thought. They suck, but not enough to get worked up about.

Old Crow is a nice plane.

Too bad nothing from Duffy or Yagen this year. Hope they're back for '10.

August

TAdan · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 12:58 pm

k5083 wrote:

Some stray thoughts on yesterday.

This was my first look at the CAF logos on the side of significant CAF airplanes, and they're not as intrusive as I thought. They suck, but not enough to get worked up about.

August

I agree about the CAF logo's. They were much less noticable in person IMO.

I'll try and get some of my pics posted this evening.

Mudge · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 1:26 pm

Saturday in Re-enactor gear not too bad. Sunday was unbearable by 1100. Couldn't handle the heat and came home.
PROS
All in all, the flying was pretty cool. Seeing the "Helldiver" almost brought tears to these old eyes. That is one beautiful airplane. And the engine was as smooth as any I've ever heard. Got to talk to the pilot. He said it's a "very happy airplane.
The P-61 is coming along nicely.

CONS
If that air show announcer had said "Kevin Rochet" or "Jim Beasley" one more time, I was gonna' go strangle him. I guarantee he said the names not less than 75 times each during their performances. After the first few, I think we all would have known who he was talking about if he'd just referred to them as Kevin or Jim.
I dunno...maybe it's in their contracts.

Couldn't get to the vendor area on Saturday because of the mud. Got through there today...same old...same old.

I'm pretty sure there are a couple of hundred photos of us. Every time we looked around someone was either taking a photo or asking us to pose.
(And me in the witness protection program. What am I gonna' tell my handler?)

Here are some we took. The pretty lady is Mrs. Mudge, the fat guy is me.
You wouldn't believe the number of compliments she got on her "uni".

[/b]

Mudge the sweaty

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 2:48 pm

Mudge,
You look good, your wife looks great!
Thanks for the update as i could not attend this year.
Blue skies,
Jerry

TAdan · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 5:45 pm

Posted my pics in the photo gallery...

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... 247#297247

JDK · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 9:00 pm

Mudge wrote:

I'm pretty sure there are a couple of hundred photos of us. Every time we looked around someone was either taking a photo or asking us to pose.
(And me in the witness protection program. What am I gonna' tell my handler?)

Post of the week!

Quote:

Here are some we took. The pretty lady is Mrs. Mudge, the fat guy is me.
You wouldn't believe the number of compliments she got on her "uni"

All the pretty boys love a sailor....

Just curious, Mudge, you seem somewhat ~ ah ~ over-endowed with wings - from three countries, no less... What's with that?

Don't worry about the heat, come out to Australia, rarely gets above 45 degrees here in Melbourne in the Summer.

You could use one of them thar shots to replace your hamster-eating grin Avatar...

James the suggestive.

Mudge · **Posted:** Mon Jun 08, 2009 8:01 am

JDK wrote:

Just curious, Mudge, you seem somewhat ~ ah ~ over-endowed with wings - from three countries, no less... What's with that?

James the suggestive.

Sorry about your vision problem...only two sets of wings. Over the right pocket is my RAF wings from my time with Eagle Squadron. Over the left is my USAAF wings. Not sure what else you're referring to.
The emblem on the right pocket is my Eagle Squadron "1942" pin. On the left pocket is my "Winged boot" from the time I was shot down and walked back to allied lines.

Mudge the decorated :roll:

ps. If you're gonna' play the part... :wink:

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 08, 2009 8:16 am

Hey Mudge... Try doing that a few more times to get used to it and then come down here to TX and stay in the uniform ALL day - when the tarmac's oh, say 100 degrees... :lol:

That's a nice lot of fruit salad under the wings, BTW. Interesting to look up all of the ribbons and try to figure out which stands for what.

Ryan

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