Rod Lewis Airshow Jardin Ranch 2011

[airnutz]

wow thats amazing. what does he do for a living to support having all these aircraft?

Oil...Texas Tea...There's a couple of earlier Forbes(?) articles available online.

yep, but mostly gas production and transportation pipelines that he sold.

Yep, been awhile since i read up on him but as I recall he had some fairly exclusive relationships with Pemex as well.(no pun intended)

[whistlingdeath77]

i'd like to be his house keeper just to be around all those great birds. I'm NOT wearing the french maids outfit though

[muddyboots]

You're right FRank. You'd totally look better in rabbit ears and a cottontail.

[whistlingdeath77]

You're right FRank. You'd totally look better in rabbit ears and a cottontail.

HEY! im cheap but not easy

[airnutz]

Off the top of my head, too lazy to look up ID's but if anyone has them I'd be more than happy to edit them into the post:

P-38 "Glacier Girl"
P-39 ex-TFC
P-40B (still under restoration I think)
P-47 ex-Tillamook Air Museum
TF-51D "La Pistolera"
B-25 in Russian markings
Spitfire Vb
2 Sea Furies- September Pops and September Fury
4 Bearcats- NAS Denver, Rare Bear, Thai markings, ex-David Price
2 Bearcats- Big Bossman, ex-Air Zoo
F4F-3 Wildcat former Steve Craig
FG-1D Corsair- Rebuilt by Brad Hood's team, Jolly Rogers markings

I'm sure I'm missing a few...

I wonder if he'll get tired of quantity and go to "WOW" at some point? Ya' know, Napier Sabre Tempest, Stuka, Fiesler Fi-103R...
somethin' none of the other kids has.

Last edited by airnutz on Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[whistlingdeath77]

i'd never get tired of having a corsair

[Mudge]

Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that I'm going to be the only WIXer there?

Mudge the elitist

[mh53eflyguy]

Rod Lewis's ranch is in Encinal, TX, just north of Laredo and literally feet off of I-35 (source: Forbes Magazine). If the event is open to the public, it's not listed anywhere, so as people are saying it's a exclusive invite. It would be really neat to take some pictures there.
That being said, I nabbed this one of him yesterday at the Laredo 2011 Stars & Stripes Spectacular Airshow.

[Speedy]

Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that I'm going to be the only WIXer there?

Mudge the elitist

RESISTING........URGE...........TO...........MAKE................REENACTOR...................COMMENT......................................

[k5083]

So, maybe here?

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=encinal+tx&safe=images&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Encinal,+La+Salle,+Texas&gl=us&ll=28.073495,-99.282675&spn=0.031656,0.055017&t=h&z=14

August

[mh53eflyguy]

So, maybe here?

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=encinal+tx&safe=images&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Encinal,+La+Salle,+Texas&gl=us&ll=28.073495,-99.282675&spn=0.031656,0.055017&t=h&z=14

August

Nope, 4.5 miles south, follow I-35 south, and look to the western side of the highway. There is a paved field with RW35/17 and a grass intersecting runway. The Identifier is 2TX4 and it's called (this one's easy) Lewis Ranch Airport.

[mrb17f]

Bob Cardin, project manager for Glacier Girl, went from taking care of 1 P-38 to being the one that takes care of all the aircraft in Rod's Air Force!! Quite a change from Middlesboro, Kentucky to Texas!! God Bless ya Bob!!

[Franklin]

Here's my take on Rod Lewis's air force. Not to be taken for anything negative other than my own opinion and because they're his airplanes and he can do what he wants with them, but from what I have read here on WIX many times over the years is the old debate about gloss vs flat paint schemes. Well I'm not a fan of gloss but I do understand why many warbird owners go with gloss. I've seen on most of Lewis's aircraft the choice for gloss. I believe most are gloss with the exception of Glacier Girl and possibly his new P-39 and P-40. I can only hope he keeps at least those three flat. I would suspect they would look terrible glossy, kind of like his FG-1D and P-47.

[Invader26]

The gloss bit is interesting in some ways. My father was a flight mechanic in the RAAF and he told me that they used to polish P-40's and Spitfires with floor polish to get a few extra mph out of them. I guess they were then gloss!

The pilot of my Spitfire XIV, Sqn Ldr Tony Gaze, told me recently that he and his fitter [RAF 41 Sqn] would spend hours of off time polishing and filling gaps and truing up panels to get a few more mph out of his kite. He said that it was probably worth 5 mph which doesn't seem like much but it allowed him to use a slight;ly lower power setting in formation on an op which also mean't a few more minutes of fuel which in a Spit XIV was a luxury that he loved to have. He shot down four aircraft in my Spit out of a total of 13....

[mrb17f]

I agree with the flat OD green. I love that color and have not seen a warbird from WW2 painted in gloss. I just don't think it would look right, not even on the Navy planes. The flat blue looked so much better.