Warbird Information Exchange

First flight in a Warbird was with Dennis Bradley back in the early 80's P-51D C-FBAU . As a kid, all i cared if I ever flew in was a Harvard (but the Mustang..ohh, now that got me hooked!), have flown in a lot of various warbirds since.

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Mike

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

Awesome stories gang, keep 'em coming!



Have I met you bmoran?? I fly with this C-45 often as part of the "HAG"!

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Austin Hancock
Pennington P-51 Memorial
www.lp-51.com

My first warbird flight was in Doc Kelley's TBM, out of Mesquite, Texas in 1985. I miss that big ol' bird.

JMC

B-25 in Dec. 1968 when hired by Tallmanz as a co-pilot for Catch 22 now have over 2000 hours in military A/C, T-6, C-54, C7A, UH-1, P-51, P-40.

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My first warbird ride was in an L-21 that I helped restore. I was about 13. Shortly after I flew in an SNJ and then the Stearman with a canopy I mentioned in the Stearman thread. I really consider myself luck for getting the bug so early. It's been a blast since then.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

So which one is you?

Nice shot, for sure!

Lynn

April 1985, my uncle paid $50 towards a $75 ride in the B-17 "Chuckie" at a USAAF reunion airshow fly-in thing in Pampa, TX.
WOOT!

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Zane Adams
There I was at 20,000 ft, upside down and out of ammunition.
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1969- B-17G, Piccadilly Lilly. Also the first warbird I ever worked on.

Pat Rodgers

in january 1987 i flew DC3C N14MA,a former C47 on a training flight which segued into a checkride the next day and a another round engined taildragger pilot was born !

In the late 90's got to fly in several OH-6 Little Bird helicopter when I worked as a U.S. Border Patrol Agent. The OH-6's had Vietnam time with bullet hole patches on the fuselages. Around 2000 flew in a T-6 and DC3/C47 on the same day at Gillespie Field in El Cajon, CA. Got to help pull the props through on the DC3 before startup. Once we were up in the air, the pilots invited the passengers to come up to the flight deck. What blast both rides that day were.

August 2010 flying my L 4 for the first time. Not many other warbirds ( bugs ? ) that you can operate on 4 gph.

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Flying Piper L4-J 45-55209

Yeah, Zane, those were they days, for sure! Some time in the mid to late 1980s, I was at the Breckenridge air show with three of my air show buddies. The announcer came over the PA system and said that Doc Hospers was offering rides aboard Chuckie for $75 a person. I wanted desparately to go, but I didn't have $75. In fact, between all four of us, we didn't have $75! There wasn't an ATM at the airfield, so that wasn't an option (and in reality, I probably didn't have $75 in the bank, either). So, needless to say, I didn't get to go for a B-17 ride that day.

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

First Warbird Flight ~ AT-6 with Mike Schloss at Oshkosh

First Fighter ~ P-51 "Lou IV" with John Dilley

First Bomber ~ B-25 "Galliant Warrior" with Glen Lamont

First Transport ~ C-47 Yankee Air Force

All a thrill

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“Make A Difference, Be Inspired, Inspire”

Mine was in Merle Gustafson's (now Steve's) T-6 N7462C back in probably June 1978, when it was painted like an Fw 190. My dad had recently been checked out in it by Merle. My dad was also a CFI so it was really dual & we logged it. I got a few more hours in it with my dad over the next year or so.

This has been great reading about everyone first Warbird flights. I'm very happy to say that I had my very first flights this summer. The first being a flight from Everett, Washington down to Salem Oregon in the B-25 Mitchell "Maid in the Shade" on August 22. Shortly thereafter (September 3) was my second Warbird flight. This one was my very first air-to-air photo shoot. This flight was aboard B-25D Mitchell, "Grumpy," and the subject was a Grumman F8F Bearcat. The first portion of this flight consisted of sevel high-speed, low-altitude passes down the runway for "Vintage Aircraft Weekend," which was freaking AWESOME! For each reversal I could look up through the gun turret and see the runway. Then we went and flew around Mt. Baker with our subject before returning to Paine Field.

In total that gives me just about 3.4 hours in B-25's.