Warbird Information Exchange

I found these 35mm shots while getting ready to scan some of my old slides and negs. I took these at the Globe Air auction in 1985. I assume that this was the last time two B-17s were sold at the same event? I wish I could find the rest of the shots but I suspect that I loaned them out many years ago. I'm wondering if WIXer Larry Kraus ever flew either of these two B-17s? I'll bet he did.



In this photo, I'm probably trying to figure out how to come up with the money to put in a bid.



My father and I realizing that just covering the control surfaces on a B-17's tail would be like covering an entire Stearman. I think this one sold for about $250K. My father and I thought is would sell below $200K but we were wrong.



This security guard was watching me very closely. I guess he thought I looked like the kind of guy who wanted these as drug running planes.

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

Albert, that security guard is with TSA now!

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

there were 4 B-17s for sale, 3 at the auction and 1 on the side.
For a number of years, Falcon Field had 5 B-17s based there at the same time.
Sentimental Journey was all ready touring as a Warbird, and the others in time would be as well, or in museums.
in time they would become
Fuddy Duddy,
909
Yankee Lady
Boeing Bee

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Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
Check out the Ercoupe Discussion Group on facebook

Superb shot, Albert! Evokes many a silly memory...

Second to the very last airplane in first shot shows our PV-2 N7454C - she sticks out like a sore thumb with the big old blue nose. I had no interest in her back in 1985.

The PVs were the real "steal" at the auction - while the B-17s demanded "high dollar" in 1985 money of plus or minus a quarer mil, the PVs went from $6,500 on down.

I have only a fuzzy memory of the prices of some of the other aircraft and the bits and pieces. Probably a good thing. But this stands out in my mind... I remember seeing the cockpit section of a damaged B-17 in the pile of bones, and thought this would make a fun project for the garage and decided that I was to attend auction and buy it.

Freshly out of college, just recently married, and working in a brand new job at an entry level position, my entire disposable fortune at that time to spend on such a crazy pipe dream was a little over a thousand dollars of hard-earned savings (mind you I had not told the new bride this was my intended purchase, either). I decided that this would be my great "roll of the dice" to save a B-17 cockpit section that I was sure was going to be purchased by some scrapper and hauled away and smashed to oblivion.

I was quite disappointed to have been continually outbid by a fellow from Florida that day - a bloke named Kermit Weeks - and wondered aloud to those around me what in the world anyone would want with a B-17 cockpit, and how much it was going to cost him to transport out of there? I suspected he was a scrap dealer, and I was not happy...

This was my first aero auction and I was dejected and made a half-hearted vow never to attend another one to avoid such bitter disappointment. At 21 years of age, I made silly promises that were obviously ignored in later years.

Ah, fun memories. Too bad I did not focus more attention on the PV stuff there at the time as maybe that would have saved me decades of heart-ache and cost buying stuff back from the original buyers in my own backyard. Who knows?

Fast forward to 2009... each time I get the opportunity to see that old B-17 cockpit (which is in stored in California along with many of Kermit's other goodies), I thump her on the side and remember what it was like to be "rich" - which at the time was only a few hundred dollars or so more than Mr. Weeks. According to the winning bid, anyway!

Pooner,
You have never learned the Kermit weeks auction method ? It is very simple, at the start of the auction, raise your bidding card, when all gets quiet, lower card.

Kermit had a whole lot more "few more dollars" than you did.......

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Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
Check out the Ercoupe Discussion Group on facebook

And he still does. But for want of a few hundred dollars there back in 1985, baby, I was, to quote the late, great Mr. B. "a contenduh!"

Oh, That one is the BEST! (James Best...)

Robbie