Flying Hellcats

Pat Carry · **Posted:** Mon Sep 20, 2010 9:51 am

The Freidkin Hellcat is the only one that takes to the skies these days, right? Does Rod Lewis have a Hellcat?

k5083 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:24 am

The CAF's seems pretty active. Not sure what Lone Star's status is right now.

August

C VEICH · **Joined:** Sun Nov 15, 2009 12:40 pm **Posts:** 1476

TFC have one that is a regular flyer as well. Or at least it was until all the hoopla with the CAA. Not sure where that all stands at the moment.

Dan Newcomb · **Posted:** Mon Sep 20, 2010 11:04 am

Ours is up and flying.

D

Pat Carry · **Posted:** Mon Sep 20, 2010 11:05 am

Dan Newcomb wrote:

Ours is up and flying.

D

Thanks for the info everyone. I totally forgot about the CAF's Hellcat.

kalamazookid · **Posted:** Mon Sep 20, 2010 3:57 pm

To my knowledge, these are the Hellcats still flying:

US:
CAF SoCal Wing
Lone Star Flight Museum
Tom Friedkin
Palm Springs Air Museum

UK:
The Fighter Collection

Anyone know of any others? What is the status of Paul Allen's F6F?

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Mon Sep 20, 2010 4:21 pm

kalamazookid wrote:

To my knowledge, these are the Hellcats still flying:

US:
CAF SoCal Wing
Lone Star Flight Museum
Tom Friedkin
Palm Springs Air Museum

UK:
The Fighter Collection

Anyone know of any others? What is the status of Paul Allen's F6F?

I've seen the term: static, non flying, etc. used to describe the FHC's example.

Was the aircraft restored to fly? If so, is it not flown due to its "rarity"? (Which wouldn't make total sense since kalamazookid already proved theres at least 5 other Hellcats movin' around. So for me its never really made much sense why the FHC wouldn't operate the Hellcat, and for that matter the Oscar too. Again if the plane was restored to 100% airworthy, why not operate it safely?

k5083 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 20, 2010 4:58 pm

I don't think the Palm Springs Hellcat is flying now. It is one of the aircraft caught up in the ownership/access dispute between the museum and Jo Pond, and may not fly until the museum finishes buying the planes from Pond on a long-term installment plan.

The FHC's Hellcat is not really restored. I don't think it's a matter of not operating it because of rarity, just that the FHC has never had it restored to what it would consider airworthy status, either because they consider the artifact too original to restore or because they haven't gotten around to it.

August

Rata · **Joined:** Fri Oct 30, 2009 11:47 am **Posts:** 8

FHC - they have not got around to it

DaveM2 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:56 pm

Warbird Kid wrote:

and for that matter the Oscar too. Again if the plane was restored to 100% airworthy, why not operate it safely?

FHC Oscar was not restored to air worthy as too much original structure would have been replaced-looks just fine taxiing about and performing the odd 'hop' which was witnessed at Wanaka.
Plenty of new builds to take up the slack.

The Inspector · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 12:22 am

As mentioned in previous posts, the FHC F6F gave up it's elevator linkages for another 'cat before P. Allen obtained the airframe. given the size of Mr. Vulcans spare change dish (cue the OJAYS singing 'money-money-money'), I'm sure that just about any time they felt like it, a reproduction set of new parts could be made to 'appear', but then we get back to the subject of his 99% complete A6M two seater and the fact it seems to be glued to the floor and permanently stuck in the inertia zone.

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 1:45 pm

DaveM2 wrote:

Warbird Kid wrote:

and for that matter the Oscar too. Again if the plane was restored to 100% airworthy, why not operate it safely?

FHC Oscar was not restored to air worthy as too much original structure would have been replaced-looks just fine taxiing about and performing the odd 'hop' which was witnessed at Wanaka.
Plenty of new builds to take up the slack.

How many are being built? 3? 4? Thats not alot in my book. Its great that we have some new examples but I hope they decide to build some more.

Mgawa · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 3:42 pm

How many Hellcats are in flying conditions today?

DaveM2 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 3:44 pm

Warbird Kid wrote:

DaveM2 wrote:

Warbird Kid wrote:

and for that matter the Oscar too. Again if the plane was restored to 100% airworthy, why not operate it safely?

FHC Oscar was not restored to air worthy as too much original structure would have been replaced-looks just fine taxiing about and performing the odd 'hop' which was witnessed at Wanaka.
Plenty of new builds to take up the slack.

How many are being built? 3? 4? Thats not alot in my book. Its great that we have some new examples but I hope they decide to build some more.

Hardly likely, with the amount of problems experienced with the existing ones ( only one flown after several mishaps along the way) and the lack of buyers to boot. Anyway this is hijacking the thread somewhat.

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 3:51 pm

DaveM2 wrote:

Hardly likely, with the amount of problems experienced with the existing ones ( only one flown after several mishaps along the way) and the lack of buyers to boot. Anyway this is hijacking the thread somewhat.

Yeah, back to the Grumman.

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