Warbird Information Exchange

hehehe ... I shouldn't tell you guys, but I will anyway ... lololol,
again at Chino and I was trying to be "ALL knowing about all things warbird" to my friends, who are nowhere near interested as I am in warbirds. We were proceeding to crawl under a B-17 to stand up in the bombay .... I was jabbering to these guys, who had the look of "shut up already", and wasn't paying attention to where I was. I stood up .... WAY TOO SOON .... "BANG!!!!" .... ouch my F**KING HEAD! ... I yelled. I hit the bottom of the fuselage so hard I almost passed out. My friends just laughed and laughed, while I was lying there getting all kinds of "dumb Sh*t! looks from everyone ..... I guess the noise traveled all over the field, because not long later the P.A. announced to everyone to be extremely careful not to hurt yourself around the aircraft. And I could have swore I heard him say .... "especially the guy who tried to add an extra bombay to our B-17" ...... When you have small kids looking at you and saying ... "Ouch!!! dude ... did that hurt?" .... and mothers asking if they can give me any water .... ....

That's just one .... and probably all you get .... I think I have a good rep here, I don't want to ruin it.

Oh yah! ... and then there's that guy who said ... "No, I got it" and then fell face first out of a Corsair cockpit to the pavement. OUCHHHHH!!!!! ... hehehehe ....

I think the dumbest thing I ever did at a show was TICO in 1981, when I left the airport at the end of the show. It was years later that I found out that the real fun started AFTER the show was over!
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

We took a P-3 to a show at Pt Mugu one year I walked into a prop blade and split my forehead open!
Blood everywhere and 16 stiches later.
The cr*p I endured from that

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Don't touch my junk!!

I was looking at the calendar girls at the Gathering of mustangs, and walked into a parked jeep.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

took my friend's bratty, spoiled, high maintenance kid along. i was ready to shove that little punk right into a prop!!!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Sometimes I would actually listen to the PA announcer at airshows.

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

back in the early 80s, as a Boy Scout, we had been camping on the base where the airshow was held at NAS Jax.. We had stayed up the entire night before playing capture the flag and holding hand to hand combat drills with the MPs and some marines camping nearby assigned to "watch us."

The next day I was standing on the flight line near a bunch of VIPs attending the show, minding my own business, when some undercover security folks came over and asked me if they could chat with me...

(sidenote) during this time in our Boy Scout careers, we were quite paramilitary in appearance...mirrored shades, camo hats, camo pants, big knives on our belts, dog tags, etc...

The security folks quietly escorted me to the nearest hangar and started grilling me about the starter pistol that I had forgotton about that was tucked in the lower back area of my web belt. I had confiscated it from one of the guys who was running around with it playing cowboys and indians..lol talk about a serious pucker, though...

B

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documenting restored B-17s and those undergoing restoration to flight:

Walked up to Sandy Sanders at Minter Field in 1990 (when I was a stupid 23 year old) as Dennis Sanders was flying his aerobatic act and told him "that's Brian flying the airplane." Of course it turned out it wasn't and I felt like an idiot for along time after. At least he didn't say anything on the mic about it. Sheesh.


John

Now their step-father BTW!

My dumbest incident happened around 1978 at what we called the "SAC Open House" at Offutt AFB. It was always held on one of the hottest weekends of summer, and on this particular day I took a cute little girlfriend I was dating along to see the airplanes. The warbirds were parked on a separate apron south of the show line, and when they commenced their start-up procedure we headed over with around a million other people. My date's favorite airplane was the Corsair, so I weasled our way up into this mass of humanity to get her a closer look. We were standing like sardines in a can when she suddenly faints and falls over, slowly ending up on the ground. Yours truly just stood there with my mouth open, not knowing whether to ask her if she was alright or just watch the fighters taxi out. Another spectator immediately went to her aid, she came to and was fine, and I still got to see everyone taxi out. Believe it or not, she later married me and we celebrated 25 years of wedded bliss last year.

I have two other dumb a$$ stories from Offutt--both involve the same female, my consumption of adult beverages, her having to drive home, and silence for a time.

Scott

Women are good at the silent treatment. They must learn it at school or something.

Not me but my brother got run over by our 0-2 Skymaster at the 1996 Kelso airshow. They were towing the airplane and he decided it would be ok to sit on the main gear strut. They stopped mid-tow for some reason and he got up, and the tug driver didn't see him and started again, he got run over by the right main gear. One trip to the hospital and 4 weeks later and his shattered leg was healed. One the way home from that trip I got a nosebleed as we were going by about Orcas Island, and the rags were all the way in the back of the airplane, and I had to climb from the front right seat over my sprawled brother in the back seat to get them. Combine this with heavy turbulence, and the fact that my dad was trying to maintain formation with our An-2, and I ended up knocking my brother's leg. He howled all the way home. We did win the awards for Best Warbird for the Skymaster and Best Biplane for the An-2, so the weekend wasn't all bad.

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real airplanes have round engines

As most of you know, I am quite a shutterbug. So, as I often do, I will traverse an area while looking through the viewfinder. MOST of the time I am already aware of where things are and am fine. But somebody moved a tug and a towbar into my path. I hit the towbar about mid-shin. OUCH! It took a nice chunk out of my shin and I tried to shrug it off while my buddies ask if I was okay. I don't know what hurt worse, my shin, or my pride.

Did I ever tell you about decicrating the American flag with our B-25 in front of 1000s of people while "God Bless the USA" was playing

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Don't touch my junk!!

I've posted it elsewhere, but my dumbest airshow act was something my dad actually did. I was a kid in the late '80s when FIFI and a brown / tan B-24 ( I forget the name ) flew into Ryan airport in Baton Rouge.

Dad thought it would be cool to let me see the inside of FIFI. Unfortunately he did not realize they were charging admission so he stuck me on his shoulders and poked me up into the nose compartment.

I came face to face with an older gentleman who was "less than pleased" that I was suddenly in the aircraft without paying and growled at me to leave!

Good times, good times...

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ATC: "Oscar 2, cleared to engage wildlife at your discretion..."