Warbird Information Exchange

Any excuse to post this picture. RAF Coltishall, July 1985, 41 Squadron reunion. Only a small airshow for the vets with the 41 Squadron Jaguars flying and the B of B flight Spit II in 41 Squadron markings.

Getting asked to be in the group photo was about the proudest WW2 aviation history moment ever. All Spit drivers in the photo except the kid in front.

Later there was a memorial service at the station chapel. I was walking out with 2 Spitfire XII pilots and the B of B flight Spit II whistled overhead. Absolutely spine-tingling.

Finally making Legends in 2005 and seeing all those Spits up is a distant second to this.

Begging your indulgence, do you mind a lifetime of moments?

1960s sometime, one of my earliest memories… Going to an airshow at McClellan AFB with my Dad and having the hook set in me at an early age….

An airshow at Mather AFB in 1981 after I had failed to qualify for an AFROTC scholarship, ending my dream of being a military pilot. Listening to DL Smith call the Thunderbirds for take off “Thhhuuunnnndeerrrrrr Birds! 2!-3!-!4!-5!-6! Ok, run ‘em up!! Brrraakess off, ready NOW!” and watching the Diamond climb out in those beautiful T-38s. Then hearing about his fatal ejection later that year.

Managing a KB toy store in the mid 1980s, and driving down to Madera. Sleeping outside, waking up in the middle of the night and shooting the airplanes under a full moon with no one else on the ramp. Sneaking down to the end of the runway during the show and hiding in a drainage ditch (along with a handful of other nutjobs) to shoot them as they rolled in for their passes. I’m sure they saw us, I could almost hear the pilots going RAT-tat-tat-tat as they strafed us before their runs.

Making the jump at 28, going back to school and getting my ratings. Being a brand new CFI but summoning my courage and going to Vern Dallman’s Ala Doble Aerobatic Seminar at Esparto. Keeping my mouth shut as I stood next to legendary pilots and soaked in not just their flying lessons, but lessons on how the great ones behaved away from their airplanes. Becoming a good pilot is more than flying the airplane, I learned.

The quiet, high desert beauty of being in a Balloon during the Reno Dawn Patrol, watching the sunrise from an open wicker basket.

Taking an advanced student into the San Francisco TCA for a lesson on radio communication in the Traumahawk. Having Bay Approach tell us to hold west of Alcatraz, giving us headings, then telling us to look out our left wing as the Red Arrows made a pass down the waterfront enroute to Salinas.

Sitting on the Marin Headlands one year during the Fleet Week rehearsal show. The Blues that year REALLY had their fecal matter aggregated as they flew down the waterfront, stood the Delta on a wingtip and did a pass by the Golden Gate, a pylon turn around Angel Island to reverse course and then back down the waterfront. All the time I was looking DOWN at them. I’ve never seen an American team fly that well, before or since.

Taking the runway at Newark as a Check Airman on the Embraer Regional Jet with a brand new fresh from the sim gent in the right seat with his eyes as big as saucers for his very first flight in the airplane. Getting cleared for takeoff into a clear blue sky, smiling at him and saying “Brrraakess off, ready NOW!”

A couple years ago after I’d been volunteering at our local museum, and getting to be “behind the rope line” as ground crew for our Mustang. Being in a place I’ve always dreamed of but never thought I could be. Being invited to sit in cockpits of aircraft I’ve only read about, meeting people who are as gracious as you’ve always hoped they would be.


I’ve gotten real good at typing 80 wpm into the FMS of my Boeing, and I’m back where I started, a 48 year old little kid hanging out around airplanes. Thanks Dad, and Thanks to everyone over all the years and airshows I’ve gone to.


Steve

Not so much *airshow* moments as hanging-around-old-airplanes moments.

Late-70's introduction to that old-airplane smell, crawling all through the B-36 that's now at Pima.

Early-90's hanging out at Bob Pond's then-Minnesota collection in a tan polyester flightsuit, listening to men a little older than my Dad...

I was standing near the Spit one day, when I noticed a fellow of about the right vintage lingering. I drifted over and asked, "You know the plane?"

"Aye...," he said.

I asked, "Would you be willing to share a memory?"

He thought a moment, then looked at me: "Lettin' daown, through cloud, to a black't-owt airfield."

He fixed me with his eyes.

"Oy remember thet."


Another time, a dapper RAF type was standing by the Spit and recounting how he'd shot down a brace of Heinkels during the Battle of Britain, been beat up by a 109, and bailed out over the Channel.

A quiet gentleman of similar age was standing nearby, admiring the aircraft and listening to the fellow's story with a slight smile.

The RAF chap notices him, and slightly irritated at the fellow's near-smirk, asks, "Excuse me, sir, but have we met?" in a plummy upper-class British accent.

The other gentleman turns to face him, looks pointedly at the Spit, then turns back with the tiniest of grins.

"Jah, it iz pozzible, I zink," he says.

"But I do not zink yew vere flying ziss *particular* aircraft."

There two moments that really knocked my socks off.

The first was at Syracuse back in few years when Jimmy Franklin showed up with the Jet powered WACO act. I couldn't keep my eyes off that!

I remember Air Boss Ralph Royce at Sunday's briefing telling everyone that the FAA was going to violate Jim because the FAR's state your tires have to revolve at least one full rotation before you can legally leave the ground!:lol:

And the second: The first time I saw the "Masters of Disaster" at Terre Haute a few years ago! Really action packed and kind of an "on-the-edge-of-your-seat" act!
Jerry

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

Ain't that the truth,





Truly, the wildest act in Aviation. I miss the look on peoples faces when he would stand it up and go like a "Jet Powered Waco"

Thanks for all the goosebumps, Godspeed!

_________________
"Hindsight is usually 20% off!"