Warbird Information Exchange

I am sure that we have many great stories here and thought that maybe this could be a fun thread. What first started your interest in warbirds or just flying in general, and what was your first experience with a warbird. Whether is it was a ride or just seeing it in person.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

My first job in the aviation field was a Summer job in Anchorage Alaska in 1966 as a mechanics helper while on vacation from A&P classes in Seattle. I worked for the PIPER dealer @ Merrill Field for a guy named Red Dodge. Red was a Captain for WESTERN AIRLINES flying ELECTRAS between Anc and Kodiak Is. In addition to the FBO he had his own air force. He owned a PINK P-51 used by USFS as a fire spotter, a couple B-25J's, a G-44 WIDGEON, a T-28A that I never saw fly, and a DC-3.

As a snot nosed 17 year old I got my P-51 ride and a B-25 ride, 40 years later, almost to the day I bought my Son his first ride in TONDELEO @ KPAE.

Now retired, I am honored to be around the collection that John Sessions has built up @ Historic Flight and I'm back around P-51's, B-25's and other significant aircraft, circumstance truly is circular in nature.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Hi Chris, I blame it on Dad, 374th Troop Carrier Group , PTO, Love ya Dad!

I have my parents to blame.

Dad has always been an airplane person and spent the mid-60's hanging around airports and working on ratings. I was born in '68 and the earliest toys I remember were a plastic Saturn V rocket, a small Matchbox-type F-105D, and a silver A-1H in VNAF markings, including the cheetah-ish print fuselage band. Any time a flying show came on tv, we watched it. We spent a countless number of weekends "going for drives" in central NJ; cheap entertainment I guess. We almost always ended up at the end of a runway somewhere to watch airplanes; the most frequent destination was McGuire AFB where we would watch the NJANG F-105B's launch and recover. Another memory was being put up on the wing of Billy Gibson's P-51 at the old Asbury Park Airport or frequently checking out an old, black, 2-blade T-28 that was tied down at the Monmouth County Airport. I was hooked early.

I also want to thank my Mom not only for being supportive and listening to me explain (count rivets) on a model I'd built, but for introducing me to the concept of libraries. I was still pretty young when I discovered Freeman's "Mighty Eighth" and Lawson's "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo". I soaked that stuff up and 100 other similar titles. The internet has replaced books to a certain degree, but I can still easily kill hours in a library, bouncing from aisle to aisle, but most often the aviation history section.

That was my start. --Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Well my dad was a WWII P-51 combat pilot, so there is where the interest in aviation came from. I finished A&P school in Atlanta, & decided I wanted to work on "Fling-Wings", so I hired on with PHI in Lafayette LA. Lafayette was where the old Cajun Wing of the CAF was based. Joined the CAF, next thing I know is I am the Wing Maint Officer, & the B-23, N62G, Crew Chief. It was back then that I was exposed to the like's of Merle Gustafson, & a lot of the old CAF Harlingen types, working on Merle's Corsair, our Wing SNJ-4 N224X, & whatever needed working on depending where we were & what we were doing. I eventually wound up back here in Atlanta, where I was one of the founding members of the Dixie Wing CAF, & their 1st Maint Officer. I got kinda burned out on that, so I started helping Steve Collins with his P-51, N51YS, "Old Boy", & his other aircraft at the time which were a T-6, & Stearmans.
I have not been active with Warbirds in several years, but do occasionally come out of Warbird Maint Retirement when we have something special going on here at KPDK.
I don't turn a wrench for a living anymore, I drive a computer as an Inspector, & keep our wrench turners busy with AD notes, Inspections, & other fine FAR required stuff.
One of the things I love about WIX is, that even though I am not physically active with Warbirds anymore, I can still stay in touch with what going on, & every once in a while contribute something from my experience.
You Guys & Gals be safe now.
Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

Very cool guys. I will add my little story. I started liking airplanes as a kid growing up in Pittsburgh near the airport. Or house was on final for the airport. I started making airplanes with legos and then on to models and then when I was 13 my dad saw in the paper that the Memphis Belle from the movie was coming to the airport. They took me out to see the plane with my grandfather. That day I met two of my best friends. Rob who posts as warbird aid and is my partner in spearheading the B-17 restoration at Grissom, and Clair. The next weekend I joined Air Heritage and volunteered there until I was getting ready to graduate from high school. I got a job working line service and worked there all through college. After college got a job working ramp control at PIT. Was laid off after 9/11 and then was hired at Stat MedEvac. It was at this time that I started to volunteer at the NMUSAF. I worked at Stat for the next 5 years eveuntually becoming the Manager of Flight Operations. I worked there all the way until last year when I was hired in the control tower. I love all forms of aviation, but warbirds will always have a special place in my heart.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

I started my passion by volunteering at the Canadian Museum of Flight at age 10. I would spend my summers close to their old home-site at Crescent Beach, BC. I quickly got bored of the beach and already knew I liked airplanes, so it was natural for me to want to spend time at the museum.

I began volunteering by gluing updated admission price lists into our pamphlets. I did it happily because it was great to just be in the presence of people who shared the passion for warbirds.

My following summers were spent volunteering at the CMF again, but I evolved into helping price gift shop merchandise. I was starting to get jealous of the guys I'd see out the window working on the Handley Page Hampden. One lunch break I walked out there and asked if I could help them. I then spend the rest of the summer helping cut sheet metal, holding bucking bars, and doing whatever else they needed. I really enjoyed listening to their stories when we were all on lunch break.

Peace,

David M

I'll have to put some of the blame on my Father, too. He has always been into model airplanes, mostly U-control scale models. As a kid, I read "Flying Fortress" by E. Jablonski, and I've been a B17 enthusiast ever since. I got my A&P in Atlanta and went to work for Delta keeping their jets in the air. In 2000 I took my first warbird ride on Aluminum Overcast, which was one of the highlights in my life up to that point. Around Thanksgiving, 2008, I discovered that the Liberty Belle was parked up at an airport near me, with some fairly involved winter maintenance taking place. I contacted the fine folks at the Liberty Foundation and volunteered my services. I ended up making several new friends, including another fellow at the airport who has a T6 and a Stearman. He and I did a ton of rewiring on the B17 and I was offered several chances to ride on her. I've since gotten involved helping him with maintenance work on the Stearman and T6, I've done more on the B17, I've gotten some right seat time on the B17, and now I'm deep into a project converting a P40 into a two seater. I can't wait until I can retire from my "real" job and spend as much time as I want on the fun stuff!!

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Rod Schneider
Ball Ground, Ga

My dad took me to Geneseo every year (starting mid eighties)! Nothing like a million B-17's and other noteable warbirds all in one spot!

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Wish I had a plane to put here... anyone got any leads on a (prewar) J3 Cub?

1952 Ford F6 Howe Fire Truck
1951 Ford F5
1949 Ford F6 Dump Truck
1978 Ford Mustang II
1970 Chevrolet Chevelle
1949 Ford 8N; 1948, 1949 & 1950 Baird Beavers

DuPage County Airshow, seeing Bob Hoover & Frank Sanders doing acro and Rudy Frasca's collection. In high school I started riding my bike to Chicagoland Airport and the Victory Air Musem. Then off to Northrop University's A&P School and later to engineering school.

Built a few models along the way, but those were only representations of the real thing and not my passion.

Some of my earliest memories ever were of building plastic kits, especially aircraft, with my dad. I sometimes wonder if it wasn't a kind of therapy for him, though nobody (I think) ever thought of therapy back then in the '50's for the vets of World War 2. Then built kits on my own through high school. I can look at a Monogram kit today when I go into a hobby shop for old times' sake and remember the weather, the candy bar I was eating, etc. when I built it. And I, too, bought Flying Fortress by Jablonski. It was the first book I ever bought and I still have it. For all the literature I have read since buying it, few passages have moved me as much as the beginning story of the young German girl on her bicycle who pulls over to the curb and looks up...

I nearly dropped out of high school when a recruiter from the Air Force Academy who came by told me that I was too tall to fly in any military cockpit. I'm six eight and was back then, too. Then followed much longer than a decade of feeling incredibly cursed and frustrated because I couldn't live my (daytime) passion of wanting to fly in the military. But during that time I took tons of pics of aircraft and got good enough so that when I was able to fly with the air guard in a 135, they liked my shots enough to offer me a "skills for thrills" trade off that got me a number of other flights. Huge Hallelujah moment that took me out of my self pity wallowing forever.

From that came balloon flights photographing for the Make A Wish Foundation fundraisers they used to have out here and a number of warbird flights when I shot for air show promoters and a variety of hops that came out of just being in the right place (usually an airport-go figure- ) at the right time.

I love warbirds and I feel the attachment at a deeper level than I feel for most things and often times I wonder why that is so.

I blame it on the previous two generations. Grandfather flew C-47s and B-24s over the hump, was in B-24 school with James Stewart (the actor) and his brother was a B-29 Navigator (killed over Japan) and my dad took me to airshows as a kid while he was in a F-4 Phantom unit in Europe. Nothing like being 5 years old watching F-4s and A-10 come onto the range. Then in my mid teens living in Colorado, I went to drive to a girl friends house. The car broke down on the highway, and as I had the hood opened with a wrench in my hand, I felt the ground shake but couldn't see the source. Then I heard a noise and it was becoming louder. Then I saw a dark object to my left, and when I looked up, it was Diamond Lil with the gear and flaps extended coming over my head by about 50 feet. Thought it was the coolest thing. Went to the airport that I saw it land at, there was FiFi and Diamond Lil. Never did make it, nor call, my girl friends house to take her to the movies.

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"According to the map, we've only gone 4 inches."

Opened my yap to someone at an airshow about 25 years ago & within a week I was wiping oil off warbirds.. It's been downhill ever since

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

There were a couple things. First, I grew up near Moffett field, so I saw the military birds fly over all the time. Then, one of the few positive things I credit my ex with....I met him and he took me to my first airshow. I thought that was pretty cool. A couple months later, the Red Baron Stearman Squadron was flying at Reid Hillview. I cut classes and by the end of the day, managed to get myself a flight with them! After that, I was hooked. Since then....I've gotten my license, learned to fly a T6 and I'm restoring a Navion.
When I got married a few years ago (at Planes of Fame), I was telling my dad about the different planes. His reaction stunned me because we never discussed things aviation related at home. After pointing out the 3rd or 4th plane, he looked at me and said...'I know what all these are. I worked on them in school.' I almost fell off my shoes! So...maybe it was always in my blood

"He owned a PINK P-51 used by USFS as a fire spotter, a couple B-25J's, a G-44 WIDGEON, a T-28A that I never saw fly, and a DC-3."

A PINK P-51, any more information on this bird, such as N number. Sure would love to see picture of a Pink P-51.