West Houston Airport Open House - Pictures

[67N20]

Stopped by yesterday on the way to A&M to visit my daughter. Lots of nice planes and a few I've never seen before. Did a tour through Texas Raiders and met some of the crew guys. It was my second B17 to get to crawl crawl through last week as I went through "909"on Monday @ EFD.

[Nathan]

Can't say I remember seeing the Lockheed before. Any info on that? Is it the ex-Lady Lodestar C-60? Anyhoo...I love the scheme! Dig the yaks, C-45 and CAP flier.

[Ztex]

Nice open house!

What's that funny yellow airplane with the #41 on the side?

( Jeff)

[Obergrafeter]

Just another STEARMAN.

[RV8er]

Can't say I remember seeing the Lockheed before. Any info on that? Is it the ex-Lady Lodestar C-60?

Nope, not Lady Lodestar, it's C-60A N60JT, "Goodtime Gal", s/n 18-2478, 42-56005. This ship doesn't appear to have been out much, not too many pics of it out there in interweb land.

From Joe Baugher's site,
42-55891/56084 Lockheed C-60A-5-LO Lodestar
Directly ordered by USAAF.
56005 (c/n 18-2478) to US Steel Corp as N9980F

I've found two pics of it as N9980F in civilian paint schemes plus a couple as N60JT in it's Army paint. Apparently it was in Arlington, WA for a while, then to N Texas (Denton?), then bought by the West Houston Squadron in 2002. Shortly after coming to Houston corrosion was found in the right wing, so it hasn't flown since. Over the last year though, much progress has been made to bring it back to life; wing off for repairs and back on again, 1 new cylinder left engine, new com radio, intercom and transponder, gear swings are done, several engine runs, etc. Should be getting close to flying again, maybe another month or two...

For the open house I was on C-60 cockpit guard duty, keeping the kids from destroying things... we had a coupla guys on rotation since it was getting pretty hot and schwetty standing in the radio operators position behind the 'pit with no ventilation. Good thing there was some cloud cover or it would have been really nasty hot in there. These are great pics of the open house, but one thing is missing; my RV-8 didn't make the cut! I had it parked right by the L-29... but it's wearing civvy paint, not that interesting really.

[JohnB]

RV8er and the C-60 crew...

When I saw that my first thought was "thank God for the guys who own, operate and maintain that"".
Spending time, money and effort on a relatively unknown and under appreciated (i.e. not a "sexy" fighter or "cheap" trainer) plane makes you heros in my book.

Well done, and keep her flying!

[planenutti]

N60Jt is more of a stock C-60 then Lady Lodestar (N30N). I know that after the guys in Houston bought 60JT they had some issues that needed to be resolved but have heard little about her since then, Is Goodtime Gal up and flying? Lady Lodestar is still down.

[SPANNERmkV]

The WHS C-60 is close to flying.
I have ridden slow taxi in it, I am not positive, but I think it has done a high speed taxi test.

Once they close out the rest of the "getting shorter everyday" Sqwuak list it is OFF THEY GO time!

[planenutti]

Spanner,
Wish them good luck, the CAF needs a Lodestar back in the air. Sure miss not having Lady Lodestar to haul us to shows.
Bob

[Holedigger]

Cool! Looks like it was a great open house. That field is only a few miles from my folks place, and once while visiting I saw several of those birds out flying overhead...one of these days I'll bet back by and get to visit.