Warbird Information Exchange

Location, Location, Location

_________________
Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

Critics...HA!

_________________
Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

Lots of work was done to try and bring the CAF permanently to Denton when the fist noises were being made about getting out of Harlengen, but a bunch of the pinhead dummy academics that were running Denton at the time, put up so many obsticals, roadblocks and idiotic requirements that everyone gave up trying. Denton is finally getting out of the clutches of academics in city management and getting some common sense people in office and within departmental management. One of the illustrious mayor's big regional transportation project was bike trails for office commuters from Denton to downtown Dallas... need I say more?

Wow! Thanks for bringing this thread back from the dead! I was at this airshow at a formative age (and later worked several of the Denton airshows) and it was one of the greatest. So many airplanes I lost count of how many rolls of 110 I shot!

@CV: Interesting dicsusion vis-a-vis the CAF and Denton. I am connected to the airport's side of that story, and it was my very strong impression that the CAF essentially wanted a ton of land, development and fuel for next to nothing and was unwilling to make any concessions to the city's negotiating points. As I recall, the airport board had a vision of the future and was trying to work the city in the CAFs direction (and vice versa), but the folks down at city hall (who have often clashed with those on the airport board) didn't share the same vision and the CAF's unwillingness to budge doomed the project. I think it was probably a great loss to all parties (CAF, airport board, city hall), as having the CAF HQ in the DFW area could have meant literally millions of visitors and $ to the area. How much interest could have been generated? Volunteers gathered? I think it would've been much better than Midland, not because Midland isn't great, just because of the proximity to larger amounts of people and money. Truly a shame. Yet here were are pushing 30 years later and the crown jewels of the fleet are in the DFW area. How 'bout that?

CAF deal aside, as for the "academic pinheads" running the show in Denton, I'd venture to say that Denton has received a lot more benefits than detriments from them. I for one, wish we'd had a few down here in Big D, given the current shennanigans, but that is a topic for another thread ( and most likely another board!)

Once again, fantastic pics!

Stang: We probably crossed paths numerous times at the airport. I used to be with Fox51 Ltd. and occasionally did a few things for Maverick and it's prior companies. I started to hang out there way back in 1980 and spent lots of time on the field. By mid 1992 I was splitting my time between Denton and Aero Valley when I wasn't at my normal job. Dan Linn and Matt Wright and several others were the people that I hung out with and played with lots of airplanes. Doc Almands's little museum moved from the north end down to the south end a bit after I quit going up there. Frank had moved the last of his operation out to the ranch by that time.

Lots of good memories and times @DTO and some bad ones too. I still laugh about getting trapped in the Wildcat that Jackie Lee was flying at one of the shows. It took Howard Pardue, Nelson, Fast Eddie and about four other guys to haul me out of it like a big fish.

One of these days we will have to get together and look at your pics and see what and who I can identify.

CV: I'm sure you're right, I'll bet we did cross paths, considering there were only about six buildings out there at that time and now there are 60+, it would have been hard not to run into each other. I was a young fellow at the time, but I remember well going to Fox51 to do a walk around with Frank of Vern Peterson's 51. Later I seem to recall Cavanaugh's B-25 getting some engine work done just across the way. They had an original NOS nose wheel which (evidently) no else had at the time. They were, rightly, real proud of it. I got my license flying out of there in the 95-96 time frame, and my brother did the same thing a couple years later. One of my fondest memories of training is being in the pattern behind what I recall was Doc's Lockheed 10(?) in which Chamberlain had flown back from the great Munich appeasement. Seems like I was usually out there after work and/or school, trying to get touch in gos in when most everyone else had gone home (or when no one had yet arrived). You're inspiring me to see if I can track down my old photos. No telling where those things are now!

I also remember the '85 sho when the Blues and Fifi were there. I remember a story of the Blue's 7 plane doing some interesting manouvers checking out the field, but that is a story which should be told over a beer and not the interwebz!

Frank had some pretty good birthday blow-outs at Fox-51 also.

" Some of the finest Men's restrooms in the world have Fox-51 Stickers in them"
-Strickler

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Expert:
Ex: Former.
Spurt: A drip under pressure.

Always a good bash at Frank's...As to Fox51 stickers....at least one Aeroflot crew working out of Havana had some deep explaning to someone when they flew their bird from Mexico City to Moscow.....Fox51 stickers in all sorts of closets, access panels and other out of the way places....

Stangstung - I posted some pics from the 85 event back when I originally posted these, you might want to take a look. Heck of a show, only time I saw the Blues use their 'chutes on landing - and yes, they did have a wild time on Friday when some doofus showed up to try and land in the middle of their practice show. Skyhawks all over the sky! I remember watcing Fifi landing on Friday afternoon, and wondering if the brakes were going to catch on fire.

67- Thanks! I'll have a search for those.

Also, hadn't heard about the guy trying to land during practice...yet more stories reveal themselves after so many years!

Found those '85 pics. Nice!

I can thank the Denton Air Show's of the '80's for getting me into warbirds, I was just a kid in 1981 or 82 when my dad took me. Seemed like we drove all day to get from south Arlington to Denton. All it took was seeing Chuckie, Big Ol' Brew (anyone remember Joe Brown?), and all the other warbirds and I was hooked! Been looking to the sky everytime I hear an airplane since.

I still have my Ghost Squadron magazine that I got at the show. I'm sure I pestered my dad to death to get one for me. It has a lot of great pictures of warbirds and people from back in the day (1976), some are still with us, but too many are not......people and airplanes.

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Bill Gorin
Vintage Flying Museum
http://www.vintageflyingmuseum.org
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