FM-2 Wildcats!

[SaxMan]

Congratulations Conrad! Great job that you and your crew did on the FM-2. You won the Reserve Grand Champion-World War II Fighter award given by the EAA, for the wonderful restoration of your FM-2, N774FM. Well deserved and the competition was very tough. Now, you have a baseline from which to proceed with future endeavors. As they say, 'Ya did good! :

+1

Great job, guys!

[LadyO2Pilot]

Not only did he win Reserve Grand Champion, he also won the Golden Wrench award. CONGRATS Conrad

[bluesky23]

You are very correct! Sorry for the omission.

[marine air]

You guys did exceptional. Reserve Grand Champion is , well one has to go to Oshkosh to see how the warbird restorations are "off the scale" compared to everywhere else in the world. There's always bitter dispute between the top two or three contenders. The GOld Wrench Award is also exceptional, guys. There are a lot of aircraft mechanics, heck, a lot of warbird mechanics out there. Very few people have brought home either of those two awards.
Way to go guys!

[Taigh Ramey]

Your Wildcat looked wonderful. Well done for sure. Flat paint rocks!

How about signing up for the National Aviation Heritage Invitational program at Reno during the Air Races. There is still time to sign up and make it in. The Harpoon is going (but is not eligible for judging) so it would be great to have your FM-2 tucked under our wing if you would like. I promise not to leak too much oil on you!

Here is the link:

http://www.heritagetrophy.com/

COME TO RENO!

[Texas Trapshooter]

I am new to this forum, so forgive me if I am doing something wrong. I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading ALL of the posts about Conrad's restoration of the FM-2 Wildcat (and what an unbelievable job it was), and congratulate him on earning Reserved Champion at Oshkosh. I loved looking at all of th epictures and appreciate him taking the time to explain the process of getting to where he is now with his plane.

I was actually lucky enough to see him and the Wildcat last weekend at a small Fly-In over in Louise, Texas and documented a lot of the flying as well. I created a Facebook album of pictures I took at the fly-in, and I am going to attach a link to that album. If that isn't something I should be doing, then I apologize for that. I am not selling or promoting myself, just a avaiation fan, who loves old planes, and would drive MILES just to hear a beautiful radial engine fire up (especially one outfitted with an original shotgun starter, and me being a serious shotgun shooter, makes it even more special !!! LOL). The sight of this 70 year old plane, firing up, taxing down a small grass strip and taking off and doing some fast passes low across the field just made my day. I spoke with Conrad for only a few minutes, but he seemed liked such a nice guy, I hated to bother him by discussing his plane more. I was happy to just enjoy looking at the finished product !

Here's the link to the album I created at the fly-in. If it doesn't work, my pictures are NOT "private" and can be found on my Facebook page (look for "Mike Hessong", my current cover page is a couple of beautiful Stearmans at sunrise along the grass airstrip).

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 0b636f2c77

Hope y'all enjoy some of the pictures. Mike Hessong (Victoria, TX)

[John Kerr]

Thanks for posting a bunch of nice photos. Keep up the good work.

[Obergrafeter]

Welcome to the madness!!! If you ever travel up this way to see Conrad in Uvalde, stop by and see us in Hondo with our C-47 the "Spirit of Hondo"............twice the beautiful sound!
Wayne

[Texas Trapshooter]

Thanks John, I sure enjoy taking pictures of classic airplanes; and Wayne, I might just take you up on the offer and swing by your place if I get up in your "neck of the woods". I'm going to have to put the Hondo Airshow on my "To Do" list for sure !

Mike* (MH*)

[Pat Carry]

I am new to this forum, so forgive me if I am doing something wrong. I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading ALL of the posts about Conrad's restoration of the FM-2 Wildcat (and what an unbelievable job it was), and congratulate him on earning Reserved Champion at Oshkosh. I loved looking at all of th epictures and appreciate him taking the time to explain the process of getting to where he is now with his plane.

I was actually lucky enough to see him and the Wildcat last weekend at a small Fly-In over in Louise, Texas and documented a lot of the flying as well. I created a Facebook album of pictures I took at the fly-in, and I am going to attach a link to that album. If that isn't something I should be doing, then I apologize for that. I am not selling or promoting myself, just a avaiation fan, who loves old planes, and would drive MILES just to hear a beautiful radial engine fire up (especially one outfitted with an original shotgun starter, and me being a serious shotgun shooter, makes it even more special !!! LOL). The sight of this 70 year old plane, firing up, taxing down a small grass strip and taking off and doing some fast passes low across the field just made my day. I spoke with Conrad for only a few minutes, but he seemed liked such a nice guy, I hated to bother him by discussing his plane more. I was happy to just enjoy looking at the finished product !

Here's the link to the album I created at the fly-in. If it doesn't work, my pictures are NOT "private" and can be found on my Facebook page (look for "Mike Hessong", my current cover page is a couple of beautiful Stearmans at sunrise along the grass airstrip).

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 0b636f2c77

Hope y'all enjoy some of the pictures. Mike Hessong (Victoria, TX)

Welcome to the WIX! As long as you are talking warbirds you are doing nothing wrong!

[DH82EH]

Hey Trapshooter;

Keep shootin' (and postin') pics like that and you'll fast track your way to being a favourite here on WIX.

Thanks for posting and welcome

Andy Scott

[Texas Trapshooter]

Thanks Andy and Pat,

I love taking pictures of beautiful, classic airplanes; but if you saw my Facebook page, you would also see I love taking pictures of a whole LOT of different things.

The Fly-In at Robbie Vajdos' "Flying V Ranch" in Louise, Texas, is such a great little event (really it's getting pretty big, but still has that small-town "feel" to it) and last year was the first time I went to it and created an album from that event as well. I hope y'all don't mind if I add a "link" for last year's "23rd Annual Under-the-Wire Fly-In". Lots of planes. This year's event was a little smaller due to having to postpone it a week due to weather, but last year's event had over 100 planes with 6 or 7 Stearman's, Conrad Huffstutler's Waco and a few AT-6's and Mike Burke's "replica" Zero (part of the Tora, Tora, Tora group).

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... f8b8484450

Everyone have a great evening,
Mike Hessong* (MH*) Victoria, TX

[Taylor Stevenson]

I'll back up Mike. Robbie's fly in was great! It was very neat seeing Conrad demo the shotgun start, plus it was my first time bringing the T-6 in on turf. Great weekend and great photos, Mike!

[Bear]

New listing on Courtesy's site.

http://www.courtesyaircraft.com/Current%20Inventory/N774FM%20General%20Motors%20FM-2%20Wildcat.htm

[Warbird Kid]

This is one I'd expect to see go to Paul Allen's FHC.