Warbird Information Exchange

I was near the Jefferson Memorial with a scanner; heard the pilot say "on fire, landing DCA". From that call to being on deck was maybe 30-45 seconds... perfect timing for having trouble like that. As he flew past the engine sounded rough, but we saw no smoke. Hate to see that happen, but looks like all worked out okay.

56 Warbirds paraded over the Capital with national TV coverage and a large audience on the ground? I'd call it a resounding success. Well done to all involved. Glad to hear the Avenger made it down safely. .

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My hunch about setting up shop on the Roosevelt Bridge proved to be spot on. The planes passed right overhead. I didn't get the shot I thought was going to get with the planes banking left framed by the monuments, but it was still mighty cool. There were maybe about a dozen spectators on the bridge, mostly because it's not nearly as accessible as the other bridges.

Major tip of the hat to the four plane formation of P-51s who came in much lower than any of the other planes. That was the most fantastic thrill of the flyover.

I was focusing more on the CAF's TBM through my viewfinder for obvious reasons, when I saw the Fighter Factory's TBM make a right handed break. I figured he had some kind of mechanical gremlin and wanted to get it back on the ground for safety reasons.

I ended up taking 576 pictures this morning. I'm sure there's going to be at least one good one in the bunch.

The other big takeaway I got was that riding around D.C. on a bicycle is really the best way to get around. I can definitely think of worse ways to spend a Friday.

Seen several minutes of coverage on Fox News, T-6 formation, Harpoon, ect.

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old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

Watched the bombers takeoff out of Manassas (Wow!) then went home to watch the live webcast.

Not great camera work or sound, there. Narration pretty poor, also.

Supposed to be a full video available later. Hope they polish it up a lot.

A statement from MAM regarding the Avenger was posted on Facebook. Glad it was nothing too serious.

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C-span had good coverage, first time I ever watch that channel. Is there a list of the planes and pilots?

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Watched it on CSPAN myself. Caught a glimpse of WIXer Lynn Ritger in his reenactor gear mingling with vets at the Memorial. He must have bee roasting in that leather jacket and Mae West!

SN

I enjoyed the CSPAN coverage as well. While I did not watch the whole event in it's entirety I thought the narration on what I did watch was pretty well handled. I have certainly heard much worse coming from so called "professional" announcers at some airshows I've attended. Like many others I was a bit shocked and not a little bit concerned when the TBM broke formation so suddenly but am glad to hear all is well. I'm guessing that a plan was in place for just such emergencies and it sounds like everything was handled per the plan. Great job to all involved and I truly hope the veterans on the ground enjoyed the event as well as any limelight they may have been getting. God bless 'em all!

It was probably around 85 degrees at the time of the flyover, but there was a nice breeze coming up the river.

One of the encouraging sights I saw was the number of young people watching. You have to figure that more than a couple of these kids are now thinking "I want to do that!"

Overall, I was impressed with the size of the crowd. Being able to move about on bicycle, we saw people gathered at the Iwo Jima Memorial, along the banks of the river, on everything from windsurfer boards to yachts in the Potomac, on the rooftops of various buildings, and at the memorials at the Mall.

I hope that this kind of recognition will end up being a watershed moment for the Warbird Movement. Even people who previously had little interest in Warbirds were turning out for this.

Local DC TV station has video of the landing of the Fighter Factory Avenger at Reagan National. You can clearly hear the engine backfiring. Video at the bottom of the page:
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2015/05/wo ... 11380.html

It was a hydraulic fluid leak. The backfiring that you're hearing is the pilot leaning out the mixture as the engine was probably just at or above idle.

Flight Ops out of Culpeper, VA today. First 20m are takeoffs, last 10m landings:
https://youtu.be/fEdZafAHG2Q

The Flyover shot from the Mall near the Washington Monument:
https://youtu.be/-CYX6B4VipU

The C-SPAN broadcast (transcript included), not HD unfortunately:
http://www.c-span.org/video/?325808-1/w ... ry-flyover

C-SPAN Re-broadcast:
May 10, 2015 | 9:13am EDT | C-SPAN 3
May 10, 2015 | 3:13pm EDT | C-SPAN 3
May 10, 2015 | 9:35pm EDT | C-SPAN 3
May 11, 2015 | 1:15am EDT | C-SPAN 3

I watched some of it on my lunch hour... from Dupont Circle they wer just specks between buildings but still a great event. The B-25s were clearly audible 1.5 miles away...

At 5:30 +, CST, NBC & CBS both got it right about the Avenger. ABC High-Lighted the Corsair pulling up with smoke on, and said this airplane had to do so because of an emergency ! !!

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WWI & WWII Warbird Fan.