A great air show

[Courier Sportster]

Is black and gold Mustang #4 the one that just sold recently? $851K. Looks to be. It also appears to have tinted windows.... These are the greatest bunch of photos! Thanks.

[Neal Nurmi]

Thanks, and no -- very different Mustang.

The Miami Race was a Whittington affair. They came up with a very large purse, for an Unlimited only race. The purse included what amounted to sufficient "appearance money" for the bottom of the field to bring out lots of stock warbirds. This, along with warm weather and green grass in the middle of winter made for a remarkable field of racers from all over the East coast, as well as the usual racing suspects from the West. Miami was Howard Pardue's very first venture into the world of Air Racing:

[Neal Nurmi]

Different canopy styles.

[Lon Moer]

I think I recall the Air Classics write-up on the 1979 Florida race. It did seem like an extraordinary gathering. Who was the driving force there? Whittingtons?

Some of those '70s and early '80s shows were very cool, though I wouldn't trade them for the best shows of today.

August

Yes, the whole thing was put on by the Whittington Bros., as they were in a position where they needed to "loose" several million dollars of unaccounted for income.

[Neal Nurmi]

[b747cf]

Here is the Black and Gold Mustang in the Hanger at Opa locka.




And Here it is after it was Painted in Military Colors Still at Opa locka.





Mark Fidler

[bdk]

Advance Machine was owned by Bob Pond. He was the grandson of the founder.

http://www.advance-us.com/aboutus/history.aspx

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry ... ertxt=800H

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/f8fregis ... 21752.html

Thanks Neal I just wish my pictures came out as well as yours did.

Heres the Bearcat that was their.



I still have the Original Program from the air show.

Mark Fidler

[Neal Nurmi]

Mustangs on green grass -- in the middle of winter no less -- heaven for a West Coast airplane photographer.

[Neal Nurmi]

I remember some spectacular Bob Love aerobatic shows with this airplane, before it moved on to Mr. P.

[Dave Homewood]

What a superb thread, thanks for posting these great photos, chaps.

[Neal Nurmi]

You're very welcome, Dave. It's been an educational experience for me to look at and scan stuff I was doing so long ago. I'm glad others are finding it worthwhile.

[C VEICH]

You're very welcome, Dave. It's been an educational experience for me to look at and scan stuff I was doing so long ago. I'm glad others are finding it worthwhile.

I too want to thank you for the pics Neal. For my money you can never post too much of this stuff and threads like these are one of the primary reasons I "hang out" at WIX. Good stuff!

[Neal Nurmi]

You're welcome Chad. I never really know how this stuff will be received here. It's pretty different from most of what we see on WIX. My threads are also different because they tend to be long and drawn out. My scanning is very much a part time deal -- I also do photography (non-aviation) for a National Park and that really is the priority at this point in my life. So I just post stuff here on WIX as it gets done, which sometimes means long drawn out threads like this one.

Having said all that, I am enjoying this too...

[C VEICH]

Long drawn out threads are the best kind Neal!

PS - I'm a HUGE fan of the RB-51. Just sayin'...

[Neal Nurmi]

Here ya go -- two of the dominant racers of the period.

Sorry about the crappy quality of this one. This was hard to do at ASA 25, without a winder or autofocus. I would just make an educated guess at the focus point, and then get off one shot. Sometimes I could advance the film and try for one shot going away but that tended to be pretty futile. Then just wait for the next plane to come by...