Warbird Information Exchange

My dad was a Pan Am pilot and our close neighbors owned a flying school at Palo Alto Airport in CA.

Because of this, I was exposed to aviation at an early age and got rides in the following types: Cessna 140, 150, 172, 210, Skymaster (Anchorage1963) and Skylane,
Piper Tri Pacer, Commanche 400, Riley Twin Navion.

The best was when my dad took me out of school on May 25, 1955 and we flew to LAX and back from SFO in Clipper N88884, a DC-4.
Dad's log book states that this was an Admin. flight to carry company mail and there were no paying passengers.
When the captain went back for a smoke , the old man put me in the left hand seat and after a lot of coaxing,
I was making aileron turns out over the Pacific. My feet wouldn't reach the rudder pedals at 9 yrs. of age.

If you want to call it an aviation experience.....

Back in the 1960's, the aircraft from Harry Doan's place would fly over the house. We were maybe 1 mile away as thew crow fly's. You could hear them coming....especially the old helo's. That got us little kids dreaming. My dad had wood saw horses for carpenter work and such. Some were about 6 footers. One day us little kids took one of his saw horses and cut one end off leaving the two legs on the other end. We crudely nailed a 2x4 in the middle for a seat. I can't remember where or how but we affixed some plastic lawn mower wheels to the two front legs. We took a small piece of 2x4 and nailed it to front and that was our "prop". It was a cool thing but Pop wasn't too happy when he seen one of his good saw horses became our neighborhood fighter plane. I think he pulled our wings and grounded us.

In 1969 my dad took me to see the airshow at Pax River. I was 8 and the Blue Angels were there. I loved everything about it but what really made an impression was the Marine Corps OV-10 that flew. I'd never seen a plane climb and roll and turn like that and thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

In November, 2000 there was a Salute to Veterans event based at McGhee-Tyson airport here in Knoxville. I volunteered to be a gopher for the visiting aircraft/crew and to help with crowd control. It was really cold and not well-publicized and so I did a lot of sitting around. CAFMO brought out their Avenger and B-25 and the "Spirit of Carolina" A-26 was there too, along with the BAHF C-54 and crew. As I mentioned, things were kinda slow and there were a couple of media flights scheduled in the afternoon. It turned out that there was an extra seat available on the Invader and the pilot (George Lancaster) asked me if I wanted a ride. At least I think he said "ride." I was running to the plane with my head spinning before he finished the sentence. I sat in the mid-fuselage and buckled up for a loud and wild ride with big banking turns that reminded me of that Bronco.

After we landed and taxied in, I climbed out and then Tim Chopp told me they had room for me on the C-54 for a short hop over towards Sevierville. Two free rides in a day?

Oh, did I mention the P-47 that was sitting in an unlocked hangar at McGhee-Tyson that was "discovered" by one of the CAFMO guys? It later became "Wicked Wabbit" but at the time it was mostly unmarked.

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I had been to my local flying field for an airshow in the early 80s and then used to write letters to Museums and Airfields hoping for something in return, poster, stickers etc. The CFI from that airfield invited me along one Sunday morning and I had my first ever flight in a Cessna 150, I was 15. That led to the hangar rat role, painting runway markers, cutting the grass, refuelling etc etc and I haven't looked back since. Now up to 1919 flights.

First Warbird ride was in 1987 when flew in my first T-6. Now, 13 of them later and another 255 types experienced.

I remember being on the observation deck at Willow Run. A relative was flying to Springfield, MA on an American Airlines DC-3. Late 1940s. I have loved airplanes ever since. First flight was an American Airlines B-707 from Detroit to Chicago on the way to navy boot camp. February 1966.