Warbird Information Exchange

Hello all,

I'm sure most of you appreciate and admire the F-14 Tomcat... and HATE it when any military plane gets scrapped, especially one that's a combat veteran. The OV-10 Bronco Museum and the Forward Air Controllers Museum in Ft. Worth, TX (both are organizations that I have been deeply involved with from the beginning and do websites for) are trying hard to save the longest-serving F-14 from the smelter. Our museum is the last chance to save F-14D "Tomcatter-111" (aka "Christine", BuNo 159600) as several other museums were approached and either didn't want her or didn't have the resources to do it. If our group doesn't get her, she's going to be destroyed in short order (i.e., "scrapped in place") which would be a darn shame to say the least.

Please pass the word along to anyone else you know who may be interested in helping... we only have until November to raise the money to save her, after that it will be too late. Time is SHORT!

Full details on the aircraft and how to help are posted on our website:

http://www.OV-10Bronco.net/

(And to answer our number one inquiry recently... yes, you can donate via PayPal!)

Thanks,
Mike

I put the notice on Hyperscale, let's hope for the best... I'll look for other places to put it as well, Aircraft Resource Center would likely be a good bet as well.

Good luck!

Lynn (another Tomcat fan)

_________________
Wisdom, courtesy of shrike: "In aviation, as well as marriage, it's often just as important to be seen to be doing something as is to do it properly in the first place."

Quick question where is 159600 located at the moment? Is she still at NAS Oceana? If so, beyond making a donation, I can probalbly swing it to come down and help with the loading. I have base access and my In-Laws live in Norfolk so I'm willing to volunteer to help take her apart and load her up. Depending on you time tables of course.

Considering that November is upon us have you considered requesting an extension for the Navy?

Best of Luck

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

Funny this should happen. When I talked to the NHC about getting a plane for display at Wendover they told me the list of museums ready to take an F-14 was miles long so stop bothering them about getting a plane for the time being.

I wonder why it is that all of a sudden they have to scrap planes - when I assume the list is still miles long.

Tom P.

I believe that she is at Oceana. If you are willing to help, please shoot an email to Boomer (Jim Bloomberg) at the address poasted in the article on the OV-10 website. Any and all help is VERY much appreciated. Thanks too to all those who have helped to spread the word about this... you never know when you'll get in touch with someone who is in a position to really help, either financially, with some elbow grease, or who perhaps has contacts with folks who can help. Nobody can be in touch with every group that may be interested in helping, but spreading the word around within your personal sphere of interests and influence is itself a very important way in which to contribute to the success of this effort. Thank you all!

Somthing I am currious about on a related subject .. is what has become of the few Mig Killing cat's ?

RJ

Oh yes, one more comment... the original quote for the acquisition was close to $50,000. It was only after we (Boomer) dug in and really started examining all the fine print that we determined that all but about $10-$15K of that was fees and costs associated with using third-party contractors, which would go bye-bye if we did those tasks ourselves. I can't speak for the Navy but it's entirely possible that a lot of museums either didn't look beyond the initial price estimates, or they decided that they were unable to provide that level of labor. There may also be a factor based on the type of applicants... there is definitely a procedure in place with these kinds of things, so any Joe off the street with a lot of money and a T-hangar can't just walk up, claim to be a museum, and expect to have an F-14 on his ramp shortly thereafter. I suspect that they've had a whole lot of that kind of thing lately, and with the deeply concerning ongoing actions of Iran (which still has an F-14 fleet) I'm sure the Navy faces additional pressure to be extra careful to mind their P's and Q's with the disposal of these airframes. I'm all for any legitimate entity being able to have access to retired equipment for educational, historical, and display purposes, but I can also understand the political pressure to keep things that even seem like weapons (anything from airframes to jeeps to empty shell casings) away from folks who have less-than-honorable motives. I even have seen the effects of the "de-mil mentality" inside military-owned museums... the USAF museum at Warner Robins GA has an example of a mini-gun on an aircraft that has the barrels "de-milled" by welding the business ends closed in such a way that it looked like a 6-year-old got loose with a plasma torch... it was jaw-droppingly ridiculous, to say the least, but there it was.

That "CYA at all costs" mentality is what these folks have to deal with, which probably removes a bunch of applicants from the equation right from the start. If they've never heard of a requester before and can't easily find out all the necessary info, they likely just move onto the next one... I doubt it's that they assume that some small-town city council wanting a display for their local park is up to no good, but when there's a museum on the list that they've worked with and has already gone through the required steps and demonstrated that they are capable of properly displaying items, well, I think they probably would rather offer things to the known entities first.

The process of gaining GSA approval, non-profit status, establishing a relationship with the service's museums, etc. is largely just the way in which the government covers their butts. It's not the easiest process in the world, but it can be done if you want it enough to do what it takes, and have the patience to keep going. The good news is that anyone with an interest is very welcome and invited to join and be part of our group, and most other similar groups as well. The scarcest resource in aviation preservation isn't money or airframes, it's warm bodies willing to actually show up and do something!

Thanks again, I'll stop blabbing now

-Mike

Mike,

Best of luck with this project - I wish all the funding and volunteer labor you need! I have not been to your museum in my few visits to the area but a Cat would be an awesome addition to anyone's display - especially this one.

Our museum is a Navy approved facility, we have two 10,000 sq ft hangars (vintage WWII) originally used for B-24 and B-17 squadrons. Both are well managed, one is used for current transient A/C and the other is waiting for a new occupant! So, that is the reason for my complaint - I wonder how far down the list they really go before they decided that if you can't save the Cat it is scrapped.

Tom P.
Historic Wendover Airfield

Mike

In an effort to borrow more time. Perhaps you could contact "The Fighter Factory" in Suffolk and see if they would let you use some of there space while your group finished accumulating the funds and coordinating the transportation. 159600 could simply be towed in the night time hours through backroads to their facility. I'm sure they might even have tug up to the task. That is if the Navy will allow it. They may just want to get 159600 off their ramp at Oceana. Just trying to think outside the box.

Cheers

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

I can't imagine why the government won't just donate these airframes to legitimate museums and educational facilities.

It seems they don't have a problem coughing up tax dollars for anything else. Perhaps this is considered TOO worthwhile for federal funding??

I agree, it seems like the arms services would want their aircraft on display--for recruiting if anything else!

Yeah, I always thought it shouldn't be so difficult, but such is dealing with the government. I'll certainly bring up these ideas to our guys... thanks for the suggestions!

Mike

If I might ask. Where does your group stand as far as funds are considered and also with transportation arrangements?

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

I'm not sure, as I'm not directly involved in tracking the funds. I do know that the PayPal donations totalled several hundred dollars several days ago, and will hopefully continue to climb. I haven't a clue about other types of donations, though, but I know we've had quite a few of those too. It's always hard to tell what we'll get via snail-mail towards the end of these campaigns. In the past, we raised $17K for the purchase of the OV-10 engineering mockup, so I certainly believe this is possible... though the timeframe is rather compressed.

As for transport, we have a trucking firm we've worked with that has experience with moving aircraft, and I think the plan was to use them again... if anyone else has other ideas, though, I know that we would be interested to hear it. Volunteers are always needed on both sides of the journey.

Email our project manager, Boomer (address in the Bronco site article), he'll be able to tell you more updated info on all this than I can...

http://www.OV-10Bronco.net/

Just out of curiosity. has 159600 been Demil'd already?

Wouldn't it be easier to get a volunteer Tomcat pilot to ferry the F-14 to Ft. Worth? Not trying to be simplistic I'm sure there are reasons why it can't be flown. Just merely curious.

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis