My buddy called me to come see his new ride at his nearby hanger. Hurry Home Honey. A very well known storied P51. I asked if I could run her up but that was a no! lol While there I also got some shots of his Tucano. What a cool airplane.

You look like you belong in there Rick :biggthumpup: and it would be fun to do a run up balls to the wall


Mike

Interesting P63. Unfortunately it crashed in 1990 in France killing the pilot.

Some nice video on you tube of this awesome fighter
F7 F Tiger Cat powered with P&W R2800's

Model 1649 Lockheed Super Connie

What a beautiful aircraft -- we had em' up at DaNang in 66'

One of the first "big time" airliners.. Connie's are beautiful airplanes

My brother's latest project. P40

I recently went to Tucson to help my brother on one of his many projects, a B23 bomber converted to a transporter that was previously owned by Howard Hughes. It is being restored back to the way it was when he flew it. He was also doing restoration work on a TBM but we did not get to work on that during my visit.

Wow! Is this a hobby for your brother or what he does full-time? Very impressive

He owns a few companies, one being a large guest service co, Starplex Corp, crowd and alcohol management, uniformed security, parking and traffic, and safety training services company. Another company that makes electronic management systems for large warehouse and office buildings. His last is Custom Connections AZ that rewires WWII warbirds and fighters as well as modern civilian and military contracts for customer such as Valkyrie Aero where he retrofits aircraft and vehicles with the latest technologies, radio, armament, and navigation items. He has quality people that run the other two companies while the airplane/vehicle wiring and retrofitting is his main focus and takes up 90% of his time. When I get bored working on muscle cars I often times fly out to work with him for a week at a time. He has some really cool projects that he is currently working on. A TBM, P40, B23 just to name a few that I saw when I was there.

The last 3 photos are an A4. He starts out with junk and turns them into flyable airplanes.

Incredible, thanks for sharing!

Wow - very cool.

Wow. That is very cool.

Awesome work!!! Love it! Cool job!!

I remember that B-23 very well. It was owned by Mike Bogue at Oakland for many years from the latter '70s until the widow sold it sometime in the last decade. Bogue was a very nice guy and let me sit in several Warbirds at Oakland's hangar 5 back in 1980. I remember the B-23 flying over my house several times.

That's cool! We had dinner with Mike G and his wife (he owns the local P51, F4U Corsair, P40 and about 17 other warbirds) Saturday night and were discussing this B23. He informed me that he was a buyer when it came up for sale but passed on it due to the cost of restoring it. I am pretty sure it will far exceed $1m when completed. Small world.

My latest adventure and this time at the controls of this TF51. It has been a 40 year dream of mine and finally after several years of planning I made it happen. 33 years ago I flew as a passenger in the P51 "Ho Hun" and finally this year I was able to actually fly a TF51 "The Little Witch". I was in control the entire 47 minute flight other than take off and landing as I do not have a pilots license nor am I tailwheel certified. We did many aerobatic maneuvers over the course of the flight and I really have to thank my close friends here at home for giving me some stick and rudder time in their sport aviation planes over the last couple of years so that I could practice. Special thanks to Mike George (owns a P51 and Corsair) for taking me up in his T34 a couple weeks ago and really letting me ring it out to prepare me for this TF51 flight. The TF51 is truly a dual control airplane with full instrumentation, trim, gear, throttle, etc. You are even required to wear a shoot in case you really make a fubar or if the airplane has a major mechanic issue. If any of you guys really like flying and warbirds, make a date with Stallion 51. You won't be disappointed. There is also a full length video of my flight on YouTube for anyone with a lot of spare time.

That looks like fun, I'd be happy just going for a ride. Glad you got to "drive".

They also do 1/2 hour introductory rides but I think you will wish you were driving by the end of the ride. :)

Congrats on your bucket list check-off Rick!! :headbang: :beers:

Way cool Rick, thanks for sharing !!:biggthumpup:

Awesome!m That is so cool!!

My Favorite Kind of Plane...
 

I am considering building a T-51 with the LS-3 when I get done with my latest car restoration.

That's going to be a big departure for me. In the meantime "American Patrol" set to warbird images looks about right.

Classic music...some of the best ever done IMHO. We have a drop tank from a P51 up in the woods...the boys used each half to make a small boat...added outriggers to keep it stable. They are still up there in a secret place where the fish always bite :flag:

Yes. Miller captured the feel of piston engine dog fighting with that song pretty well.:flag:

Very fine weather there!

Not on the same scale as Rick's adventures in the P-51, but got to play with this Chipmunk yesterday. Gave it a good bath and taxied it around to familiarize myself with the cockpit/controls. Plans are to get checked out in it this month.

Thought I would share. I was working with the B25 Berlin Express over the weekend selling rides to everyday people as well as Vets and took the opportunity to try and replicate a shot of my dad taken 40 some years ago. This exact airplane was used on the 1970 film Catch 22.

Went to check out some cool aircraft at the Ft. Worth Aviation Museum. I've been fascinated with the F-14 since I was a kid but had never seen one up close. You just don't understand the scale and size of one until you see it in person. Amazing aircraft.

This is buno 159600 and was the longest serving Tomcat in the Navy. It started life as an F-14A in 1975, converted to an F-14D in 1994 and remain in service until the Tomcat was retired in 2006.

I would ReFi my house to get a ride in an F14, that will probably never happen as EVERY static F14 left on display in the US has had it's main wing spine cut in half so it cannot ever fly again and all the retired ones in the desert were dropped into giant tub grinders so the Iranians cannot get the parts on the black market, sad...

Me too. I really wish I had put my mind to becoming a Naval Aviator and trying to fly F-14s. I wanted to fly them so badly when I was a kid and then my interests turned more to cars and girls as I got closer to high school. I look back now and that's probably the one thing I would change about my career path and life after high school.

Built in beautiful Bethpage Long Island

Go "Teddy" & the Big Stick CVN71!

Yes, they were built in both Bethpage and Calverton further east out on the Island. Unfortunately, both have some serious ground water pollution issues happening... I was lucky enough to attend the Grumman party back in 2006 to watch the last LI F14 fly over and airshow. The landed the plane at Republic Arpt, taxied it up, ran the engines to they ran out of fuel, removed the avionics, fogged the canopy and put it on display down the road at the Grumman facilities where it sat until a month ago. Somebody bought the bldg and wanted it gone

I think that one is now at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Long Island.

I watched a vid with Puck Howe(last commanding officer of the last F-14 squadron) and he said that when they flew Tomcats to their final destination before going to museum, after landing they blew the fire bottles in the engines to de-mil them so that they couldn't be flown again. He said he was delivering one to Florida to Snort Snodgrass and he had very specific instructions to blow the bottles because they knew Snort would be flying that thing the next day if they didn't. lol

God rest their souls. Terry Barker, Leonard Root, Curtis Rowe, Craig Hutain, Dan Ragan and Kevin Michels. It is what it is, a very tragic accident. Lets please leave it at that.

Indeed it was. Wife and I were supposed to be there on Sunday.

Glad you missed it.

It has happened to me once in my lifetime when I was around 10 years old and crashed 50 yards in front of me at an airshow. A replica mail carrier bi-plane killing one of the two people on board. It was many years before I attended another airshow after that as my dad and I had just talked to the pilot an hour before he took off.