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GregP
20th May 2007, 13:26
Just got home from day 1 of the 2-day airshow. We had a mass flyby including:

1) Three P-38's (an "F", a "J", and an "L"). This reperesents all the flyable P-38's in the world at this time as far as we know.

2) Six P-51D's (plus Tiger de Stefani's "Strega" air racer in static).

3) Grummans: One F3F, two Wildcats (an F4F and an FM-2), two F6F Hellcats, an F7F Tigercat, an F8F Bearcat, a TBM Avenger.

4) Two Curtiss P-40's (an "F" and an "N").

5) Douglas: An AD Skyraider and an SBD Dauntless.

6) North American: four B-25 Mitchells and one T-28B.

7) One Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX.

8) Hawker: One Hurricane and one Sea Fury (Unlimited Air Racer Argonaut).

9) One Boeing B-17.

10) One Bell P-63 Kingcobra.

11) One Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero and one A6M3 Zero.

12) One Converted Vultee BT-13 masquerading as aJapanese Val Dive bomber (a Tora, Tora, Tora aircraft).

13) Two Vought F4U-1 Corsairs.

The U.S. Military contributedan F-18 Hornet act and a nice demo by the F-15 E Strike Eagle team. AT the end, the F-15 E, a P-38, and a P-51D did a formation flyby. We also had a Korean War demo with our F-86F, MiG-15, and T-33, and a Vietnam act with two Cessna Bird Dogs, a Huhey, AD-1 Skyraider, and T-28B.

The Argonaut put on a dazzling disply of high-speed aerobatics at over 400 knots with smoke. We also had a Zlinn 50 act and a wingwalker in a Stearman.

All in all, a really nice day, but I got SUNBURNED. Since I am working the show, I really can't get pics very easily, but I will try to get a few tomorrow. :)

Red Admiral
20th May 2007, 17:12
Sea Furies are always great to watch. Had this one still got the Centaurus radial or swapped it for something else? The Centaurus makesa beautiful sound. I went to an airshow about 2 years ago with one there doing aerobatics. It was a day with low cloud and the pilot somehow managed to work his routine around the clouds. Excellent to watch.

Always wear suncream. I learnt from a friend's mistake in not applying any. His face went extremely red, the skin began to flake off and he was in agony for days.

Have they got lots of static displays as well?

GregP
21st May 2007, 07:48
The Sea Fury "Argonaut" has been re-engined with e Wright R-3350 and it was making passes at 400 knots.

The main reason why more Sea Furies are not running the Centaurus is that the good folks at Bristol didn't see a very big market once they invented the Centaurus, so they didn't make very many parts, and even fewer are left as spares. No spares means alternate engine.

Plenty of static including a flyable C-46, several helicopters, two Staggerwings, a Folland Gant that used to be with teh Red Arrows and still has the livery, our YP-59A, B-25's, T-6's, the unlimited racer "Strega," a Ryan PT-22, an absolutey georgous Waco and a beautiful Lockheed Electra, a Slepcev Storch, a T-28B and a T-28C. There are more, but you get the picture.

Unfortunately, during the mass flyby yesterday, the B-17 had a bird strike. A bird went between the fuselage and inboard engine, and put a hole in the wing leading edge. Not a lot of harm done, but it didn't fly again on Sunday. They got the F7F Tigercat fixed and it flew on Sunday after having aborted on Saturday. The rest of the WWII birds were reliable and ran just great.

ALl in all a great show!

Double T
21st May 2007, 22:47
GregP:
Two Beechcraft Staggerwings?
Oh MY!
I've seen a locally-owned Staggerwing flying over the city from time to time. It is just flat-out BEAU-TI-FUL!!!

Tim

GregP
22nd May 2007, 08:45
Yes, two! One was Canary Yellow, and he flew a low racetrack pattern for about 15 minutes before the airshow started at relatively high speed. Made passes at about 100 feet high.

Nice looking plane! I talked with the pilot/owner later and he was very nice and let me look in the cockpit and get up close and personal with the Staggerwing. Quite a nice aircraft and sprightly despite it age.

Trexx
23rd May 2007, 01:19
Thanks, GregP for the elaborate manifest of flyable warbirds!

Chino is an oasis of incredible things. Everyone that really likes World War Two airplanes should visit it. Save your pennies, rubles or euro coinage...

It is WORLD CLASS. ...and I'm not just blowing cordite and high octane petrol exhaust!