Planes, Planes, Planes

Paul - Thanks for your service, I have the utmost respect for all of you folks who lay it on the line in defense of all that we have! Pretty cool pics, that belly shot is really a neat perspective. The target camera on those things must be pretty incredible, makes it look like your 200 feet away and I am sure it was a lot farther.

Paul - that little thing looks pretty cool. I have never spent any time in Helicopters, the whole concept seems kind of foreign too me, I mean I get how it works, I just can't believe it actually does...

Steve,
No, I never went thought with getting the licence. The time and the money involved got in the way of more important things back then.

Ahh planes are just plain!!
This is the real heavy iron.


Here's a pic from my office before I retired.

The bad guys just before they had a really bad day.

Don't bother running you'll just die tired!!!

This reminds me of my old lessons way back in the late 70's. It took me 17 hours to solo but the airport I was at had only one hard runway so all of the 17 hours were crosswind take off's and landings. At least it taught me how to "crab"!! My instructor was an old WWII pilot who I'm sure had some conditions coming out of the war. When nervous, he would stutter. My very first hour up, he told me to land the plane - during the approach, he started to tell me to "p,p,p,pull back". Well, he ended up taking the control of the plane! Even then, we did a hard landing - I was expecting to see the struts pop up through the wings of that low wing Piper!!

The third hour up on take off, he cut the power on me and I had to do a soft field landing on the only cross field strip. That was a tough situation as well since at that point, I was never told anything about soft field landings.

Man, that guy was tough!!

Cypress Gardens

Cypress Gardens several years ago.

GlassSeeker wrote: What could be down the ice hole? Down we go Well waddya know?

glacier girl! seen her at reno 2 years ago, conpletly restored. very cool! i to am a pilot since 82, only owned 1 plane,70 cessna 150 aerobat. cool thread

Crashed in 1942 airmen only recently found in California glacier (yes California has glaciers!)

Lost Airmen Found

Hot Doggin with a B-52 Bad Idea

Jack - More envy here! That 180 is absolutely Gorgeous, I have a buddy who has a 190 from the same era, it would be neat to see those two birds as a flight of two. Just how does one get hired to fly an AT-6 for pay? You have had some GREAT gigs!

Scott - That lil 150 is going to be a gem, looks like you need to make sure to include some Tundra tires on the rebuild and fly out and hook up with Pete (Watrski).

Pete - That trip is on my bucket list. Always wanted to try some of that mountain flying and a what a perfect plane to do it in, Great Shots in the mountains!

Bruce - You need to get up in one of these small planes, it is COMPLETELY different then even the smallest of commercial airliners. There is nothing like putting your hands on the yolk or stic and controlling where you go.

Mike - Next time I am in Dubuque with the plane, lets go up, you can take all the pics you want!

Kirk and Tom, you should at least give it a try, arrange an introductory flight, or if you are close to one of these guys (myself included) on this thread shoot them a PM, I bet they would give you a ride. Dave you too should get back in to it!

This is kick butt stuff. Steve, will you fly over my parents (and my house) sometime and take some pics? I'd love some of the ski site

Also always been attracted to the B-17 flying fortress. They are amazing.

skutsch wrote: Here is a picture of the cub, this also was an 85 HP version. Loved that airplane, everything is 60 mph. As you can see one of the great things is you can fly that around with the doors and windows open. Nothing better then hearing the wind whistle through all the cables with the engine idling as you are on short final.

Steve, that had to have been close to the ultralight experience. I had 50 hp (overkill, some were 27hp) 32 foot wingspan and a dry weight not much over 200 lbs. Top speed 55mph, power on stall of 18mph. It could take off and land in 150 feet. I think it could climb at 500 feet per minute, which is impressive when you are only going 22 mph. I too liked the quiet landings, power off and full forward stick to get it down to, and then stay on the ground.

Here is our latest project before we took the wings off to drag her home.
1960 cessna 150 with a texas taildragger conversion.

I've been through the "Nine O None" a couple times. B17s are all mechanical. Cables running everywhere. We live near the Portland Jetport and it and a B24 came in right over my house. Pretty amazing looking up at them from that angle. You can hear those radial engines coming from quite a distance.

A lot of people served in the air corps during WWII. My father's best friend was a bombadier and died on a B17. My wife's father was a crew chief for one in England.

This is my 1953 Cessna 180 after restoration, I bought it as a basket case in 1984, first flight was in 1992. Painted in Imron and still shines today, never waxed. Hard to see in the picture but there is a 1/4" gold pinstripe painted on between the black and red. The wheel pants stayed on for about 2 months, it has 8.50-6's now.