Favorite airplane in your logbook.

BeRich said:
.....it isn't possible that the picture isn't of his aircraft? I'm pretty sure it's not his b-52 in that album either.....
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Nope, absolutely not. My grandfather flew B-52s in WWI and his separation bonus from the USAAF for shooting down the Red Barron while preforming a split S and lifting the flaps in the flare was his own personal BUFF.

I suppose I should have said the post was a bit thin instead of an outright lie. I'll do better next time.
 
esa17 said:
Nope, absolutely not. My grandfather flew B-52s in WWI and his separation bonus from the USAAF for shooting down the Red Barron while preforming a split S and lifting the flaps in the flare was his own personal BUFF.

I suppose I should have said the post was a bit thin instead of an outright lie. I'll do better next time.
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He was flaring while performing a split S while shooting? that's pretty damn impressive. and probably worthy of his own BUFF!
 
bunk22 said:
Without a doubt, the T-2C Buckeye. A very easy aircraft to fly, very forgiving and I got my first boat traps on the USS Kitty Hawk in July 1996 flying it. I believe 159713 is in my log book, I'll have to check.
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Did you ever get to trap on the Lex?
 
I'm not a "warbird" guy. I'm an antique guy, and specifically Waco's. Now, let's just accept on faith that there are more Waco's flying than Mustangs in the USA (not sure, just seems logical). The National Waco Club knows of every flying Waco, who owns it, who in the past has owned it (from the day it left the factory), how it was equiped (they'll provide you with a copy of the original bill of sale with option list from the factory). They also know of every project being restored, every Waco on static display, etc. With a small community of Mustang owners it shouldn't be too hard to track down.

On a related note...WTF are we paying US Air Force pilots now? MikeD's and Hacker are holding out on us - they're rich!
 
Hacker15e said:
The secret is out.

Stand by for the unmarked sedan to show up to your house in 3.......2......1.......hack
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Haha! Me rich? Yes, that's why I have a side business providing fire/rescue services to a dirt-oval racetrack and spend weekends watching the entire customer base of Waffle House after they emptied out from the restaurant and went to the track to race. All so I have extra $$$ to pay the bills.

I wish I were rich! :D
 
WacoFan said:
The National Waco Club knows of every flying Waco, who owns it, who in the past has owned it (from the day it left the factory), how it was equiped (they'll provide you with a copy of the original bill of sale with option list from the factory). They also know of every project being restored, every Waco on static display, etc.
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To be fair, you can't say the same of the P-51 community. The provenance -- even the actual identity -- of many Mustangs is very questionable for several reasons.

Numerous Mustangs served in foreign Air Forces during the 50s and 60s, and some of those places acquired their airplanes illicitly, against restrictions or sanctions by the international community. Because of this, many of the serial numbers were "washed" on these airframes -- N numbers were used and re-used, fake serials were applied or used in AF records, etc.

In addition, until the 1980s, very little attention was paid to the historical provenance of many warbirds. It is certainly NOT like the classic car movement, where every little bit of an airframe's history is known and documented.

So...knowing exact ownership histories of every single airframe is all but not possible. There are the "accepted" FAA histories, and then there are the real stories...and only sometimes are these histories the same!
 
Probably the 'ho:

3piper3.jpg
 
MikeD said:
Haha! Me rich? Yes, that's why I have a side business providing fire/rescue services to a dirt-oval racetrack and spend weekends watching the entire customer base of Waffle House after they emptied out from the restaurant and went to the track to race. All so I have extra $$$ to pay the bills.

I wish I were rich! :D
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Don't forget that big fat paycheck we get as mods! :D
 
Hacker15e said:
To be fair, you can't say the same of the P-51 community. The provenance -- even the actual identity -- of many Mustangs is very questionable for several reasons.

Numerous Mustangs served in foreign Air Forces during the 50s and 60s, and some of those places acquired their airplanes illicitly, against restrictions or sanctions by the international community. Because of this, many of the serial numbers were "washed" on these airframes -- N numbers were used and re-used, fake serials were applied or used in AF records, etc.

In addition, until the 1980s, very little attention was paid to the historical provenance of many warbirds. It is certainly NOT like the classic car movement, where every little bit of an airframe's history is known and documented.

So...knowing exact ownership histories of every single airframe is all but not possible. There are the "accepted" FAA histories, and then there are the real stories...and only sometimes are these histories the same!
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Great post and thanks for the knowledge. It would seem that maybe they could track CURRENT Mustangs I would think - but with so many airframes scattered throughout the world and paperwork that is tricky it would be hard to figure a lot. I do think that we could verify flying Mustangs (I assume his is flying, he mentions flying it) in his part of the country and narrow it down.

My EDUCATED guess is that this guy flies the Mustang only when he's not sailing around Algeria taking really high quality photographs.

I'm calling it - POSER! If I'm wrong, well...nothing really bad will happen so I don't care.
 
He told me he paid $2M for the Mustang with money he got from winning the lottery after leaving the AF, and that he was going to buy another one now that he sold his Pilatus. I told him he had punkd me and he said he was joking about the Pilatus that he really does own a Mustang. But I think maybe its a FORD Mustang. :D
 
WacoFan said:
I'm calling it - POSER! If I'm wrong, well...nothing really bad will happen so I don't care.
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I know we are getting off the subject but poser's in aviation are usually caught pretty quickly. I have discovered 3 on the net, two at car sites and one on airwarriors. It's always in their lingo and stories as something just isn't right. One of the guys on a car website was claiming to have been a B-52 bomber pilot who was shot down in the first Gulf War. When he made that comment, I looked at several older posts and noticed he talked quite a bit about his shoot down and his aviator lingo was pretty good. Problem is, no B-52's were shot down in 91 and thus his story was obviously bogus. He ended up being an Air Force Reserve full bird colonel, intel type, working out of the Pentagon. Once he was busted, he apologized to all though initially, he was very hostile to having his cover blown.
 
Hacker15e said:
To be fair, you can't say the same of the P-51 community. The provenance -- even the actual identity -- of many Mustangs is very questionable for several reasons.

Numerous Mustangs served in foreign Air Forces during the 50s and 60s, and some of those places acquired their airplanes illicitly, against restrictions or sanctions by the international community. Because of this, many of the serial numbers were "washed" on these airframes -- N numbers were used and re-used, fake serials were applied or used in AF records, etc.

In addition, until the 1980s, very little attention was paid to the historical provenance of many warbirds. It is certainly NOT like the classic car movement, where every little bit of an airframe's history is known and documented.

So...knowing exact ownership histories of every single airframe is all but not possible. There are the "accepted" FAA histories, and then there are the real stories...and only sometimes are these histories the same!
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You couldn't be more right. It's really fascinating to see the "histories" of where serials "ended up"... not to mention the stories of those that flew them in the foreign services. N-registered aircraft being bought and militarized.... data plates and airframes eventually turned into spoons and forks... hard to establish a certain history sometimes.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
Should have bought a Buffalo or an Airacobra. Screw the cool planes, get ones nobody has.
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Did any Buffalo's survive? What a POS that thing must have been. I am not sure why they sucked so bad though. When I was young I got a book called "Worlds Worst Aircraft" and the Brewster Buffalo was in it. It was a great looking plane, just sucked I guess.
 
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