Hey! That looks familiar!
For those who don't know, that pic was taken by me last weekend while attending the final 352nd FG reunion in Richmond, VA. The ceremonies were held at the Virginia Air National Guard, home of the 149th F-16 Fighter Squadron who got their roots from the 328th FS/352nd FG.
Two mustangs flew in for the event, Kentucky Babe, and my favorite, Moonbeam McSwine. There were more plans planned to be there including several P47s but were cancelled due to bad weather.
On Friday before the main events on Saturday, us Virtual Bastards of the 352nd were out at the base setting up our own demonstration booth to show off Warbirds. We had a big projection screen and ran a little mission for the vets on Saturday. I also ran AH several times which impressed the crowd as well. Just had to show that beautiful blue nosed pony.
Anyway, after flying in and parking just a few yards from the hanger, Vlado(the owner of Moonbeam) starts letting people take a seat in his plane. Three of my fellow bastards are ahead of me and get a quick turn in the cockpit. Then right when it is my turn, a professional photo crew shows up to take a whole bunch of staged photos with some guys dressed up in vintage clothing. It was cool to watch but dammit I HAD to sit in my favorite airplane of all time!
Me and BB Gun waited, and waited, and waited while they shot every possible angle you could think of. But I was bound and determined to get my turn. By the time they finished their shoot, everybody else waiting for a turn had given up and cleared out. In the meantime, Vlado was off to the side talking to a group of people. I looked over at him, then at the plane, made eye contact and sort of jerked my head indicating I wanted fondle his plane.
He looks at me and nods. There's nobody else around, just me and BB. As I stick my foot in the toe hold in the wing flap, I realize that he is just going to let us climb all over her unsupervised.
I quickly climb in and settle down into one of the most comfortable seats I have ever sat in.
Between me and BB we spent about 45minutes just looking over every square inch of that cockpit. One thing I noticed was that the AH was completely blocked from view behind the K14 gunsite. Guess you don't need that one for dogfighting.
Then something else caught my eye. Vlado had left the keys in the ignition. "Bad Wicked, BAD!"
I resisted the temptation...barely.
As far as the picture above, that's what it really looks like. When looking straight ahead that gunsite is right in your face. You have to look down and almost duck your head a bit to see some of the other insturments.
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1st Lt. Wicked
487th FS
352nd FG
[This message has been edited by Wicked (edited 09-29-2000).]
