Originally posted by Vermillion
Damn... now thats a voice from the grave 
How you been Cakes? Me and Whels (who was also with us that day) both fly with the **MOL ** here. Several of the old Skulls are here.
I'm not in the arena much last couple of months but keep an eye out for me.
When you start flying here? How's the Wife? You two still in Tampa? Coming to the Con?
I remember that day like it was yesterday. It was warm, but not as hot as most Florida afternoons can get. The sky was clear with a few puffy white cumulus nimbus clouds. As Chuck Yeager said in his air combat sim - It was a great day for flying!
Whels wasn't with us until we synched up at Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, so it was just you, me, and your cousin (I think) touring the Warbirds Museum in Kissimmee (near Orlando, Florida, for those booking vacation plans) when you made your first flight. They were building an F4U Corsair in the back and had an A-26 Invader parked in front of the hangar. The hangar was littered with various projects, including an old Link trainer, a Spitfire dummy gate guard, a Mig-21 that had been confiscated down in Miami, a couple of AT-6s (or SNJs) for minor repair, and an A-4 Skyhawk. The AT-6 Warbird Adventure flyboys were strategically placed on the tarmac between the museum and the hangar for TF-51 Crazy Horse so that we had to walk by them to get out. Isn't there a law against hunting a baited field?
I've got the photos of us 3 Skull Squadron brothers posing in front of the Liberator at FoF somewhere in my album. I heard that they've added several aircraft to the collection, mostly as a result of Kermit Weeks closing down his exhibit in Miami. They've got a Martin Marauder flight-ready that's been touring some of the airshows.
Yeah, I'm still in Florida, still in Tampa, in the same house, but the computer room isn't nearly as cluttered as it was the day you dropped by - most of my toys are in boxes in the garage now. I haven't been flying in the arena much because my brother is trying to get me addicted to golf... and its working. I've come to the conclusion that Florida must be the state with the most golf courses per acreage, or darn close to it (Arizona and Texas probably rank right up there, too). I got a golf ball to almost do a complete barrell roll one day at the driving range
Probably won't get to the con, even though I've always wanted to go to one of them just to see what its all about. Our vacation plans this year will be modest, and I can't get the wife on a plane anyway. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll have a con here or in Georgia one year that I can get to. I'd like to see a con in either Orlando (FoF, Warbirds Museum, and Int'l Sport Aviation Museum are within 35 minute driving range) or Savannah (the Mighty 8th Heritage Museum is a very good place to spend a day).
I'm sure we'll bump into each other in the MA eventually - some late night when its quiet (too quiet) you'll hear a voice crackle through your headphones saying "My wing's shot up and I'm leaking oil. Looks like I'm not going to make it back. Tell my wife I love her!"
