I got to fly a Warbird :-)

[TheBug]

Posted this on our squad mail group, but I figured I'd share it here too.

Man! What a day I had today.  At work today I was told by my bosses that we were going to leave the shop for a bit to go check out a machine that we are buying. But it turns out they were lying and had bought me a 1/2 hour flight with aerobatics from http://www.warbirdadventures.com in one of their T-6 Texans as a surprise thank you.  They are based in Kissimmee, FL, but come up to Geneseo, NY for a couple of weeks.
   
Was a cool ride, got to do a couple loops, barrel roll, 4-point roll, and a Cuban-eight, controlling the plane through the maneuver too :-)
  I tell you though just the 2-3 Gs I was feeling gave me quite the appreciation for how those guys fight in those planes.  I couldn't imagine maneuvering like that and trying to track a dogfight at the same time.

 I also go an appreciation for difficulty of spotting a plane.  On the way back we were trying to pick up the other T-6 to rtb, and even though they were talking to each and the other plane had bright yellow wings(not camo) it was very difficult to locate him.
   
Although the aerobatics were cool, it doesn't even come close to what I consider the best part.  After we hooked up with the wingman and were just about back at the field, a call came on the radio that said the B17(done up as Memphis Belle) that is part of the museum at Geneseo was gonna take off.  My pilot asks him how long his engine run-up was gonna be, I'm thinking to try and sneak in before they roll.  The 17 pilot says he is all done and is set to roll.  So my pilot has got some film left in the still-frame camera and ask if we can do a fly-by to get a picture.  So we watch the B17 roll and shortly after he goes wheels up, my pilot(who flys IL-2 btw) asks me "What do ya say we pounce that B17 like a puma and shoot it down", hehe so we get over the  top of it which was quite the sight, roll over and come diving down into our "attack"!  It was incredible, then we formed up with the B17 to take a picture.  Flew formation across the airfield on the deck, to buzz the crowd at some rocket show they were having.  Then peeled off and rolled over the top of the B17, to go land.  It was a dream come true, I have that image of that B17 passing below burned into my brain.  I wish I had a camera in the cockpit with me, I got the DVD from the planes camera, but that doesn't capture the b17 enough, I have to develop the stills to see what they got.  But I do have some pics my wife took and I posted them here

 http://home.rochester.rr.com/faa880sqdn/Warbirds/

if you're interested.

What a day!:D

[CurtissP-6EHawk]

First, I am glad you had a blast. There is no fealing like the real thing. The pics look great.

Now you see what I have been telling you guys for a long time. AH has too good a visabilty for spotting planes. The G forces would make half of AH sim pilots puke or get a kink in thier neck! Bet there wasnt much "nose bounce" either huh?.....lol I would almost rather stay on the ground and listen to those engines!!

[Löwe]

Great Stuff Bug!:aok

Closest I've gotten to a WWII Bird was a flight in the Cavanaugh Air Museums Steerman about 6 years ago. Open cockpit was a first for me, and quite a ride too.
They have a T-6 , as well. I keep telling myself I'll make it back for the T6 ride someday.

Great pics thanks for sharing.

[Grits]

When my Dad was a Flight Instructer at NAS Pensacola in 69-71 they still had some T-28's, though most training was done in T-34's. T-34's are small trainers with either Lycoming flat 6 cylinder engines, or now they have turbo-props. The T-28 was a big old trainer with a 9 cylinder Wright radial in it. He said when they were done with the students, he and the other instructers would go up and "play" in the T-28's. He says that huge radial would really twist the plane up if you slammed the throttles open suddenly. Wish I could go up in one of them.

[1Duke1]

Grits,

Ask your dad if he knew or knew of a flight instructor named William Felini while he was in P-cola.  He's my wife's uncle and has some good stories of flying the T-28

[eskimo2]

My wife and I joined a WWII aviation living history group when we lived in Colorado Springs.  After our first work session cleaning two AT-6s, we were given our first ride, my wife in one plane and I in the other.  The old Colorado Springs airport has two parallel runways, one for civilian aircraft, the other military.  Our T-6s taxied out to the end of the runway in an S - zigzag fashion (can’t see over the nose).  As we were taxing out, two F-16s were taxiing to the military runway.  Both pairs of aircraft requested formation take offs at the same time.  Both pair’s requests were granted.  I was on the end so I could see my wife in the T-6 next to me and the F-16 lined up beyond her on the adjacent runway.  All four aircraft started rolling together, we seemed to keep up until our tail wheels got up; and then the F-16 started pulling ahead.  By the time we were airborne and retracting the landing gear, the F-16s were way ahead and just starting to lift their noses up.  When we cleared the end of the runway, the F-16s were beyond even a Hail Mary AH-1 gun solution.  
The flight was great, we did a lot in formation, and some loops and rolls apart.  Later when I started playing flight sims I realized how well tunnel-vision black-out and negative Gee red out were modeled!

eskimo

[Reschke]

Nice pictures Bug. Good to see you have some great people you work for that know what you like outside of the job. !

[TheBug]

Thanks Reschke.

It helps having something to do with WWII aviation on just about every t-shirt I wear to work.  

[Kidjel]

Holy Smokes! They're gonna be here in Chicago until Sept... I'm gonna have to go for a spin myself!

[Kweassa]

You'd get pinged in the first pic, and be dead by the third pic - if it was in AH

  Those blasted buff guns!!

[Eagler]

did the T-6 flight in kissimmee at warbird adventures a couple of Aprils ago, Xmas present from the family.

hour flight, great fun but we didn't have a B17 to attack