CONTEST: MEN ONLY: Free Framed Gee-Bee Z Airplane

[Spitfire]

Nice photo Soren! Is that the Irvin I just bought from you, or is it your new one?

fftopic: Thats the one, Chris. Should be with you any day now.

 

[Copper]

This is my avatar photo, enlarged.

Taken in New Zealand at the Old Mandeville Airfield near Gore, South Island, as I was about to embark upon my first hour of flight training in a restored Tiger Moth.

It was the most extraordinary flying experience of my life; better even than my first solo.

After flying 'spam cans' for a while, the moth was a revelation about flying to me. The rudder was so direct and alive; the controls so startlingly instantaneous - at least with enough air over them - they felt so dead in the stall in comparison. The plane felt so organic compared to the Cessnas and Pipers in my logbook. This was a NZ spec Moth, so unlike the Canadian ones there were no brakes, no tailwheel no electric starter and was a true open cockpit.

Taking this plane low and slow following a meandering creekbed, I discovered a startling similarity to my other mechanical passion - motorcycling. being able to hear the airflow change over the ailerons, having such visibility, even just being able to smell the changes of the landscape below - farm fields vs creekbeds vs treed areas... it added a realm to the senses I had never experienced before in an airplane.

A neighbour to the flying school had asked the pilot instructors if they could 'buzz' their farmhouse if the pilots saw them out in their yard. I cannot imagine such a great airport neighbour here. After turning over the controls to the instructor, we climbed to a thousand feet and throttled back before pitching the nose down at the farmhouse. The whistle in the flying wires as we dove at 110MPH was music and as we passed by them waving in their garden, I am sure that I could smell their flowers.

I'm sorry - I know that the story here is not part of the entry... the photo just got me in a reminiscent kind of mood...

 

[Smithy]

Love the photo Copper :eusa_clap

One of my big wishes is to finish my PPL (have to start again unfortunately now) and then undergo Tiger Moth training in NZ (I'm a Kiwi).

Moving to Melbourne mid this year, so might have to pull my finger out and make it happen

 

[Spitfire]

Hey Smithy, are you going to post the picture of you in RAF uniform in front of that beautifull car - or am I????

 

[Smithy]

OK I might but I'm a shy bloke

 

[Smithy]

OK as Spitfire has put the squeeze on me, here's my entry.

This is me from a couple of years ago when we were going to a fancy dress do. The uniform is actually mid 1950s RNZAF but apart from the Queen's Crown on the badging the same pattern as wartime.

 

[Spitfire]

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap
Tally Ho Smithy!

 

[Smithy]

Thanks mate

 

[KilroyCD]

Very nice photo, Smithy!

 

[Smithy]

Many thanks Kilroy, I like your avatar pic

 

[warbird]

Alas I have no pics of my aviation days as they were lost to me along with about 3,000 sheets of negatives. I had worked with a music industry photographer friend for several years while in college and had amassed tons of rolls of film including 15 concerts I did for Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB KING, Garth Brooks. Ugh. A friend helped me move back to Virginia and tossed out a box she thought was trash. I didn't catch it for several days.

Anyway, I was fortunate enough to have numerous golden era flight experiences. My father was a naval pilot (P5's and P3's) My earliest memories are flying Beech 18's over the Florida coast looking for schools of fish running, to know where to fish later. I clearly recall a flight as a youngster with my father and Greg "Pappy' Boyington. He was in town for several days and I'm still not sure how he made it happen, but my dad made it happen. The show about him was a big hit at the time. He gave me a signed record which was the audio biography of his life, which I still have.

I started flying at an early age and majored in aerospace in college. My senior project was to completely restore a Dehavilland Beaver, which I did as well as the complete build on a modified Cassutt stunt plane. One of my professors was a close friend of Chuck Yeagar's In fact Yeagar absolutely idolized this man, Col. Jean Jack. I had several opportunities to drink with Chuck. At his advanced age he could still drink this college boy under the table.

After college and not so vintage jobs of flying MU-2's with mail and stock car drivers I landed a job flying DC-3's with cargo out of Spokane and Juneau. Unfortunately the company refused to allow us to fix needed repairs, I crashed a DC-3 one night and had had enough of that gig. Incidentally that plane was repaired, which it shouldnt have been. Later a new crew crashed it and died.

I was lured into a somewhat family business of politics for several years and got to do some lobbying for the aviation industry so that was fun. But I burned out.

I got a job with a company who recovered WWII and Korean vintage aircraft and brought them back to the states to rebuild and fly them. We flew all over the world looking for these planes, that was great fun. I had the opportunity to fly about everything you can imagine, warbirds and bombers, trainers and even WWI open cockpits. It was a dream job. Like some dream jobs, they do not sustain families well. So I headed back into politics where I have been ever since.

That is my golden era flight story. I am amazed at the knowledge of some of the buffs on this site. In fact some know more than I do about planes I flew. Truly a dedicated site for historians of aviation. I have enjoyed the photographs.

I have visited just about every aviation museum in the country I think, some big and some small. Wright Patt is my favorite. Any buff owes it to themselves to visit Dayton at least once. I lost myself in there for days on numerous occasions and I was just telling my wife the other day it is about time to take my son and daughter up there. She does not desire them to fly however, as she hates flying especially small planes. Everytime I head to Oregon to visit my old college roommate, who is a captain for American, she tells me to stay out of his airplanes. I always say I will, but sssshhh I don't. I discovered long ago I had no interest in flying commercial as it bored me to tears and was like being a glorified bus driver. It's good for some and not for others. So considering my wife's attitudes i guess it worked out anyway. Oh, and she hates motorcycles too, which I had always owned several since the age of 5 or so. Dang no fun.

 

[GentleJohnny]

 

[Copper]

Brilliant photo Smithy!

That just about nails it - not just the kit and the car, but the attitude and the whole look.

 

[Murph351]

Here are a couple shots I took in flight from the nose turret of the B17 "Liberty Belle".

And one showing the prep before the flight

 

[Smithy]

Brilliant photo Smithy!

That just about nails it - not just the kit and the car, but the attitude and the whole look.

Thanks Copper

There's some great photos in this thread.

 

[The Wingnut]

 

[The Wingnut]

 

[The Wingnut]

Okay, you guys have had enough of me for a while.

 

[The Wingnut]

Second thought, I forgot a few! HAH!

My nose art, designed by me and painted on my A-2 by FL member SGB(and whose 1937 Airline radio is on permanent loan to the mini museum in my living room).

Shot in my bedroom, heavily altered in the Vettriano style. That's Gordon Brusstar's print of Jimmy Doolittle winning the '32 Thompson Trophy Races in the Granville Brothers R-1 on the wall behind me.

A sketch of jimmy Doolittle's B-25, used in a limited issue lithograph commemorating the 61st annual Doolittle Raiders' Reunion, commissioned by the Raiders themselves. Copies of the print - if you can find them - go for around $350. Mine is signed by 8 original raiders, as is the original sketch.

A sketch of the CAF's P-51B Tuskeegee Airmen: By Request. Here's the original photo that I took in 2001:

Okay, NOW I'm done. I'm sure you're all sick of me...if not sickened BY me!

 

[Smithy]

Absolutely fantastic photos Wingnut, well done :eusa_clap

By the way what A-2 is that you've got? Looks stunning.