Thanks guys! Took a good friend of mine I grew up with for her first small plane ride and she loved it. Definitely awesome letting others experience it, even if it is a slow little 150
My business partner and I went to meet with a guy yesterday afternoon about leasing some minerals from him. He has a rock quarry (actually 21 different quarries) about 40 miles East of Midland, TX. We met him at his office which overlooks the plant where they cut and polish the rocks into all different shapes and finishes. It was a pretty cool operation, but not nearly as cool as what he took us to his house to see.
He told us that 41 years ago he was the chief stunt pilot in a movie called "Battle of Britain." When they finished filing the movie the studio (or whoever writes the checks in the film business) told him they couldn't pay him, but they'd give him an IOU. In his words, "I said f*ck that noise, I'm taking these airplanes." He took 15 Messerschmitt 109s as payment for his work.
I understand he's always been an aviation enthusiast. He really likes seaplanes as you can tell from the pictures.
Here's one of his Albatrosses
Some pictures from inside the Albatross. There's a wall that he has passengers sign. I recognized a few of the signatures.
A photo of a photo inside the Albatross
He had a couple of these. I forgot what they were called, but they were finished out like motorhomes inside. They had a few seats, a living area, a full bathroom with shower, then a bedroom.
A P-51. He bought this along with 5 other complete P-51s and a bunch of parts from Guatemala in 1971 for $250,000. He's owned and flown just about every dogfighting warbird and he ranks the P-51 among the worst dogfighters.
Other planes in the main hangar:
Baron:
Then we go to the next hangar.
Messerschmitt 109s. He says this is the greatest dogfighting aircraft of WWII and his warbird of choice.
The only 2 seater ME-109 in the world
ME-109s that haven't been reassembled since he brought them back from England.
Twin Beech
Mallards
Finally, his favorite plane of all time and the only he still flies a Piper Super Cub
He had 2 other hangars that he didn't show us and 2 more were under construction. The doors were open on one of the hangars and there was another Albatross in it in pieces and a bunch of smaller planes I didn't recognize.
Last edited by ohsix on Aug 20, 2009 9:44 am; edited 1 time in total
(However those are not 109's but the licence built spanish fighter Hispano Aviación HA-1112.) _________________ WB.com will never be the same... You will never be forgotten Leggester.
http://www.myspace.com/mauiwake
ohsix, Yeah, well basically it is in a way. The engine's are different. Look at your pictures and then this one:
See the difference in exhaust system? The Me-109's is lower.
Quote:
Many of these aircraft have been used for theatrical purposes, posing (rather unconvincingly, given their very distinctive undernose air intakes, mandated by the R-R Merlin engines they used) as "Emils" and "Gustavs" in Battle of Britain and Tuskegee Airmen, respectively
I'm really being picky, and if I met that guy I sure as hell wouldn't argue with him about it.. Way too much respect for a guy like that. _________________ WB.com will never be the same... You will never be forgotten Leggester.
http://www.myspace.com/mauiwake
I flew my first solo this morning. 3 full stops in the pattern. Pretty uneventful except a change in wind direction and runway change on my 3rd landing.
So far, the flying has been pretty easy. My instructor has me doing the King-Cessna ground school online and I'm always way behind on the ground school.
One of the few good things about the west Texas landscape- it's all flat and no trees. When my instructor did the engine failure simulation and told me to pick a spot to land, I had a little bit of a hard time picking my favorite.
ohsix, congrats! Awesome to hear of others getting to experience flying! Definitely changes the way the plane flies without someone else in the other seat. With the little 100HP C-150 I learned in, having my 190ish pound instructor out was a treat
A bit of an update on my flying...
Still mainly flying in Ohio, a little bit very rarely (unfortunately) in the Pitts S2B here around school. Got my tailwheel rating in a 1966 Citabria with 150hp (dad owns 1/3 share) and have been going crazy flying his 1998 200hp RV-8, which is an absolute dream to fly. It's our baby.
ohsix, Nice work! One of the walking scorer's in an event earlier this year flies a citation sovereign for a guy in Virginia. Being an aviation dork he and I struck up a conversation and the stuff that plane is capable of for a jet is impressive. His plane is N63CR _________________
Lop wrote:
the only way I'd kick her out of bed is if she wanted to f#$k on the floor
eeven73 wrote:
The Vag is magical place with ancient powers that are not easily understood.
It's a nice looking plane, I didn't really get to play with it other than riding around the pattern a few times. The velocity's in general a little unnerving to me since you fly the approach so fast for such a small plane.
only ask because i came across it while wormholing small planes on the web a while back and it looks really intriguing. the whole "kit plane" thing makes me a little nervous, but then i think about how many planes are 30+ years old and still flying perfectly - they are all pretty much kit planes at that point!
Yeah, and calling it kit plane can be a little deceiving as well. The kits can be bought up to 49% complete, then you get factory assistance where you build the plane in their hanger with their help. There are plenty of companies out there that will build them for you. So while there are plenty of guys in their garages messing with planes for years you could also realistically buy a kit plane and have it in the air in a couple weeks. The only limit on the speed of a build is the size of your wallet really.
Old planes as long as they were taken care of are usually pretty good, I had a 64 twin comanche that I sold back in december. I put about 180 hours on it in a year, I think I posted pictures of it in this thread. It was old but other than some ugly paint and seats in serious need of re-upholstery it was in great shape and surprisingly fast.
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