Hellcat roars to life!

On Friday, January 25, 2013, Flying Heritage Collection fired up their restored Grumman F6F-5 for the first time, marking the beginning of a new lease on life.  According to FHC's website, this aircraft was built in 1945 and was built as an F6F-5N night fighter.  It was later converted to a 5K as a target drone.  Since late fall, the aircraft was brought back to the FHC museum floor, where visitors could watch the maintainers finish the final process of restoring this beautiful aircraft.

Since the aircraft was used as a target drone, there were modifications made to the airframe for servos etc.  In order to bring this aircraft back to WWII delivery condition, FHC had portions of the wing re-skinned, so as to give it original panel lines.  FHC is known for their attention to detail and spared no expense with the Hellcat.

In the coming weeks the aircraft will be moved yet again, but this time, to be painted!  It will receive its final unit markings, of which has not been revealed yet, in February.

As always, I was there to catch the momentous occasion with video and photographs! 

If you enjoyed the photos and video, please show your support by visiting www.gofundme.com/fight2fly as I am in the process of making a much-needed upgrade to my video camera.

Thank you for reading!

IL-2 Arrival - Flying Heritage Collection

This just in!  Flying Heritage Collection at Paine Field in Everett, Washington, has just announced that its highly-anticipated IL-2 Shturmovick has arrived via ship at the Port of Tacoma early this (Feb. 2) morning!  I have not been able to get a time as to when it may arrive at the museum, however, they said it should be very soon.  I will keep you posted with news as it becomes available. 

They will be reassembling the aircraft in the hangar so visitors may be able to view its assembly process.  This is very exciting as it is the only IL-2 in the world that is in flying condition, out of 35,000 that were built during WWII.

Winter Rumblings

 [edit] Ah, helps to have a working link!

With annuals underway at Flying Heritage Collection, winter is a great time to get a very rare view of the unique collection with inspection panels open, cowlings removed, and even the rare opportunity to view some maintenance runs. Friday the thirteenth was just one such day. The Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk and Republic P-47D Thunderbolt have recently finished their annual inspections so the FHC maintainers decided to take advantage of the nice weather to runup the engines. Below is the video I shot on Friday. If you enjoy the music of Warbird noise, you will enjoy this 14-minute video as a tease of things soon to come this Spring! Enjoy!

Summer Projects: Luftwaffe Day

Back in August my Sigma 50-500mm lens started having aperture problems, where it would just stay closed.  At first it would happen only occasionally, starting in July, but by the time "Luftwaffe Day" had approached, which was due to be Flying Heritage Collection's debut of the worlds ONLY airworthy Focke-Wulf 190A-5, I figured I better be ready for a backup plan and decided to bring my Canon camcorder along.

As I feared, the lens never recovered that morning, and I was forced to start shooting video.
This is the video that I shot that morning and thus began my conversion to shooting video exclusively:

This day represented the first time an original Fw-190 and an original Bf-109 had been in the air together since WWII.  The Fw-190 was piloted by Steve Hinton, and the 109 by Bud Granley.  Sitting behind me in a hangar was Legend Flyers Messerschmitt Me-262 which they had been test flying earlier that week.

Enjoy!

Summer 2010 Recap

For the 2010 airshow season I didn't see a whole lot of action, as I had class on almost every Saturday. I did, however, get to make it out to the McChord AFB Air Expo Friday through Sunday, which was SPECTACULAR! Each year the McChord show gets better and better! Last years show had a LOT of vintage jets, including the FJ-4B Fury, MiG-15, MiG-17, 2 F-86 Sabres, and an F-4 Phantom. It was amazing to see a vintage formation including the FJ-4 Fury, F-86, MiG-15, and MiG-17 all together for Sundays show. The airshow did not have the Thunderbirds, but instead had the Patriots. For my first time seeing their show, I was VERY impressed! And if having them in place of the Thunderbirds means a greater selection of performers, I welcome them yet again for the 2012 show!

A few times I was able to sneak out of class during lunch time and make it to the airport just in time to catch the warbirds taking off for the Flying Heritage Collection's free fly days. I was very thankful that class was only about 10 minutes from the airport.

Below are some of my favorite images from 2010:


Fj-4 Fury turning final at McChord


F/A-22 Raptor on final approach as the National Anthem is played over the loudspeakers at McChord AFB


Flying Heritage Collection's Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk and Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Vc flyby in tight formation


Navy Legacy Flight featuring the FJ-4 Fury and F/A-18F Superhornet


You don't see this often! From top: FJ-4 Fury, F-86 Sabre, MiG-15, MiG-17


Two F-86 Sabres pass by in formation. The lead (green camo) aircraft is flown by Capt. (ret) Dale "Snort" Snodgrass


Air Force Heritage Flight featuring the F-16 Falcon, A-10 Thunderbolt II, F-4 Phantom, and F-86 Sabre


Colling's Foundation B-17G Flying Fortress


Historic Flight Foundation's Grumman F7F-2 Tigercat


Historic Flight Foundation's Grumman F8F Bearcat


Historic Flight Foundation's B-25D Mitchell "Grumpy" gets a figher escort from their P-51B Mustang and Heritage Flight Museum's P-51D Mustang during Vintage Aircraft Weekend


One of my favorite days of last year was Flying Heritage Collection's Luftwaffe Day featuring their Fieseler Storch and Messerschmitt Bf-109E-3 Emil, shown here!

Summer of 2011 saw the addition of a Focke-Wulf 190A-5!

Enjoy and I will keep the pictures coming!!