The Birds are out and about.

[muffett.2008]

Hey JM, good to have you back

[muffett.2008]

This is Judy Pays plane, actually a Warhawk, as JM says, sourced from Yankee land. It is located at her Museum at Tyabb, Victoria.


As opposed to the late Col Pays Kittyhawk from the Scone NSW collection, painted and personally autographed by Bobby Gibbs in his original colours.

[Bob Womack]

Saw the same grand old lady returning yesterday, the lovely old Dakota. And wondered........... If you owned one, are they easy to maintain? Are spare parts readily available? Literature for maintenance, manuals etc etc?

The nearby University where my father worked as I was growing up had a DC-3 (civilian liner) and a C-47(military cargo). My dad flew lots of missions in the back of the C-47 developing an infrared thermal imaging system for the CIA. They eventually switch over to an Aero Commander for that duty because the C-47 was a fuel glutton. The DC-3 was lost to an accident. The pilot was a friend of ours and was the pilot who flew my dad in the C-47. He was the most conscientious and safety-conscious pilot I ever flew with. He was taking a cross-country flight in the DC-3 and stopped in a little airport for Avgas. After takeoff the plane made it up a couple of hundred feet and the engines conked out. It crashed into a forest killing all aboard.

It turned out that the fuel distributor put a new kid on the fueling job. Rather than Avgas he pumped in jet fuel. Charlie, the pilot, did his fuel drain test into a cup but saw no jet fuel because it floated above the gas in the tank. Sad.

Bob

[Peter Laidler]

I thought that you'd know the answer JM (thread 69)! Thanks, but I won't be buying one this week......

[muffett.2008]

Update on Spitties.



…..and a few others


With a bit of luck, those two Spitfires should be in the air by the end of this year.
Photo's thanks to John Parker, Australian Warbirds.

[CINDERS]

Bugger all between you and a 20mm cannon shell from a Me-109...…..

[browningautorifle]

Bugger all between you and a 20mm

Well, you can at least go like a bast*rd...you'd like that part. Except...you might not fit in one of those. You'd need the economy model.

[muffett.2008]

It always amazes me the way the lads at Pays manage to do these builds, run an Air Maintainance Service, train pilots and mechanics, fight the continuous fires with their water bombers, run a commuter service, a helicopter fleet and still have time to throw in the odd Air Show.

I'm forever watching aircraft being tested after engine changes or Service, or the continuous run of Ag Sprayers or Water bombers......young Ross has carried his fathers dream to the next level.

[muffett.2008]

….adding a few, ...'cause I can

[browningautorifle]

We had about 30 Avenger firebombers posted at the Fredericton Airport when I was there '93 to '96... There was a fire out in the Base Gagetown training area at one point and since the whole area is scrub pine forest everyone and everything was in danger. The Avengers were doing sorties over my house for two days until all was controlled. Quite an airshow...