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Just me pitching in at an airshow. Hot and worn out at the end of the day.
(OLD GI)
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Thank You to Harlan (Deceased) For This Useful Post:
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06-18-2009 07:13 PM
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We were flying home from a show and hit some heavy weather. The R4D is one of the only CAF planes that can fly IFR so we continued on back home. Most of these pilots are retired airline pilots and they take it in stride. This old plane is always making strange noises and the pilots look at each other and me and just shrug it off.
About the time of this photo we'd been flying with zero visibility. The rain had picked up and the windshield began to leak and I was wiping it trying to keep water off my gauges.
There were three older 'Colonels' in the back goofing around and one of them yelled at me to turn around and he took this picture. I was stressed and they were laughing and goofing around!
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They don't all Come Home
This was very sad. A small local Wing that had a BT-13 like ours used to fly with our BT in formation at shows. Nobody knows what happened, but their BT didn't make it home. Neither pilot survived and one of them was a good friend. We recovered the remains because it crashed near our location and stored them on a CAF member's farm near our hangar.
It's fun most of the time but these old planes can get you.
Everyone just grins and bares it but want to continue telling the story of WWII aviation.
You wouldn't believe how many college age kids don't know anything about WWII!!!!
The most enjoyable to me is when we have a WWII vet come in and tour the plane. Some of them are amazed the plane in flying condition. We've restored the plane's interior completely and even have a static line. One old vet just froze when he stepped inside. He stood there and cried. I talked to his grandson after he left the plane and he told me he's never seen him like that, but he was a paratrooper and jumped at D-Day.
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Contributing Member
Fantastic pics and great stories to the pics. Sad about the death of your good friend.
Best regards,
Gunner
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I know it's sad (thank you) but he was was doing what he loved.
My dad was fearless and he'd fly his company's twin engine 'Queenair' on flights through snow dodging mountains in the dark so he could hunt in Colorado, etc. He worried me a lot when I was a kid with his escapades.
He died a slow death from brain cancer and couldn't even talk or feed himself. My views on life changed after that. Heck, we all gotta go sometime and I think the choice is made by someone bigger than us. 
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Thank You to Harlan (Deceased) For This Useful Post:
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Legacy Member
Originally Posted by
cafdfw
I know it's sad (thank you) but he was was doing what he loved.
My dad was fearless and he'd fly his company's twin engine 'Queenair' on flights through snow dodging mountains in the dark so he could hunt in Colorado, etc. He worried me a lot when I was a kid with his escapades.
He died a slow death from brain cancer and couldn't even talk or feed himself. My views on life changed after that. Heck, we all gotta go sometime and I think the choice is made by someone bigger than us.
Here here! You go when your time is up and only the Great General in the Sky knows when that is.
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All are great pictures,but I almost missed them as I had already looked at the pics posted by Louis. Perhaps yours should have been on a separate post? (Or maybe everyone else isnt as dense as me. Gunner apparently isnt, but if not for checking his post I would have missed your pics altogether. Thanks for posting them, and the little stories with each. Ken
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I didn't realize how many pages Louis' post went when I started posting my brains out with aircraft photos. I apologize, I just got excited that there are others here with all the same interests. It's all Louis' fault for starting such a cool thread!
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