I know there are quite a few folks that like the old airplanes, and especially the WWII birds. One I have always been fascinated by is the P-61 Black Widow.
A family friend flew one out of Guadalcanal in 1944, after flying Havocs in the ETO. He admitted it was an unusual bird, and he didn’t make Ace flying it, but he said it was as good as it got for night intercepts. Ralph had lots of stories, and lots of patience with a kid asking questions…
He went on to be an airline pilot, retired from that, and died two years ago while walking out to get the morning paper.
Here’s a video of a P-61 ‘training’ flight, and it truly shows the complexity of the old recip birds…
A family friend flew one out of Guadalcanal in 1944, after flying Havocs in the ETO. He admitted it was an unusual bird, and he didn’t make Ace flying it, but he said it was as good as it got for night intercepts. Ralph had lots of stories, and lots of patience with a kid asking questions…
He went on to be an airline pilot, retired from that, and died two years ago while walking out to get the morning paper.
Here’s a video of a P-61 ‘training’ flight, and it truly shows the complexity of the old recip birds…
When I first came in the Navy, I worked on and flew in various recips and honestly always loved them. They are/were much more complex than jets; and on their way out or not, they took a LOT more attention to detail to fly well, much less get one started…LOL
The other thing is, honestly I can’t think of a damn thing to write this morning that makes any sense…
lol .. take it easy 🙂
Enjoy some relaxing! 😛
I haven’t been able to write anything that made sense to anyone but me in over a week.
It’s that or just a plain lack of motivation on my part. >.<
Amazingly complicated.
Must have been designed by engineers.
Julie- Tryin…
Snigs- I know that feeling!!!
Alan- Yep, LOTS more complicated than flying a jet 🙂 And one gets bonus points for NOT blowing a jug during all the transitions and trying to fly/fight the airplane at the same time!
http://www.maam.org/p61.html
They’ve made a ton of progress since the first time I stopped by their site.
Always wanted to see one.
Angus- Thanks! I’ll update the post with this!!!
WSF- I’ve seen the one at Udvar Hazy, still want to see one in the air!!!
Guess I had that conflated with the P-38.
Nice video. Thanks.
(aside: Check back about Freddie.)
Ed- Think BIG P-38 🙂
Great video. Love the old airplanes. My son used to give me pop quizzes on WWII planes and their nicknames. We enjoyed seeing many of them being restored at the old National War Planes Museum in the Elmira-Corning region of NY (Horseheads?) – now called Wings of Eagles and, sadly, much truncated in scope. I understand they are reorganizing and wish them well with the process.
Wishing you and your daughter well, too.
A bit more complex than a Cessna 172, but I still want one!
Anne- Thanks!
Murph- Yep, just a ‘tad bit’…