Sadly i cannot fly in the Bucker. My ass is too big to get down into the forward compartment.
A guy who drove perfectly good airplanes off the deck of carriers contacted me on this forum went out and flew with my Dad and whatever airplanes he had in his hangers at that time.
Ryan
Yeah. the Bucker was cool. Dad sold this particular one, and he’s now rebuilding another he found somewhere. It’s a mystery each time i go over there how many planes i will find.
God damn that sandstorm! Worst night of my life. We not only had to turn down our radars, we had drop the arrays and hope the rest of our antenna farm would be there afterwards.
It was brutal! Our controllers worked purely over the TADIL’s and radio.
One of the greatest nights of my life. Plinked tanks and arty until we were Winchester.
That’s a great setup your dad has. The man has skills.
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I believe you posted a couple of these pics before because I remembered them, as opposed to most of the crap that shows up in this forum. That Thorpe is beautiful, and so is the Bucker Yungman. What fly in community does he live in? I am in Charlotte and own two hangars in Rock Hill, SC where I keep my Cirrus. In fact, my son and I are going to Columbia tomorrow to pick it up after an expensive annual so we can go to Oshkosh next weekend with Dad.
We love warbirds too and were pretty active in the warbird crowd for a number of years. We had a T-6 for a lot of years that is pictured on the cover of the book, *Ragwings and Heavy Iron. *We also flew a T-28 that belonged to a good friend and student of Dad’s to several shows and after that, the same friend acquired a TBM torpedo bomber. It was painted identically to the one George Sr. flew in WWII and Dad flew it all over the eastern seaboard in coordination with several of Bush’s campaign events. After the election, Dad flew the plane up to DC for the inaugural parade where it was put on a flatbed and pulled down Pennsylvania Ave. They unfolded the wings using an APU for the hydraulic system just before passing in front of the reviewing stand which was the only place on the route where they had room between the light poles.
A few years ago, we were at Oshkosh on the Warbird ramp catching some shade under the wing of a B-25 and Dad started talking to an old guy doing the same. In the conversation, he and Dad found out they had both flown the B-25 in the Air Force and had fun swapping stories. After about 15-20 minutes, a girl comes over and says, “Dick, we have the chairs and microphone set up for you, come sit down.” Came to find out, we had been talking to Richard Cole, a name most people have never heard of. Well, Richard Cole was Jimmy Dolittle’s copilot during the air raid on Tokyo. In all the time we had been talking, this humble man never even mentioned it. We went and found a place in the stands and listened to him being interviewed for almost an hour in the hot sun. Afterwards, he signed copies of his book inside the book store and we immediately got in line. As soon as he saw us, he grabbed one of the assistants and told him to get some pictures of all of us. He held up that line for 10-15 minutes talking and posing for pics. Nicest guy you could ever meet. Just died in April and was the last Doolittle raider to pass. They don’t make them like that anymore.
Greg
Greg PM me if you want his contact info. A navy aviator (Ryan) from this forum did just that and flew up to SC and did some flying with my dad.
Their airplane community is about 30 min below Columbia–near North Airfield if you know where that is. Its a small community of houses and hangers around a grass strip. My brother built a house next to Mom and Dad and by the covenant he had to build a hanger too. Good deal for my Dad since all my brother uses the hanger for is to park his bass boat. So Dad usually has a couple of his planes stashed in my brother’s hanger
Have fun at Oshkosh. Post up some pics of the old war birds if you can. Love the sound of those big radials like on the Bearcats and the P-47s.
/r