Thanks Mark, I figured the opening day crowds would be horrendous, and since I've got the luxury of proximity in my favor, I'll wait a little before venturing back. Bummer you didn't make it out for opening, but it's not going anywhere. They really need a catwalk around the outsides so that we can see the planes from above, too.
Now if I can just get back to work.
msalvetti wrote:
Laura, thanks for the reports from Dayton. I abandoned my thoughts of coming out for this some weeks ago. I spent much of this past week in Baltimore. I'm finding it difficult to get motivated to do much more than work and try to keep up with what needs to be done at home.
Cool how they have displayed Memphis Belle in-flight, instead of the ground display they had with Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby. I'll get there someday.
Also glad to hear you are managing to recover from your wrist injury.
Mark
DANG.. my B&S subscription's expired and I need TOPP.
In mid April I was standing in the shelter of a WWII U-Boat Watch Tower in Ormond Beach,FL.
The official mission for my wife and I was seafood, but I'd brought my camera 'just in case' --- it was my first chance in months to take my gear out.
The weather looked deceptively clear --- sunny with blue mid-afternoon skies --- but a steady 30-35 mph north wind running a hundred or more miles along the coast picks up a lot of moisture. As a result everything is blurred by a nearly invisible haze... and sounds are partly masked.
So there I am under the old tower thinking of the jet stream as I watch Pelicans swept south when I recognized a very familiar sound ...
They were quite low --- I'd guess 1,500 feet --- flying due North along the coast. But even that close the haze was evident. The entire flyover was probably 30 seconds --- the plane had flown over a condo and magically appeared.
I was stunned ... and sadly didn't think to slow my shutter ...
Went to a fairly obscure, but very interesting, event at Peru, Illinois this past weekend -- the 3rd annual gathering of TBMs. Lots of other interesting warbirds there, too. Plus one surprise (an AU-1 variant 1952 CHANCE VOUGHT F4U-7) and a couple of disappointments: 1. The A1E and Bearcat were no-shows. 2. There was some confusion about the position of the crowd line and we got pushed WAY back late Saturday morning.
Anyway, here is a TBM ground shot for openers.
JDE1 wrote:
Went to a fairly obscure, but very interesting, event at Peru, Illinois this past weekend -- the 3rd annual gathering of TBMs. Lots of other interesting warbirds there, too. Plus one surprise (an AU-1 variant 1952 CHANCE VOUGHT F4U-7) and a couple of disappointments: 1. The A1E and Bearcat were no-shows. 2. There was some confusion about the position of the crowd line and we got pushed WAY back late Saturday morning.
Anyway, here is a TBM ground shot for openers.
Jerry
In the docu that's on youtube they discovered during the restoration that a large amount of the parts were genuine AU-1 parts so that's one of the reasons... very cool to see.
Jan-Arie wrote:
In the docu that's on youtube they discovered during the restoration that a large amount of the parts were genuine AU-1 parts so that's one of the reasons... very cool to see.
Jan-Arie,
I intended to include that youtube link, but forgot. Thanks for adding it to the thread.
The F4U-7 AU-1 was not on any list of aircraft scheduled to participate and its appearance out of the blue (so to speak) surprised and delighted our little group of crazies. It made a number of passes and disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
says they had more than 42,000 people between Wednesday and Saturday.
On my wait outside there Wednesday, I overheard a guy saying they had flown the original Memphis Belle in from Tennessee for the restoration,
It was definitely in no shape to fly anywhere at that point.
The unveiling of the refurbed Memphis Belle prompted me to reread a very interesting and sobering book. If anyone would like an in depth look at the lives--and deaths--of American aircrews in WWII, I highly recommend "Deadly Sky" by John C. McManus.
Thanks for the tip Henry, and yes, sobering to say the least. Ask our current crop of 19 year olds if they would have an interest in heading off in aluminum tubes to defend our freedoms (don't even bring up the mortality rate). My guess is you might get 1 or 2 out of a hundred and 50% of them would wash out, pitiful.
My older brother called me the other night to tell me that he had weakened and purchased a 1/350th scale hand built model of The Yorktown for his WWII memorabilia collection. He was saying that he has always had a fascination with the history of WWII and the outstanding men and women who gave so much, many all they could give. He has two sons, one in his late 20's, the other mid thirties, he made a statement that neither of his two sons have no idea why we even went to war, much less the history of it. Kind of sad given their education at Northwestern and a Masters from Kellogg. That oft quoted line about those who don't know history comes to mind...........but in this instance I think we might not only be doomed to repeat it, but just doomed in general. The military could probably get a few gamers to fly drones for some extra spending money, but my guess is the "hero" DNA may well be going extinct.
History repeats itself, though the characters in charge have changed. When a class of people have been characterized as something subhuman, like what happened during slavery times, Holocaust times, etc etc, it makes it easier to demonize that class of people and see them as less than human and therefore less worthy.
History forgotten, indeed.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Thanks for the tip Henry, and yes, sobering to say the least. Ask our current crop of 19 year olds if they would have an interest in heading off in aluminum tubes to defend our freedoms (don't even bring up the mortality rate). My guess is you might get 1 or 2 out of a hundred and 50% of them would wash out, pitiful.
My older brother called me the other night to tell me that he had weakened and purchased a 1/350th scale hand built model of The Yorktown for his WWII memorabilia collection. He was saying that he has always had a fascination with the history of WWII and the outstanding men and women who gave so much, many all they could give. He has two sons, one in his late 20's, the other mid thirties, he made a statement that neither of his two sons have no idea why we even went to war, much less the history of it. Kind of sad given their education at Northwestern and a Masters from Kellogg. That oft quoted line about those who don't know history comes to mind...........but in this instance I think we might not only be doomed to repeat it, but just doomed in general. The military could probably get a few gamers to fly drones for some extra spending money, but my guess is the "hero" DNA may well be going extinct....Show more →
Indeed. Several things amaze me re: that horrific event. The first is that it's possible to get that number people to join inion something that evil, and the second is that anyone, of any ethnicity or culture could ever forget that unthinkable chapter in world history.
