Cubdriver wrote:
On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:38:40 -0400, Dudley Henriques
wrote:

It was very good of you to say these things, especially about Erik

Though wary to the end, we actually got along fairly well once we took
the discussion off the internet. Erik did two huge favors for me.
First, he annotated a copy of the RAF pilot's manual for the P-40
Tomahawk, which I posted at www.warbirdforum.com/manual.htm (comments
beginning ES: are by him, and help document the likelihood that
Curtiss-Wright retrofitted the Tomahawks sent to China with fuel tanks
and other parts intended for an earlier model).

Second, he goaded me into taking flying lessons. ("Of course Ford is
not a pilot ....") Thanks to Erik, I was duly certificated at age 68,
and I'm now working on a scheme to get a little stick time in a P-40


Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
new from HarperCollins www.FlyingTigersBook.com

Erik was indeed an unusual guy. Bea and I stopped out to see him on the
way to Garden Grove and visited with him for the day. At the time, he
was deeply involved in trying to get to the bottom of a situation out
there in California involving a character going around giving speeches
wearing all kinds of decorations saying he was a member of the AVG.
Erik was as mad as a hatter about it and was trying to enlist just about
everybody to help in exposing the "intruder". I think he got the Rossi's
involved and me as well. I made a few phone calls to contacts I had out
there and the last I heard, the guy was "exposed".
Erik was still flying. He and his son were flying a Steen Skybolt if I
remember right.
I brought Erik out an hour long tape Bob Scott had sent to me after his
wife died. Bob was feeling low one night and just set up a tape
recorder and talked into it for an hour reminiscing about everything
from Chennault and tactics to Wong Cook and the Panay sinking. I gave a
copy of the tape to Erik and I have the original. To my knowledge,
these are the only two copies in existence. I did make a CD that will go
to the Museum at Warner Robbins upon my death.
Good luck with your P40 exploits. Let me know how it goes. You did well
learning to fly at 68, and the Cub was a great choice.
Best,

--
Dudley Henriques