Best warbird to own

In about '94 I stopped by Watts-Woodland airport in Northern California to
visit the Beech dealership. They had 3 or 4 OV-10s in the hangar that they
were under contract to modify for the Forest Service. Apparently the
Forest Service was going to use them as spotting planes for fire
suppression. Don't know if it ever came to anything.

Those are actually owned and maintained by California Dept of Fire and
Forestry, and flown by Dyncorp pilots.

If the DoD releases any aircraft like P-3s and S-3 (which are sorely needed)
out of AMARC to Forest Service for any future firefighting roles, it will
probably be a similar arrangement.




Ron
Pilot/Wildland Firefighter

"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
At our airbase in Florennes there was a guy who claimed it have slow
rolled a
B-26 Marauder. He even had witnesses. But I take it all with a grain of
100
0ctane. It is sort of like slow rolling a garbage truck.

Arthur Kramer

I have a friend who slow rolled an EB-66 on his way back from Southeast Asia
combat missions...every one!

Regards,

Tex Houston

Subject: Best warbird to own
From: "Tex Houston" 777
Date: 11/13/03 11:32 AM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:


"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
At our airbase in Florennes there was a guy who claimed it have slow
rolled a
B-26 Marauder. He even had witnesses. But I take it all with a grain of
100
0ctane. It is sort of like slow rolling a garbage truck.

Arthur Kramer

I have a friend who slow rolled an EB-66 on his way back from Southeast Asia
combat missions...every one!

Regards,

Tex Houston




WOW. That's impressive. What is an EB-66? (grin)


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

Frank Stutzman wrote:
In rec.aviation.owning EDR wrote:


I wasn't aware OV-10's were available for civilian acquisition?


Dunno about civilian acquisition, but getting close...

In about '94 I stopped by Watts-Woodland airport in Northern California to
visit the Beech dealership. They had 3 or 4 OV-10s in the hangar that they
were under contract to modify for the Forest Service. Apparently the
Forest Service was going to use them as spotting planes for fire
suppression. Don't know if it ever came to anything.

--
Frank Stutzman
Bonanza N494B "Hula Girl"
Hood River, OR


I'm kind of partial to the OV-1, the Modified Beech Debs that they used
in Nam, or a C-123.
Bill Higdon

Frank Stutzman wrote:
In rec.aviation.owning EDR wrote:

I wasn't aware OV-10's were available for civilian acquisition?

Dunno about civilian acquisition, but getting close...

In about '94 I stopped by Watts-Woodland airport in Northern California to
visit the Beech dealership. They had 3 or 4 OV-10s in the hangar that they
were under contract to modify for the Forest Service. Apparently the
Forest Service was going to use them as spotting planes for fire
suppression. Don't know if it ever came to anything.

It did. They're a common sight around here during fire season.

Some good shots of them during the recent Southern California firestorm
showed up on local news as well.

-Marc
--
Marc Reeve
actual email address after removal of 4s & spaces is
c4m4r4a4m4a4n a4t c4r4u4z4i4o d4o4t c4o4m

ArtKramr wrote:
From: "Tex Houston" 777
"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
At our airbase in Florennes there was a guy who claimed it have slow
rolled a B-26 Marauder. He even had witnesses. But I take it all with a
grain of 100 0ctane. It is sort of like slow rolling a garbage truck.


I have a friend who slow rolled an EB-66 on his way back from Southeast
Asia combat missions...every one!



WOW. That's impressive. What is an EB-66? (grin)

Douglas B-66 "Destroyer" modified for Electronic Warfare.

http://www.b66.info/EB-66-photos.htm

-Marc
--
Marc Reeve
actual email address after removal of 4s & spaces is
c4m4r4a4m4a4n a4t c4r4u4z4i4o d4o4t c4o4m

Frank Stutzman wrote in
:

Apparently the Forest Service was going to use them as
spotting planes for fire suppression. Don't know if it ever came to
anything.

Yep, California Department of Forestry has one based at the Hollister
Airport (3O7).

--
John Godwin
Silicon Rallye Inc.

(remove SPAMNOT from email address)

EDR wrote:
In article ,
Frank Stutzman
wrote:

In about '94 I stopped by Watts-Woodland airport
in Northern California to
visit the Beech dealership. They had 3 or
4 OV-10s in the hangar that they
were under contract to modify for the Forest
Service. Apparently the
Forest Service was going to use them as spotting
planes for fire
suppression. Don't know if it ever came to
anything.

Given that the Forest Service has been using
Barons and T-28's for
lead/spotter aircraft, the OV-10 is ideal. Rugged,
twin turbine,
excellent visibility.
CDF (Calif. Division of Forestry) uses OV-10s as FACs for fire-bombers.
I had a fire on a mountain across from my home here in Central CA and the
first plane on the scene was an OV-10. The S-2s showed up from Fresno about
a half-hour later. They dropped a load right on a bulldozer cutting a line
on the mountain-I would have loved to hear the bulldozer guy's radio traffic.
Fire got contained after 2 hrs.-only 30+ acres.

Posted via www.My-Newsgroups.com - web to news gateway for usenet access!

Charles Talleyrand wrote:

I'm fantasy shopping for my new warbird or historic aircraft. My
requirements are ...

- Historic value (rare and interesting aircraft)
- Reasonably easy to fly
- No turbines and under 12,500 lbs (no type rating needed)
- Seats two
- Aerobatic
- Easy on the eyes

I don't know enough to find the right aircraft.

There are lots of P51s out there, so they are not rare enough.
Further, they are said to be even harder to fly than normal for
vintage and type. The P51 is one of the few WWII fighters that looks
good in a two seat variant.

Flying Me-109s are quite rare, but I've read they are just too tough
to land and only seat one person.

Two seat Spitfires are just ugly.

The P38 and P39 are attactive because of the nosewheel gear. I
understand that the P39 was also used as a trainer in WWII (so it
might be easy to fly).

A Folker Triplane is probably a reasonable plane to fly, but I have no
desire to bath in castor oil and it only seats one person.

My thinking suggests dive and torpedo bombers might be the solution.
They typically seat two or more, and the naval aircraft should have
reasonable low speed handling. Is this sound thinking? Would a
Dauntless or Devistator or even a Stuka fit the requirements?

What fantasy aircraft should I buy?
-Much Thank

Hmmmmmmm, Military verision of the Beech D 17 Stagerwing. Rare Enough for
you????

From: Dale net

Hmmm, if you're thinking of a twin I'd go with the P-61 Black Widow.
You'll need an LOA but oh man, talk about an evil looking airplane!!

Think of the excitement you'll cause among the "black helicopter" crowd.
G

--
Dale L. Falk

Are there enough P-61 parts to cobble together a flyable one?

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired