F-7F Walkaround

[SoD Stitch]

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to get up close personal with one of the few remaining F-7F Tigercats still flying; the first shot is my attempt at "art" photography. I've also got shots of a P-51D and a Corsair that were there, but I figured people would be more interested in the Tigercat. Hope you like 'em (yes, the rugrats are mine, but they're cute rugrats).

 

[evangilder]

Nice! Interesting as I just saw that same airplane last weekend and it now has a JC on the tail.

 

[SoD Stitch]

Nice! Interesting as I just saw that same airplane last weekend and it now has a JC on the tail.

My guess is Clay sold it, but I hadn't heard anything about that.

 

[evangilder]

Clay never owned it. He just flies it. I forgot the last name, but a guy named Joe owns it.

 

[SoD Stitch]

Clay never owned it. He just flies it. I forgot the last name, but a guy named Joe owns it.

Then my information was incorrect (in other words, my brother lied to me!); Clay was there, and he flew the Tigercat and his Turbo Porter Pilatus. The P-51D that was there, Speedball Alice, took out a barricade with it's Hamilton Standard prop when it was taxing back to transient; that was an expensive mistake!

It's a small world; I just found a video on the Web of the F-7F at the airshow I was at (and if you look reeeal hard, you can see me just on the other side of the runway!): F7F Tigercat / U.S. Navy Fighter / Clay Lacy Airshow Demo | Keith Breazeal Video Productions

 

[FLYBOYJ]

 

[Gnomey]

Nice!

 

[wilbur1]

Cool pics Sod, it looks like the weather there was kinda nasty

 

[Wayne Little]

Tigercat looks cool!

 

[evangilder]

That airplane has had a lot of different tail codes too. I saw a shot of it in Oct 07 with a WF on the tail. According to the FAA registry, NX909TC is registered to Avstar Inc in Seattle.

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/f7fregistry/f7f-80425.html

It's got quite a history! Clay flew a similar program at Camarillo last weekend with the Porter and the Tigercat. I am still going through my shots and will be posting them soon.

 

[Milos Sijacki]

Nice ones...

 

[SoD Stitch]

Cool pics Sod, it looks like the weather there was kinda nasty

Yes, we had a high-country summer storm moving in from the south during the airshow; the FAA ended up cancelling the last program of the airshow due to lightning strikes (I think it was going to be an Extra 300 demo, IIRC). It rained for a few minutes, nothing serious, just enough to get us wet.

 

[SoD Stitch]

That airplane has had a lot of different tail codes too. I saw a shot of it in Oct 07 with a WF on the tail. According to the FAA registry, NX909TC is registered to Avstar Inc in Seattle.

warbirdregistry.org - A Warbirds Resource Group Site - Grumman Tigercat

It's got quite a history! Clay flew a similar program at Camarillo last weekend with the Porter and the Tigercat. I am still going through my shots and will be posting them soon.

Great info, evan! Now I know why you're our local Warbird expert. I'm not terribly surprised Steve rebuilt it; there are very few people who could do a Tigercat justice, and he's one of them.

 

[evangilder]

I don't know about the expert part, but I have been known to research an airplane or two that are local, especially if I have a picture of it. Some people can get testy if a fact or two is wrong about their airplane on my website.

 

[SoD Stitch]

Clay's a semi-local up here; I won't go into detail. He spends most of his time down south, but he's up here on a semi-regular basis, so he makes a point of participating in our once-a-year home-grown airshow.

 

[evangilder]

Yeah, he has a lot of irons in the fire, so to speak.

 

[Heinz]

Very cool shots man

 

[SoD Stitch]

Yeah, he has a lot of irons in the fire, so to speak.

I see you know what I'm talking about . . . . .

 

[Messy1]

Cool pics! One of my favorite prop jobs!