New Guy Intro

[Cub58H]

Hi folks, George Coleman here. I am interested in aviation of all sorts, but particularly Naval floatplanes. The connection is that my dad was an aviation mechanic in the Navy during WWII. He was on the USS Philadelphia (CL-41) from January 1941 when she was at Pearl, until sometime around late 1943 in the Atlantic, when he joined CASU-21 in Norfolk. The Philly had Curtiss SOC-x floatplanes assigned as scouts and this is where my dad worked.

Several museums have other floatplanes such as the Vought OS2U and the Grumman J2F Duck, but I haven't seen a Seagiull yet - is any of you know whrere one might be, I'd be interested to know!

Thanks

PS - I myself am a flight instructor engaged in the usual general aviation types - Cessnas, Cubs, and other small utility types.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Welcome to the stie.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Welcome George - I'm a flight instrcutor as well, mainly flying 172s, although in about 3 weeks I'm going to Chandler AZ and getting a Supercub checkout. Welcome to the site!

 

[twoeagles]

Welcome, George! Guys who like Navy aircraft are especially welcome!!!

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

we're getting a lot more of them recently!

 

[Cub58H]

Twoeagles...one of the reasons I wanted to get on this forum is to find out a little more about one of the units that my dad was in - the Carrier Aircraft Service Units. I have a photo of him and several others, both Off and Enlisted in front of an F4U, and I believe it was at NAS Norfolk (as it was called in 1945). He didn't live long enough for me to know what questions to ask and now I am trying to make up for that.

My primary interest is Navy aircraft, but if it has wings (and hopefully a big reciprocating powerplant) then it's okay in my book. We used to have a frequent visitor at our airport who was a B-17 pilot during the war. He recently passed away but I was fortunate enough to know him for the last eight years. He taught me a lot about the training process and how they learned to fly the different types of aircraft, beginning with the Ryan PTs to the Vultee and the Cessna AT-17. I never realized that the guys who were selected as first pilots were trained in the B-17,then picked up their crews at phase training and did their own crew-training. I'm sure it was well-orchestrated, but wow what a lot of work!

Sorry to ramble on...

 

[Marcel]

Welcome George - I'm a flight instrcutor as well, mainly flying 172s, although in about 3 weeks I'm going to Chandler AZ and getting a Supercub checkout. Welcome to the site!

Supercub? Would love that

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

one of the reasons I wanted to get on this forum is to find out a little more about one of the units that my dad was in - the Carrier Aircraft Service Units. I have a photo of him and several others, both Off and Enlisted in front of an F4U, and I believe it was at NAS Norfolk (as it was called in 1945)

there might be someone here that can help with that if you can give as much detail as possible.........

 

[Cub58H]

Flyboy -

Once you have flown the Supercub it will be hard to get excited about many other general aviation airplanes! Of course you will fly everything else much better afterwards!
We own a J-3 with 75 hp and at 690 lbs empty it performs pretty well. My wife and I flew it out here from Indiana and it only took us ten days (!) and 33 hours in the air! I once read a neat saying about the Cub - "It's the world's safest airplane - it can just barely kill you!"