Mods - If this needs to go under Technical, please move.
I was getting some work done on my truck yesterday and the owner of the shop came by to say hello. We have known him for 30 years. I noticed he was wearing one of the Collins Foundation shirts for the B-25 Tondeleyo. I'll leave out all the boring details, but long story short, I found out he was a pilot, owns a 1946 plane (I forget what it was now).
He mentioned that his dad was a WWII Hellcat pilot and his friend was a state side pilot that would fly everything under the sun. He let me borrow his dad's friend's flight log book and pilot manuals to read over. It shows he flew an L2, PT17, PT19, BT13, AT6, P40, P47, P51, P39, P63, PQ14, C47, UC78, AT17, B24, B25, and B26.
I'm attaching a scan of the P-47 manual if anyone is interested. If this is something ya'll like, I'll scan the others. There is a manual for a P-51, P-39, P-63, and a P-40 as well as a power plant manual.
He also told me he has all his dad's "after incident" reports from the war. He said he would let me see those also and let me scan them to post here if you want to see those as well. He also said that through his dad he was able to meet the guy who started the Blue Angels (I forget the guys name) and Adolf Galland. How cool is that?
Please let me know if your interested in the other manuals.