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I have not seen it and, if it exists, it is probably in the posession of someone who was on the crew. I would also imagine that the takeoff would have been a little hairy since, in a record attempt, the pilot would want to pull the plane off and get the gear retracted as quickly as possible for acceleration purposes.
I really WOULD like to see it myself! Next time I see Rod Lewis' chief pilot (Jim Dale), I'll ask him if Mr. Lewis has an early videos of it including the time-to-climb record. If I don't see him sooner, I SHOULD see him in May since he is usually the Air Boss at the Planes of Fame Airshow.
Hi Grampi,
Most of the time the guys who have the videos don't mind sharing them since they appreciate any curiosity and understand "fans." The real issue is finding someone that you can talk with long enough to find out if they have the videoes. When you are introduced to a famous pilot or long-time crew chief, it probably isn't the best of form to start asking for things like videos right away. I've known Pete Law for some years now, and we recognize each other but I still have to remind him who I am when he comes to the museum. He smiles and says "Hi," and I take the akwardness out by saying, "Hi, I'm Greg." We then usually talk for 15 - 20 minutes or so if he has the time, and he doesn't always have the time. I'd say maybe half the time he does, and he is very forthcoming since we are usually in the aircraft restoration hangar at the time ... and he LOVES airplanes just like most of us in here do.
However, I'll see if I can dig up a few vidoes over the next several months.
It would be nice if other guys and gals out there who are into aviation would share a few, too. If we DO manage to find them, it would be good to take some of these "rare" videos and make them into a sticky. I bet Bill (Drgondog) has some great videos. He has a rich background embedded in fighter aviation. I'd be very surprised if FlyboyJ doesn't have some, too ... what with being on a race team in the jet class. Since this IS an aviation forum, I'd say we could probably put together a real humdinger of a video collection if we just did it.
There are some good one already IN the video forum, maybe the Rare Bear climb record is there already and I just haven't found it. Could be.
I've posted a few about the horsemen team and the planes of Fame, but they aren't collected anywhere. Probably a good thing to do so.
It would be great to see a clip of this event, especially the takeoff and acceleration to best climb speed.
Here's a pic of a takeoff for a race, not even a record attempt.
View attachment 284126
Makes me wonder what a real climb attempt would look like ...