There is a Mustang and a Spitfire XVIII flying CAP over my town

[pinsog]

I certainly feel safe now. There is a Mustang and a Spitfire XVIII flying CAP over my home town. I guess anything the Spitfire doesn't shoot down immediately, the Mustang can chase until the bad guys run out of fuel.

 

[pinsog]

I live in Arkansas. Home town of Walmart. One of the Walton's is acquiring warbirds, he currently has a P51, Spitfire XVIII and, from I what I read he has bought a Grumman F7F Tigercat, although the Tigercat has yet to show up at the airfield. I am about 1 mile, maybe 1.5 from the airfield, right in town, that these planes are based at. He and someone are flying the P51 and the Spitfire on almost a daily basis. They flew directly over my house in close formation. Quite a site, (and sound), to see and hear

 

[Crimea_River]

I nice bonus to live near such a display.

 

[pinsog]

I would agree. Rumor has it that he is going to build a small museum and keep some of them on display when he isn't flying them. The Mustang and Spitfire are in the air a lot around here. Almost always together. Not sure who is flying the one he isn't. What a job!

 

[Crimea_River]

Maybe he's not flying either of them. Lots of owners of warbirds don't fly them.

 

[Thorlifter]

You live in Bentonville? Nice place although I have only passed through a couple times.

 

[pinsog]

Maybe he's not flying either of them. Lots of owners of warbirds don't fly them.

My wife knows who we think is doing this and she said he is a pilot. He has one of the Red Bull type race planes and does aerobatics just south of town. Just south of town it rapidly goes from city to farm land so it is a safe place to do it. He also has a Cessna 206 (I think) turboprop float plane. I can see inside his hanger from the road across the runway.

 

[pinsog]

You live in Bentonville? Nice place although I have only passed through a couple times.

It is a very nice town. Still has the small town feel to it. I have been here since 1998 and it would be difficult o get me to move (except to Colorado snow country)

 

[pinsog]

If anyone has info on his F7F Tigercat I would love to hear about it. I just saw a pic on the internet saying that a Walton family member had bought it and it was flown from I think Canada to California where it is being worked on. I don't know if any of this is true, just what I found on the net.

 

[Thorlifter]

Maybe check with the flight museum at Chino in California. They may know. Maybe forum member GregP knows.

 

[Gnomey]

Cool!

 

[bobbysocks]

must be real nice to have that kind of cash laying around. I know I would do the same thing were it me...

 

[GrauGeist]

There's quite a few places in California that have sites for R&R, Redding Muni has several restorations going on at the moment and across town, near me, is Benton Airfield where they are well known for T-34 R&R plus other vintage types.

And if I had tons of cash begging to be spent, I would not buy an old warbird...I'd commission an outfit to build me an He280 reproduction...or maybe a Bv222, so I could tour all the Pacific islands on a quality control mission to see which place had the best bar on the beach - that would be a tough job, but someone has to do it, you know?

 

[Thorlifter]

And if I had tons of cash begging to be spent, I would not buy an old warbird...I'd commission an outfit to build me an He280 reproduction...or maybe a Bv222, so I could tour all the Pacific islands on a quality control mission to see which place had the best bar on the beach - that would be a tough job, but someone has to do it, you know?

I read this on Wiki.....

The V2 aircraft briefly wore US markings in 1946. Strangely the V2 aircraft had identification markings given to her from the original V5 aircraft for Operation Schatzgräber. V2 was later scuttled by the British who filled her with BV 222 spare parts from the base at Ilsvika to weigh her down. V2 was towed to a position between Fagervika and Monk's island where it is thought she now rests perfectly preserved on the seabed, owing to low oxygen levels in the water. There are plans to raise and restore this aircraft.

Does anyone know if the last sentence is true?

 

[GrauGeist]

There's been some talk of raising it over the years, but if I remember correctly, it's in relatively deep water and because of the Bv222's size, I would imagine it to be quite an effort. There is also a Sunderland sunk nearby, it was tied up to one of the Bv222 moorings and developed complications and went down. This would have been there at the Trondheim seaplane base.

The only other Bv222 that *might* be worth salvaging, is V1, which holed itself on a mooring in Athens harbor (Greece) and sank nearby.