davparlr
Senior Master Sergeant
This may not be the place, but I just have to post it.
Weekend Thrills
This was quite a weekend for me. On Saturday, while visiting Del Amo mall in Torrance, I toured the military display presented for build up to Memorial Day. I sat in cockpit of an F-5A, on display from the Western Museum of Flight at Torrance airport. Since it is basically a T-38 with a weapons control panel and a gun sight, it took me back to warm memories of long ago that still felt so familiar. Also, I saw a M1A1 tank for the first time. It was actually smaller than I though it would be. It seemed low and short, but very wide.
On Saturday, I went to Chino air show. Wow! Planes that only existed in books and video to me, started up in a roar and smoke, taxied, took off, and buzzed overhead like angry bees (big ones). Grumman planes were the feature, and there they were, F3F (biplane), F4F, F6F, F8F (there were FIVE of these), TBM, and a J2F Duck (also a biplane) amphibian, all flying. Then came the F7Fs with their incredibly slim fuselage and two huge engines. The Korean Air War was presented, showing off the T-6, T-33, F-86, Mig 15, and the Sea Fury. The Pacific Air War was represented by the SBD Dauntless, F4U, F6F, VAL, FM-2 (F4F), ZERO, P-40, P-38, P-51 and the F7F (Huh? More like a Korean war bird). The P-47, P-38, P-51, B-25, P-40, F6F (with British roundels and invasion stripes), and the Yak-3, represented the European Air War. The last I saw was the Airpower flight with all of these aircraft flying and buzzing the field. I never believed I would ever see many of these aircraft, much less flying.
Impressions.
While these planes were flying, it was easy to let my mind drift to different times in different places, an airfield in foggy England or on hot, humid island in South Pacific, or on the windswept wooden deck of a cruising aircraft carrier, or frigid skies high over Korea. The volunteers and owners crawling around the aircraft easily transformed into Army, Navy, Marine, RAF, and Japanese pilots and ground crews preparing their war birds for battle. Sounds were impressive. The Merlins, Allisons, Centaurus (maybe), Sakae (one ZERO did have an original engine it), and whatever is in the Yak-3, engines chattered as they started and roared wonderfully. A running pulse jet, being towed down the runway, gave a realistic experience of what Londoners heard overhead late in the war.
Of special impressions were seeing those magnificent F8Fs, with their long legged landing gears and huge, four bladed propeller, displaying great power and deadly intent. I couldn't take my eyes off the small Mig-15 and the larger F-86, with is slight black smoke trail, chasing each other around the field. I was also struck by the massive beauty and power of the Sea Fury, which darted right by the crowds, and with the beauty of the Yak-3.
A wonderful, treasured time.
Weekend Thrills
This was quite a weekend for me. On Saturday, while visiting Del Amo mall in Torrance, I toured the military display presented for build up to Memorial Day. I sat in cockpit of an F-5A, on display from the Western Museum of Flight at Torrance airport. Since it is basically a T-38 with a weapons control panel and a gun sight, it took me back to warm memories of long ago that still felt so familiar. Also, I saw a M1A1 tank for the first time. It was actually smaller than I though it would be. It seemed low and short, but very wide.
On Saturday, I went to Chino air show. Wow! Planes that only existed in books and video to me, started up in a roar and smoke, taxied, took off, and buzzed overhead like angry bees (big ones). Grumman planes were the feature, and there they were, F3F (biplane), F4F, F6F, F8F (there were FIVE of these), TBM, and a J2F Duck (also a biplane) amphibian, all flying. Then came the F7Fs with their incredibly slim fuselage and two huge engines. The Korean Air War was presented, showing off the T-6, T-33, F-86, Mig 15, and the Sea Fury. The Pacific Air War was represented by the SBD Dauntless, F4U, F6F, VAL, FM-2 (F4F), ZERO, P-40, P-38, P-51 and the F7F (Huh? More like a Korean war bird). The P-47, P-38, P-51, B-25, P-40, F6F (with British roundels and invasion stripes), and the Yak-3, represented the European Air War. The last I saw was the Airpower flight with all of these aircraft flying and buzzing the field. I never believed I would ever see many of these aircraft, much less flying.
Impressions.
While these planes were flying, it was easy to let my mind drift to different times in different places, an airfield in foggy England or on hot, humid island in South Pacific, or on the windswept wooden deck of a cruising aircraft carrier, or frigid skies high over Korea. The volunteers and owners crawling around the aircraft easily transformed into Army, Navy, Marine, RAF, and Japanese pilots and ground crews preparing their war birds for battle. Sounds were impressive. The Merlins, Allisons, Centaurus (maybe), Sakae (one ZERO did have an original engine it), and whatever is in the Yak-3, engines chattered as they started and roared wonderfully. A running pulse jet, being towed down the runway, gave a realistic experience of what Londoners heard overhead late in the war.
Of special impressions were seeing those magnificent F8Fs, with their long legged landing gears and huge, four bladed propeller, displaying great power and deadly intent. I couldn't take my eyes off the small Mig-15 and the larger F-86, with is slight black smoke trail, chasing each other around the field. I was also struck by the massive beauty and power of the Sea Fury, which darted right by the crowds, and with the beauty of the Yak-3.
A wonderful, treasured time.
