Had a talk with a friend of mine tonight who I had’nt talked with for a year and a half, one Bear Barricklow, crew chief on the CAF P-40N that resides in Texas…mentioned to him that I had heard through this forum that Lefty Gardner had sold his beloved P-38 and Bear said he had heard the same thing, that Lefty had indeed parted with everything P-38 (at least as is associated with ‘White Lightnin’) and the new owner was associated with the Red Bull folks in Europe (Austria?) and that if it flies again it will be over there…Bear also confirmed to me that the P-40 was up and flying again after her accident a few years ago, but not without trouble…seems that some of the sheet metal work was done to VERY poor standard (I will not mention WHO did the work, save to say it was done in Arizona) and of the whole TWO gear retraction tests they conducted after the crash, the gear worked fine….once. Naturally, in a hurry to get the plane to its home base and ready for the Midland show last year, the plane was flown home through some cruddy weather and the gear would’nt come down, and had to be BLOWN down with the emergency blow down mechanism, afterwhich it was noticed (after a safe landing) that hydraulic fluid was leaking like heck from around the tail wheel area….it seems to me that this P-40 is in need of a serious zero timed restoration, a fact that Bear agreed with (he has’nt been able to work on it in over 3 years due to the crash). Let’s hope that she sees the inside of a hangar for a prolonged time sometime soon-for safety’s sake.
Mark
By: PV2 - 26th January 2005 at 13:48
Found those pics….wings aren’t really in bad shape, ,probably easily fixed….wonder which plane they came off of..?
Mark
That wing is off of 44-89213, which the CAF used to have major parts of (including the fuselage). You can see the former Puerto Rican ANG markings on the landing gear door.
By: Corsair166b - 26th January 2005 at 04:55
Found those pics….wings aren’t really in bad shape, ,probably easily fixed….wonder which plane they came off of..?
Mark
By: Corsair166b - 26th January 2005 at 04:37
Hmmmm…a number of years ago (about 5) when I was at the CAF show at Midland, we were digging around some parts and pieces and we came across a rather battered wing with tire rubber smears on it and the stars and bars still intact, and it was from a P-47 (4 gun ports, kinda confirmed it)…that must be the one they’re using…wonder if I can find the pic?
Mark
By: dj51d - 26th January 2005 at 03:44
That would be the P-47N under restoration to fly again after the fire. You can find some photos of the restoration from an unspecified date last year, here. I seem to recall they had a little bit of luck, having a spare right P-47N wing in storage.
By: Corsair166b - 25th January 2005 at 00:46
Reckon that’s the one, don’t know that they HAVE another one…it would be a miracle, but I’m told (and I heard) that the CAF planned on repairing it…
Mark
By: galdri - 25th January 2005 at 00:21
I saw a photo of that wreck as well.
I guess the data plate has survived 😮 😮
By: Ant.H - 25th January 2005 at 00:16
Hi Mark,
By ‘CAF P47’,do you mean the P47N that caught fire on take off a couple of years ago?I remember seeing pics of what was left and thinking it would take a miracle to get it flying again.Would be great to hear that it is the same machine.
By: Corsair166b - 24th January 2005 at 23:03
Forgot to mention, asked about the CAF P-47 and how it was coming along, he said that while he was at Midland last year he talked to some folks who told him it should be flying by some time this summer….let’s hope they’re right!
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January 23, 2005 at 3:25 am