…or rather, One week on and still on vacation, I write this to you folks from Pennsylvania….it was nice to meet Richard Allnutt of the WIX forums (and here I believe) at the gathering, we had 5 Corsairs at the show which was tolerable (they only ever hoped for 8 at the most), those Corsairs being Gerry Beck’s -4 model, Marine’s Dream now owned by Tom Duffy, the Collings Foundation bird, Skyboss of Jeff Clyman’s collection, and Jerry Yagen’s dash 1 Corsair….other than that we had a PT-23, a B-25 (‘Panchito’), a Yak that came and went with gear trouble, a T-6 and I believe that was about it, but the sheer outpouring of foklks from the Stratford/Bridgeport area with knowledge about the Vought factory and what happened there during the war was incredible….the folks over at the local pub ‘The Windsock’ made folks feel right at home and plied them with liquor if they were involved with the airshow, and they serve one MEAN bowl of chili (eliciting sweat from B-25 pilot Larry Kelley on one occasion)…the weather was nice most of the days, cloudy one day but warm while Sunday was gorgeous and never too hot, the flying was good, and at the end of the day sunday I finally managed to wangle my way up into the nose of the B-25 for the Photo Flight over Long Island sound and got some pics of the birds (though I was not in the PRIME shooting position, I did get some nice shots of Gerry Beck’s bird over the Race Rock light house)….photos to come as soon as I can get home to my scanner and get them on here…
Went and saw the USS New Jersey yesterday and had a ball getting lost on her….more to come Sunday night when I get back home…hope all are well-
Mark
By: Corsair166b - 10th June 2005 at 21:35
Yeah, it was a good time, got some pics of the ‘Corsair on a Stick’ at the airport (it REALLY needs to come down and be restored)….lots of celebrities in the audience, too…lots of Black Sheep and other Corsair pilots….Victoria Vought and family, granddaughter of Chance Vought….spent a good deal of time talking with Peter Guyton, son of Boone Guyton, Vought chief test pilot, he was working for Fuji cameras and photographingthe old war vets and then presenting them with prints of themselves printed right on site….Steve Tesla, grandson of the other Vought test pilot Lyman Bullard was there too, as was one of the sons of Igor Sikorsky (forget his name)…the old hangars are holding up well and being used by Atlantic Aviation, the field FBO and it was fun to wander the hangars….the factory, overlooking the airport from across the street was closed and has been for years, was gonna try to weasel my way in but there was so much else going on I never got around to it….they used to build Tank engines in there and Helicopter engines after Vought abandoned it, but apparently it has been dormant and empty for several years…Got my first three rolls of film back from the air to air mission on sunday and have some useable if not GREAT stuff, but happy with it from where I was shooting (out of the nose of the B-25) which offered limited opportunities of the Corsairs trailing behind us…but GREAT views of Long Island sound and the countryside..
More on sunday….
Mark
By: STORMBIRD262 - 10th June 2005 at 06:39
Great stuff Mark, most interesting, yes it doe’s sound like you had a good one.
Can not wait for the Picture’s mate.
By: Chris Broad - 10th June 2005 at 03:09
I look forward to the photos Mark, gotta love the Corsair! Sounds like you had a good time. 😉
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June 10, 2005 at 1:51 am