I just joined the forum….
I was out at our local airport (DW Hooks) last week, meeting with a gentleman doing a documentary on Pan American World Airways when we came across this Avenger.
I wish I could figure out how to attach one of my pictures, chuckle.
It had just returned from doing an airshow in Brownsville, TX.
http://www.tbm-3.com is its webpage home
The owner/pilot was very congenial and opened the hatch for us to look inside. It is spotless and a beauty!
By: China Clipper - 18th March 2003 at 23:54
Wilga
Ant, thanks for the continued thoughts on this one.
I think it is the Wilga…. the rear window and fuselage are right. I just don’t recall the landing gear…..
I am now motivated for another look see with my digital camera. It is really a beauty of a plane. Very nice green n brown cammy with red and white polish markings… Nicely hangared…
Will keep you posted!
By: Ant.H - 18th March 2003 at 23:48
Nice pics ChinaClipper,thanks for those 🙂 Her restorers seem to have gone to a heck of alot of trouble to get things absolutely authentic,she looks great!
I’ve had second thoughts about that Polish machine being a Wilga,as I’ve realised that the Pole also built a copy of the russian Yak-12 called the PZL Gawron ,and this is also a high winged,radial engined utility machine.See what you think…
By: China Clipper - 17th March 2003 at 23:15
Interior of Avenger.
Looking in from right rear side hatch. Looking up at turret gunner seat and cockpit up front…
By: China Clipper - 17th March 2003 at 21:11
Another angle from last week….
By: ageorge - 17th March 2003 at 21:02
If you look down the right hand edge of the photo you can just see one prop and the bomb aimers perspex of KB976 , another one literally historically wrecked
By: China Clipper - 17th March 2003 at 21:02
pregnant Avenger?
You sure would not want to lose a wheel on takeoff with that hanging under you!
A belly landing in that would really be a belly landing!
Thanks!
Once I figure out how to get images in a note, I will upload some of my photos from last week at Hooks…
It was such a surprise to see the Avenger! I spotted the tip of the tail behind some utility company trucks… I recognized it, and said, “We have to go check this out!!!”
Badabing, there she was, big wings outstreched, basking in the spring sunshine!
Not a bad finish to a lunch at the airport grill!!
By: EHVB - 17th March 2003 at 20:54
Good old “045-V”, the last TBM-3W2 in the world! Unfortunatly it went to the states, and today it is flying as a TBM-3E with the canopy of a TBM-3U. Historicly killed (executed is a better word) in the restauration. Thanks for the photo. I went to see this Avenger on December 5, 1975. when it was in Veen, in the south of Holland. I shot 2 rolls of film and not a single one was good. Tomorrow I’ll go through my slides, shall post a picture of it, the way it looks today. BW Roger
By: ageorge - 17th March 2003 at 20:32
Originally posted by Roger S
The Avenger is my favourite warbird since I was a child. Don’t know why, but it always has made a big impression on me. Strangely, I prefer the post war variants, the radar fitted TBM-3W2, and the normal TBM’s, with the removed turret and the big glashouse on top of it, and especially the multo coloured, highly conerted “Borate Bombers”. Unfortunatly, no Avenger is left in Holland. It is hard to imagine, but I saw the last Dutch Navy TBM 3S being burned by theNavy firebrigade (at Valkenburg NAS) in 1974!!!!!!! How was that possible. It still angers me BW Roger
Like the Dutch Navy Radomed version – copyright Rob Braithwaite
By: China Clipper - 17th March 2003 at 20:15
PZL Wilga!! Bingo!
Ant,
Good guess!!!!! I think that was it… I don’t recall the landing gear being quite like that, and I thought the radial engine may have been more exposed… But I cannot recall exactly, as it was back in the corner of a hanger a couple down from the Avenger!
I wish I had used my digital camera vs my 35mm with black and white for this plane…. I would have instant pic’s.
Thanks! I had been puzzled….
By: Ant.H - 17th March 2003 at 20:09
Hi China Clipper,
First of all,welcome to the board!Always good to see new folks joining up. 🙂 Thanks for the link to the Avenger site,that bird has an interesting history.
That Polish STOL aircraft sounds VERY much like a PZL Wilga,so I’ve enclosed a pic of one for comparison.
By: China Clipper - 17th March 2003 at 18:31
Houston Avenger
Roger, thanks for the post.
The pilot, Capt Bill Hill, said this was the last surviving Avenger with combat history (and damage).
But you would never know it.
I have always liked the Avenger. I built a Monogram plastic model of it as a kid, and loved it.
Bill has his aircraft in a very high standard of restoration.
I will see if I can figure out how to post a few of the pictures I took to the forum… or I can send you some directly.
Nice to hear from someone from “across the pond”!
There are other aircraft at Hooks, one I think is an eastern block STOL single engine high wing taildragger… I did not get a digital picture of it, but it had Polish markings on it. I hope to surf the web and find a picture of one like it.
PS. Bill said the other flying (7 or 8) Avengers that were configured for forest fire fighting have been grounded. Perhaps due to recent vintage firefighting planes having accidents. Let’s hope these Avengers (and the Privateers) get into the classic airplane circuit vs the scrap heap!
By: EHVB - 17th March 2003 at 18:23
The Avenger is my favourite warbird since I was a child. Don’t know why, but it always has made a big impression on me. Strangely, I prefer the post war variants, the radar fitted TBM-3W2, and the normal TBM’s, with the removed turret and the big glashouse on top of it, and especially the multo coloured, highly conerted “Borate Bombers”. Unfortunatly, no Avenger is left in Holland. It is hard to imagine, but I saw the last Dutch Navy TBM 3S being burned by theNavy firebrigade (at Valkenburg NAS) in 1974!!!!!!! How was that possible. It still angers me BW Roger
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March 17, 2003 at 5:47 pm