Hmmmm….if Bill Greenwood was’nt so anti-computer (and he is) I’d say send him a link….ah well…

M

Got my first from Dick Phillips, Mustang Historian this weekend, the card was a photo of ‘Donna Mite’, the P-51 that crashed at Oshkosh this last summer, and Dick explaining how he had flown in this Mustang a few times and knew the pilot fairly well…nice photo and such but kinda depressing as a cheery holiday card! Still, it honors the memory of the man and another loss on the airshow circuit….another plane and pilot down this last season…most unfortunate….

m

Kinda wild….Don’t even know of that many places in the US that have a memorial service to the Pearl Harbo(u)r attack….sad to see it was shut down due to rising costs…..kinda makes ya wonder how they even MANAGE to fly warbirds, does’nt it, when a simple MARCH down the street gets shut down to rising costs….

Very cool on that town’s part that they did so for as long as they did…much appreciated.

M

Anyone ever find out if the got Keith Richards on board to play Depp’s father as a pirate? Really hope they can pull it off and get him…think that would be hilarious….

M

I think we’re headed into uncharted territory as regards warbirds in the near future, what with insurance rates and operating costs going through the roof, purchase prices for some types getting higher and higher…there are many incredibly exciting things being done, as with all the new build types of planes that we simply have’nt had before and some rare types getting a bit more plentiful (Zeros come to mind), but I think the fast movers and the heavy and medium bombers are either going to be grounded or wind up in the hands of the filthy rich to keep them flying. The big money collectors are the ones who are going to be able to afford big stables of warbirds and take them to shows for us to see, because unfortunately the operating costs for a P-51 or a B-25 or whatever is going to, if it has’nt already, start to escalate past the level where any one individual can afford to pay it anymore, especially if that individual has more than one ‘fast mover’ or bomber in his/her stable of planes. I think there will be a shift towards folks who want an affordable warbird moving towards owning something ‘cheaper’ like a T-6, TBM, L-bird, BT or something like that (and by cheaper I mean ‘less glamorous’ than the Mustangs and Corsairs and Forts and B-25’s….let’s face it, the purchase price for the T-6 is a LOT less than it is for a P-51 and it uses less fuel and costs less to insure), so we will see some collectors start to pare down their collections to bare minimums to keep them in the warbird game AND save money in this high fuel price/high insurance cost time. But I think there is still a lot to look forward to as the 262’s, Oscars, FW 190’s and other ‘unseen in 50 years’ types take to the skies (and I will be the FIRST one to take a 1000 mile drive to an airshow here in the states that features a flying Focke Wulf!) Restoration quality these days is amazing and the planes just get better and better, and subsequently they will tend to continue on in flying condition longer and longer because they are now capable of doing so.
All I know is I don’t want to be in this world any longer when the last Flying Corsair is grounded. That’ll be the day I die…..any other opinions?

Mark

I have mine all catalogued in file boxes by airplane type-all still on print film (one of the few holdouts from the film era, I am)…stuff I shot on slide film I have stowed in notebooks by airshow/year….it seems to work fairly well. The planes are all alphabetized for ease of finding, but I am running out of space in the cabinets and will need to expand soon to a few more drawers.

M